Updated IRT Announcements and Destinations

[bobtehpanda]

These destination codes essentially amount to lines of text to be displayed on a screen, and bits of audio to played. That is about the simplest thing a computer can do. Theres no excuse for all these glitches, even with the old Windows 98 system or whatever. Some of the MVMs have hardware that is way old and outdated, but they handle complex transactions better than the damn trains! Maybe all that tunnel dust has really taken its toll on the electronics in the trains

 

Your average hard drive conks out after two to five years, so years of constant read/write operations (which are executed every time the text is changed) can certainly degrade hardware over time. Also, the Metrocard machines aren't holding up very well, and are supposed to cost more to maintain than they bring in by 2019 (although whether or not we get a smartcard system running by then is still up in the air).

[Q113 LTD]

I wounder what would a male announcer sound like when it announce the station names, next stop, this stop and destination. Also they should  keep female announcing transfer lines if they ever add a male announcer in the future.

[QM1to6Ave]

Your average hard drive conks out after two to five years, so years of constant read/write operations (which are executed every time the text is changed) can certainly degrade hardware over time. Also, the Metrocard machines aren't holding up very well, and are supposed to cost more to maintain than they bring in by 2019 (although whether or not we get a smartcard system running by then is still up in the air).

To be fair, these hard drives are not like your typical HD that is getting big text and video files saved and re-saved daily. Still, shouldn't they be fairly easy to replace when they conk out? I've replaced my own hard drives with my verh minimal technical experience for cheap a number of times already.

[bobtehpanda]

To be fair, these hard drives are not like your typical HD that is getting big text and video files saved and re-saved daily. Still, shouldn't they be fairly easy to replace when they conk out? I've replaced my own hard drives with my verh minimal technical experience for cheap a number of times already.

 

It depends on whatever kind of drive they were using in the design, as well as where it would be located in the train itself. I don't imagine there would be any incentive for the manufacturer to make it easy to replace parts with off-the-shelf equipment when they could just force the customer to use their proprietary equipment.

[Javier]

Anyone hear the R142 glitch that said:

 

"This is, Brooklyn Bridge"

"Transfer is availible to the, , , DING"

[Lance]

No.

[QM1to6Ave]

It depends on whatever kind of drive they were using in the design, as well as where it would be located in the train itself. I don't imagine there would be any incentive for the manufacturer to make it easy to replace parts with off-the-shelf equipment when they could just force the customer to use their proprietary equipment.

I remember one of the T/Os on here talking about how the computer equipment is in a really bad spot and it keeps getting broken or something like that

[4P3607]

That "Ding - [Doors closing chime]" that's heard when the announcement glitches actually means the program can't find the sound file for that announcement.

[Javier]

YOU NEVER HEARD IT!?!?! Hold on, I'll upload it.

[LTA1992]

The new shortened announcements are spreading now. I was on a heading uptown in R142 car 1233. The station announcements are still of regular length. but the transfers were shortened to "Transfer to the...". I also don't think the C/R was too fond of them (or it was a glitch) because as most of the transfer announcements were about to be played, you heard a DING. That was followed by a 
Stand Clea-" before it was interrupted by another DING.

[Lance]

That's the new glitch. There seems to be a problem with the cut-and-paste Charlie transfers.

[LTA1992]

Ahh. But the new transfer announcements were all female, from what I heard yesterday. I'm assuming it has to do with the Watch the Gap announcements?

[Javier]

A good friend of mine just got back to me, it seems as there is a error in the programming with the adding in of the new "transfer" announcements. Either the computer in the R142/R142A keeps thinking that the transfer announcements should be originally longer, it plays the transfer part, but when it has nothing else to say after it finishes, that small time frame causes a glitch in the program, causing a "DING" error. Or my next theory, is that the computer is originally set to handle the old announcements, but with the editing of the voice files causes a "DING" error because it either cant find the original transfer announcement, or there's a glitch preventing the computer from seeing the new audio file.

 

From my eyes, the best thing to do to fix this error is to turn off ALL automated announcements, switch back to Manual, and try to fix the problem without confusing customers. 

[4P3607]

because it either cant find the original transfer announcement, or there's a glitch preventing the computer from seeing the new audio file.

There you go. Can't find the sound file.

[Lance]

From my eyes, the best thing to do to fix this error is to turn off ALL automated announcements, switch back to Manual, and try to fix the problem without confusing customers. 

That's a good short term solution until they can find out what's causing the errors. However, doing so long-term defeats the purpose of having the canned announcements in the first place, which to provide clear, understandable information for the average rider. Then again, with the truncated announcements and abbreviated side signs, maybe I'm wrong.

[MHV9218]

The side signs changes are stupid. Forget opinions: objectively, they are stupid. When you can fit "Brooklyn Bridge" or "Queensboro Plaza" on a screen there is quite literally zero reason to use "BRKLN BRDG" or "Q BORO PLZ" instead. They are chopped fragments of language that require a second glance from a New Yorker, let alone a tourist. I maintain that whoever's ideas these are needs to be fired.

