DVA

"This is Baker Street. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform, change here for the Circle, Hammersmith and City, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. This is a Metropolitan Line train, calling at Finchley Road, Harrow on the Hill, Moor Park and then all stations to Amersham.
Due to Health & Safety regulations, passengers are requested to remain in their seats while the train is moving. We wish to advise you that failure to provide a seat does not constitute any breach in contract on our part; however, standing passengers do so at their own risk.
Please be aware that the inherent characteristic of a railway means that some movement may occur during the journey. No responsibility will be accepted as the result of any claim arising due to physical contact between passengers which is allegedly caused by such movement of the train.
The act of boarding this train is interpreted as an acceptance on your part of our terms and conditions of travel. These are available for inspection on request at any booking office. We apologise for the fact that the booking office at this station was closed today due to staff shortage. The nearest booking office that is currently open is at Epping. If you wish to leave this train and travel there, please ensure that you have a valid ticket before commencing your journey.
The Department of Transport advises you that before investing in a ticket, you should seek guidance from an Independent Financial Advisor. A list of Financial Advisors is available on request from the booking office.
May we apologise for the late departure of this train due to the length of this announcement.”

I think a "solution" will be found, but it will be divisive. I would imagine the RNIB will have a big say.

RNIB= Royal national institute for the blind

I would imagine there would be different set-ups for the dva, eg Amersham train-Harrow, Moor Park etc. "All stations to Uxbridge etc.

How about a touchscreen console for the dva, or built in to the TMS !!!!!!!!! and the driver selects the stations the train will stop at! Particularly useful for semi-fast services, as well as when engineering works are taking place.

This is what they are just discussing in Berlin for Bus services, mainly for routes with permanent engineering works. e.g. currently my line (101) is being re-routed, so the journey between the three stops not served usually works like this:

*DONG* Bismarckstraße.
Driver PA: Due to Road Works this bus will not be stopping at Bismarckstraße and Otto-Suhr-Allee. Next stop: Goethestraße.
*DONG* Otto-Suhr-Allee.
Driver PA: Sorry about that.
*DONG* Goethestraße.
Shortly before reaching Goethestraße...#
*DONG* Kantstraße.
Driver PA: Next stop Goethestraße, after that Kantstraße.
*DONG* Goethestraße.

Gets very annoying...

So I would also think that such a DVA would be very intelligent!

as long as they don't do it the D-stock way
As soon the Door closes, the DVA cuts off

Looking at it from another angle, c2c's DVA doesn't announce stopping patterns - reason being, I suspect, is that they now have a very good (and almost 95% reliable) platform describer system, backed up by real time PA's.

You are almost there with your last post, Alex - the key is to arm the customer with the stopping pattern knowledge prior to the trains arrival using the same approach as c2c.

Trouble is, will there be enough time for the station's PA system to announce the stopping pattern in between all the other announcements now plaguing the network (Oyster max fare, Oyster is cheaper, buy Oyster elsewhere, ticket office is closed, etc).

We can solve the next station issue by modifying the 'at platform' DVA to say: "This is Baker Street. Change for the Bakerloo, Circle & Hammersmith and Jubilee Lines. This train is a fast service to Amersham. This train will next call at Harrow-on-the-Hill." Might take up a bit too much DVA time though.

Or what about putting the interchange options on the 'next station' announcement (I mean, it's pretty clear from the maps in the carriages where you need to change anyway!), giving more DVA-time to stating the type of service the train is?

Why not use route numbers like busses? Have maps in the trains and on the stations that clearly show which services call at which stations.

"This is Finchley Road, change here for the Jubilee Line. This is a route 4 Metropolitan Line service to Amersham"

What should be implemented is a LED line map with direction pointers and lit station markers, just like that of the Hong Kong MTR. This will make it quite clear where the train will stop. Also, this can be used to diffrenciate Circle, H&C and District trains using a standard stock with a standard map. The best DVA ever IMHO is that of the Hong Kong MTR (very British and posh in English. The Cantonese is very pleasant and smooth, in contrast to most Cantonese speakers). www.ushb.net/broadcast/MTR2003/ISL-WAC-DN.rm

Ha yat zham Wan Zai. Zoh bin deh tseh mun zhiong da hoi.
Next station : Wan Chai. The doors will open on the left.

Since we are on the topic of DVAs, you should listen to the 'doors closing' message in HK. Go to this URL (or download it) www.ushb.net/broadcast/MTR2003/URL-DPA.rm

Tsehng mat kau gohn tseh mun.
Please stand back from the doors.

It sounds wonderful (wan-dai-fu), trust me.

The LED thing would be a good idea, I think this was proposed for the 92ts but they ran out of money or something.

yes, there was an idea to have an 'electric line map'; each station would be represented by an LED. which would light up and flash... A model was actually produced for the 92ts, but it was not proceeded with.

having LEDs, whilst nice, doesn't solve the problem of the DVA, since the DVAs are there primarily to aid the 'visually impared'?

Or they could simply say:
"This is Finchley Road. Change for the Jubilee Line. This is a Metropolitan Line Fast service to Amersham."