2009 stock DVA update??

These sound interesting - did you manage to record any of it?

To my knowledge, from the day the '09 stock line entered service the announcer was (and has been since) Sarah Parnell although the formatting changed slightly.

1) If you look at this video of the '09 stock's first day of service, you'll see the screen would have the next station name in static form until you reach the station. Once the doors open at the station it then spells out on the screen "This is X. Change here for x. This is a Victoria line train to x" (this is read by the announcer all in one go with no pauses). Back then, the announcer announced the next station as soon as the train enters the tunnel; the message scrolled once before becoming the static name of the station.

2) It wasn't long before they changed this so that the name of the station appears in static motion while at the station. Then there was a pause before the destination was read out (usually as the train was accelerating into the tunnel). While in the tunnel travelling to the next station, the screens continuously scroll the destination until the next station is read out, which this time is just as you're approaching the station.

3) They soon got rid of the pause between reading out the station name and destination, however the dot matrix pattern stayed the same.



Is what you heard identical to this? It is the same voice throughout but sounds as though it was recorded at a separate time.

But so have the number of blind and disabled people using the tube increased since the Victoria Line was opened, which is obviously a good thing.

I would hope you'd have appreciated, given the context of the post, that I meant to say 2009 stock. The "entered service" part insinuates this.

I apologise for the confusion! I've edited accordingly.

Fair point, but most blind people don't rely on the DVA on the train because they know exactly how many stops it is before they reach their destination. I think the platform DVA's, which announce the trains destination, are far more useful to blind people. I'm not anti DVA's, but they are not anywhere near as useful as they are made out to be.

Hmmm. Its a tricky one that. Being charged with emotion, morality and politics, it'd be pretty much impossible to point out any drawbacks without being smeared as some kind of monster.

[/off topic]

Sorry for late response - I was on the Victoria line yesterday and noticed that you're right in saying that the step-free access announcements are now played at all times - off peak and peak.

There isn't actually any discussion in this thread about the spacious claim? An interesting thread you've linked us to in any case.

Going back on topic, some might have noticed that a new message has been added at Green Park to inform customers of the restricted access to the Jubilee line. This announcement is noticeably quieter than the rest, making it obvious that it has been slotted in.

"Green Park has reduced interchange access to the Jubilee line" is the message.

Well I went past today and the announcement has been removed but in its place is heads up for Victoria: "Victoria has reduced escalator facilities" (the announcement is repeated on approach and at Victoria)

Apologies if this has been discussed before but I used the Victoria Line on Sunday and noticed there were additional messages, relevant to engineering works, programmed into the DVA / VDU system. The messages referred to the "Northern Line being suspended due to engineering works" and then later changed to "Northern Line suspended" coupled with "National Rail services from Tottenham Hale are suspended" then when north of Kings Cross just references to the Tottenham Hale suspension. Well done for the intention behind these messages and very neat to have them tailored to location so, for example, no references to the Northern Line once past KX on the n/b.

I don't know if there is a capacity issue which limits message size but I did feel the messages were not quite correct. The Northern Line was not completely suspended although there was no central area service. There was also no reference to the existence of rail replacement services for the outer sections which were suspended. The National Rail announcement also did not refer to engineering works as the cause nor did it suggest using Seven Sisters for alternative services. The driver made an announcement but it was lost amongst tunnel and track noise. I fully appreciate there is a balancing act in getting a good message but I did feel that a bit of fine tuning would have made the message content that bit more helpful.

Is this a new facility or just a trial?

Thanks for the reply. I was aware of an earlier proposal to provide "real time" updates on 09 stock but I thought it had been scrapped. What I saw on Sunday was rather less sophisticated than the previous proposal but it's a good step in the right direction. The messaging just needs a bit of fine tuning.