Real-Time Train Information

For those not lucky enough to live at a terminal station, you arrive at your local train station in the morning, you walk up or down onto the platform, and you stand there and wait for your train to arrive.  You don't exactly know when the train will come, so you lean off the edge of the platform and peer down the right of way in the hope of seeing just how far off your train is.  Eventually you see the headlights of the train either off in the distance or coming around a bend, and you get ready to position yourself for the train's arrival.  The train then arrives, you get on, and you're on your way.  You go on with your day as usual, but you can't help thinking that there has to be some sort of better way to get a more realistic estimation of the train's arrival times.  Yes, the trains run on a schedule, but it's difficult for 100% of the trains to stick exactly to the schedule 100% of the time, for various different reasons previously debated.

When it comes to actually late trains, like trains that are later than the industry standard grace period, the LIRR does make those minor delays known to its passengers.  Every station on the railroad (except three) are equipped with the LIRR's "Audio Visual Paging System," or AVPS.  The AVPS consists of one or more LED station displays, located at different locations along the platforms, in the waiting areas, in overpasses, by ticket machines, etc., as well as audible announcements played at the stations.  The AVPS displays are the familiar yellow LED signs that show the next three upcoming trains, as well as the station stops for the train next to arrive on that track, and various other announcements:

 
The LIRR installed these at all of there stations several years ago, and they're currently at every LIRR station except Jamaica, Brooklyn, and I think Belmont Park, though I haven't been there in some time (since I refuse to take the LIRR there as long as they don't accept commutation tickets on the racetrack trains).  Even the least-used stations on the system, like Amagansett and Southold, feature at least one of these monitors, and some of the bigger stations can have as many as a dozen.  The LIRR is the only rail system in the region that features such an amenity at nearly all of their rail stations.

When trains are running six or more minutes behind schedule, the AVPS displays will be updated to show that the train is however many minutes late.  The AVPS system also makes automated audible announcements updating passengers of the trains status.  The LIRR also issues alerts through its Customer Advisory System for trains that are 10 or more minutes late.  These alerts go to those who subscribe by e-mail, as well as those who subscribe to get alerts by text message or those who follow the LIRR on Twitter.  In recent years the LIRR has gotten much better with communication during disruptions, and despite what you may think, their communication is certainly much better than it used to be.

But there are still some issues.  Many people take issue with that "Status" column on the AVPS displays.  That column on the displays shows whether the train is on-time, or weather it is operating late.  The displays commonly show "ON TIME" for most trains, but "on-time" can mean many things.  It can mean actually on-time, like the train is 0 minutes late, but it could also mean that the train is three or five minutes late, since the "LateXX" counts are only start showing up when the train is six or more minutes late.  It could also mean that the train is three minutes early, but all we see is "On Time."

Many would like to see that "On Time" indication be more specific and display exactly what the train's current status is, (i.e. 1 minute late, 4 minutes late, 2 minutes early).  Displaying that information would take a lot of the mystery out when the train will arrive.

The way the AVPS systems currently work goes something along these lines: the LIRR's TIMACS system (which stands for Train Information Management and Control System) times each and every train as it passes one of the LIRR's various interlockings.  This system is built in as a layer of the signalling system and primarily works as an arm of the signalling system (there are other contingencies in place for trains that operate into dark territory, where there are no interlockings).  At each and every timing point, the system notes the time and compares it to the time the train is scheduled to pass that interlocking.  At that point, it can then determine, very accurately, how many minutes the train is late or early.  The information that is automatically collected by TIMACS is one of the primary ways the LIRR calculates its On-Time Performance numbers.

Additionally, the M7's came delivered equipped with GPS that lets them automatically determine where they are.  The GPS on the M7's, which is part of the LIRR's WMDS (Wireless Monitoring and Detection System) system, serve a number of different functions, and one of them also involves the timing of trains at different locations.  So in addition to each and every LIRR train being timed at interlockings by TIMACS, all of the M7's are timed using their GPS systems at every station along the right of way.

The diesel equipment and the M3's were not delivered with GPS built into their design, so, for the most part, those trains are only timed at interlockings by TIMACS.  In recent months, some of the diesel equipment and the M3's have been equipped with a sightly different GPS system than what the M7's have.  This allows for the train to be timed at more points along its route.

Between TIMACS, the M7 GPS, and the diesel/M3 GPS systems, the LIRR has a pretty extensive and very accurate look at how each and every train is doing at that moment.  The information from these systems is the primary source for the "LateXX" information seen on the AVPS displays and heard on the announcements, as well as the alerts from the Customer Advisory system.  When a train is timed at a timing point, either TIMACS, M7 GPS, or diesel/M3 GPS, the time is compared to the time the train was scheduled to pass that point, and the respective system updates the trains status.  If the train is "late" the respective system triggers the "LateXX" information on the AVPS system and informs the passengers waiting for the train how late the train is.  For delays of 10 or more minutes, an alert is also generated, and someone assigns a reason to the alert and sends it out.  When the train passes its next timing point, the status of the train is rechecked, and if something has changed, all of the interested parties are updated.

So if you're standing on the platform and your train is experiencing a delay, the AVPS displays usually do a good job of staying updated with just how late the train is.  However, the timing systems have a couple of shortcomings that rear their head during bad disruptions (since the timing system relies on trains passing certain points to update the different systems, if trains aren't moving (i.e. they're all stopped waiting in the station), the trains aren't passing any points, so the systems don't get updated.  Also, the AVPS displays can also get something I call "cancel clutter" where the three trains that the display can show are all canceled, but still stuck up on the displays, so there's no real information being conveyed) but no system is perfect.