[RollOver]

They might as well just have C/Rs speak gibberish too (like Courage the Cowardly Dog), as long as they're going to have the electrical signages display "BRKLYN BRDG", "Q BORO PLZ", "TO WAKFLD-241" etc. They might as well do that gibberish crap on all the other lines that have NTTs. Yep, I'm ranting again. All the could have done was the things that Javier said. But no. All those dumb new shorten announcements, especially the ones where the train is entering the station before the doors open, are beyond dumb. But those electric side signs on the , and , are beyond dumber. End of rant.

[LTA1992]

Depending on the state of the PA system, they already do speak gibberish lol.

[MysteriousBtrain]

They might as well just have C/Rs speak gibberish too (like Courage the Cowardly Dog), as long as they're going to have the electrical signages display "BRKLYN BRDG", "Q BORO PLZ", "TO WAKFLD-241" etc. They might as well do that gibberish crap on all the other lines that have NTTs. Yep, I'm ranting again. All the could have done was the things that Javier said. But no. All those dumb new shorten announcements, especially the ones where the train is entering the station before the doors open, are beyond dumb. But those electric side signs on the , and , are beyond dumber. End of rant.

Shorter signs, shorter announcements, so sad. Wonder what else they might shorten. Perhaps the stops on find are next.

[Javier]

I thought they were going to shorten subway service as well, lol.

[MichalkaManiac]

Since we're talking updated destinations and announcements, I want to share my feelings about the "JAMAICA EXP" (formerly read "NASSAU ST EXP") announcements from Queens:

 

• QUEENS: "This is a Brooklyn-bound Express train" (non skip-stop; does not run express in Queens)
• BROOKLYN (TO KOSCIUSZKO STREET): "This is a Manhattan-bound train."
• BROOKLYN (EXPRESS B/T MYRTLE AND MARCY AVS): "This is a Manhattan-bound Express train."
• MANHATTAN: "This is a Broad Street-bound train."

 

 

 

You'd think with the Queens announcement, they would be going express sooner. But no. The only express sprint on the route (during the time, anyways) is roughly near the tail end of the route, and that's only bypassing three stations in succession. Mind you, it has been a while since I've taken a southbound , so I don't know if they updated those announcements as well, which I'm now finding out with the , thanks to this thread.

[LTA1992]

I did not notice how numerous these glitches really are. I was on a in car 7010 with normal announcements and it was still there.

[Lance]

That "Ding - [Doors closing chime]" that's heard when the announcement glitches actually means the program can't find the sound file for that announcement.

The new shortened announcements are spreading now. I was on a heading uptown in R142 car 1233. The station announcements are still of regular length. but the transfers were shortened to "Transfer to the...". I also don't think the C/R was too fond of them (or it was a glitch) because as most of the transfer announcements were about to be played, you heard a DING. That was followed by a 

Stand Clea-" before it was interrupted by another DING.

Ahh. But the new transfer announcements were all female, from what I heard yesterday. I'm assuming it has to do with the Watch the Gap announcements?

There you go. Can't find the sound file.

I have a theory on what's caused the most recent announcement glitches. Basing it on the idea that the computers cannot find the correct audio file, along with the fact there are two concurrent updates in place on the 142s, I've surmised the following:

The "M86 Select" update is at least partially built off the "Transfer to the" update on 6555 and company. By that, I mean, it's trying to pull recordings and files that do not exist on other trains besides the experimental sets. That's why some of the transfers play, while others don't. From my experiences on the 5 and 6, Ettinger's transfers play without incident, but Charlie's slice-n-dice transfers always revert to <DING>. If I had to wager a guess, it's because those original transfer files were deleted and the new code is calling for the new "transfer to the" files which have different file names from their original counterparts.

 

The other cause of the "<DING>Stand clear..." glitch could possibly be the inclusion of the "move to the center of the car" PSA that plays at every major station on the experimental sets. Once again, since that file does not exist on the other cars, the computers can't call that recording properly.

 

Of course, that's just my theory. I could be wrong.

 

It has been annoying me that conductors have not been instructed to make manual announcements, even to announce the transfers that aren't playing properly. In the few weeks since this glitch has been apparent, only one conductor has bothered to make a manual transfer announcement. Also, I'm annoyed that this update was installed on at least a third of the fleet and nobody noticed it.

 

On the plus side, with the glitch knocking out most of the 59 Street transfers, the announcement actually finishes playing well before the doors open.

[CTK246]

So I came across this:

 

 

 

Seems they updated the program as well. It used to say 'TO VAN CORTLANDT PK'. 

 

Perhaps they updated , too?

 

Off topic, but I wish the said 'BWAY-7 AV LOCAL', like the . Same thing with the .

[MysteriousBtrain]

So I came across this:

 

 

 

Seems they updated the program as well. It used to say 'TO VAN CORTLANDT PK'.

 

Perhaps they updated , too?

 

Off topic, but I wish the said 'BWAY-7 AV LOCAL', like the . Same thing with the .

At least they didn't put the destination in an ugly way like "to VN CRTLNDT PK".

If they are just putting the secondary name of most terminals on the IRT, why not change "BKLYN BRDGE" into "City Hall"?