Keep passengers informed during disruptions with Remote Announcements
In case of a disruption, it’s often on-board staff who are responsible for informing passengers and following up on the situation. However, as more and more train operators make the shift towards automatic train operation, they also need to rethink the way they inform travellers during a disruption. Televic GSP offers the solution with Remote Announcements.
How are passengers currently informed during disruptions?
In the event of a disruption, it’s crucial to inform passengers as quickly and accurately as possible. These days, train conductors or drivers are often informed by means of paper notes, which are handed over manually at the next station.
They then relay the information to passengers through the on-board PA (Public Address)system to broadcast the message.
However, this approach has several drawbacks:
- The approach is delay-sensitive, as the messages are handed out only when the train reaches one of the stations on its journey or when staff receive the information through another channel.
- Since each staff member translates the information into an audio announcement, the message conveyed will be less consistent and prone to occasional errors or misinterpretations.
- Since the message is announced last minute, there is no visual support on board. This means that the message is unlikely to come across for people with headphones or hearing impairment.
- Finally, there is no feedback that the message has been conveyed to passengers.
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TowardS automatic train operation
One of the major challenges for disruption management is the transition to automatic train operation. In this scenario, on-board guards or even drivers are no longer required, which means that train operators will have to rethink the way they inform travellers in case of disruption.
Remote Announcements: managed from your OCC
Our Remote Announcements module bundles multiple on-board functionalities and makes them available through wayside interfaces (through UI and APIs), so that they can be managed from your Operational Control Centre (OCC) rather than by on-board staff.
"Remote Announcements" offers multiple benefits for train operators:
Manager working with LiveCoM Suite software
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Instant, centralized messaging
By handling information delivery in a centralized, automated way, you can ensure that the information delivered is consistent for all vehicles, making the process less error prone. What’s more, there is limited delay, as the messages are sent ASAP to the vehicles for automated playback.
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Targeted messaging
The LiveCoM Suite Remote Announcements functionality allows you to select which vehicles to address based on real-time information.
For example, it’s possible to address specific sets of vehicles (e.g. operating on a particular route) or to schedule messages to play during a specific validity period (e.g. during a particular time of day).
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Both audio and visual messages
The combination of audio and visual messages in multiple languages via a single system ensures that the information is accessible to the broadest possible audience.
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Remotely send instant or scheduled announcements
With Remote Announcements, you can either compose and send out messages ad-hoc or display them according to a set date or time range for a subset of vehicles based on parameters such as their route, journey, station, direction, etc.
The latter allows you to define and manage longer-term announcements that may, for example, inform passengers of upcoming events and disruptions.
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Get feedback via the historical overview
From the OCC, you can consult an overview of the execution status of requested announcements at any time. This makes it possible to track which messages have been sent and scheduled for display, thus avoiding the risk of inadvertently not informing passengers.