But while the information the various systems provide during delays is, in general, pretty good, but they can give frustratingly little information during "normal" times when the trains aren't notably late, but are still a couple minutes behind schedule.  As long as the train is less than six minutes late, the AVPS displays and announcements will continue to show "on time."  When the LIRR's various different timing systems time a train and compare it to the time it was supposed to pass that point, it notes the exact deviation from the schedule.  Somewhere along the line there is a filter that changes all of the "3 minutes late" and "5 minutes late" readings into "on time" before it's put out to the passengers waiting on the station platforms.  For all intents and purposes, 5 minutes and 59 seconds is the on-time standard, and we can debate that until we're blue in the face, but there's little hope of that changing in the near or distant future.  So while a train that arrives at the station five minutes after it was supposed to is theoretically on-time, it's a frustrating and antsy five minutes people are waiting on the platform while they're being told the train is on-time.

The railroad does actively collect down-to-the-minute (down to the second, actually) statuses of the trains as they pass the different timing points, they just choose not to show us the trains that are fewer than six minutes late.  It would be nice if the railroad would display the real statuses of the trains and not filter out the trains that are 1-5 minutes late, because, after all, if the train is four minutes late, that's four more minutes I have to quickly do this or that before getting on the train, or in the winter or summer, it's four more minutes I can sit in my heated/air conditioned car before going out onto the cold/hot platform.

Or, if they would rather not indicate which trains are two or three minutes "late," perhaps they could ditch the "LateXX" or "On Time" information from the displays all together and instead show an "Estimated Time of Arrival" in minutes in its place.  So, instead of showing  that the 5:29pm train to New York is 7 minutes late, they would instead just say that the 5:29pm train to New York will arrive in 12 minutes.  Similarly, if the 5:31pm train to Ronkonkoma is 2 minutes late, instead of saying "on-time" they instead just say the train will arrive in 9 minutes.  "Will arrive in 12 minutes" or "will arrive in 9 minutes" is pretty much all of the information people need.  It tells them how long they have until the train arrives, and if they really want to find out how many minutes the train is late, they can look at their watch and do the math themselves.

This is how the countdown clocks in the subways work.  Instead of showing you that the 5:35 uptown 2 train is running 3 minutes late, they just say the next uptown 2 trains is 4 minutes away.  The analogy doesn't transfer over to less frequent commuter rail services exactly, but the same thought process applies.  In this way, the railroad only implies that the train is two or three minutes late instead of explicitly stating it.  It gives the passengers waiting for the train all the information they want without spoiling the grace period.

NJTransit uses a system like this on their DepartureVision pages (when it's working) and the similar variations of DepartureVision used in some of their busier/newer stations.  Instead of saying that the approaching train is 8 minutes late, they just tell you the train will arrive "in 11 Min".  The average rider doesn't really care exactly how many minutes late their train is, they just want to know when it's going to show up.  They don't have to give them any more information then they ask for.

A snapshot of NJTransit's DepartureVision page for Newark.  The 5:37am train to NY Penn is actually
running one minute early, but they just show that the train will arrive "in 23 min".  It gives you all the relevant
information the passenger waiting on the platform wants to see without explicitly giving away just how early
or late the train actually is.

I don't really see any major obstacles preventing the LIRR from doing something like this on their AVPS displays.  I'm not exactly familiar with how they are setup and how they work exactly, but if they put their minds to it, I don't see any reason why they couldn't change the displays to show something more like this:

What the LIRR's AVPS monitors could look like if the "Status" column was replaced with an "ETA" column. This was
just something I made up quickly for demonstration purposes, so it's not to scale, but in this scenario, the 5:27pm
train is exactly on-time, the 5:29pm train to Penn Station is 7 minutes late, and the 5:31pm train to Ronkonkoma
is 2 minutes late, but all the display shows is how many minutes until the train actually arrives.

An Estimated Time of Arrival (and an accurate ETA, not one that's watered down to treat 5 minute late trains as on-time) is all most passengers really care about, so that's all they really need to show.

And the LIRR also communicates all this information to those using TrainTime (either on their computer, or the mobile app).  TrainTime basically just takes the information seen on the AVPS dispalys and puts it on your phone or computer (it all works off the same system).  In a similar way to the AVPS displays, TrainTime shows you the "status" of the train and weather it's "on time" or six or more minutes late.  These interfaces can similarly be updated to show an ETA and put that information right in the passenger's hands, where it would be even more useful for many.

When the LIRR rolled out systemwide TrainTime back in December, along with the new app, they claimed the new service was "real-time."  It's close to real-time, but it misses the mark if you're train is less than 6 minutes late, just like the AVPS displays.  It's better than nothing, but for just a little extra effort, the railroad could give the passengers waiting for their train information that's much more useful to them as they stand on the platform.  Like I said in that December post, if you were interested in poking around for something that was more "real time," you might want to go back and review the second to last paragraph of that post.  You'd be amazed what you can find with Google!

So while communication with passengers has improved leaps and bounds on the LIRR compared to half a decade or so ago, there's still some little room for improvement.  In this day and age, getting "real time" information out to the passengers shouldn't be too difficult, and they definitely have the down-to-the-minute information, so why not share it?