DART text wrong: (warning to all dart users)

LegacyUser

ok, i know this prob should be in comuting/transport, but i think more folk will see this here, and i think it's somthing yiz all should know.

DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE, IT'S FULL OF 5HIT

i had to be in a bit earlier for work this morning, so, this morning, i texted dart text. if you're not familiar with this, it's a text service that basicly text you the times of the next couple of trains, for 30c.

anyway, tells me there's a train leaving at 8.42, and then 8.47.

i get to the station on time, and dart clock says, next train 15min!

i'm just thinking it's just late.

so, i get into work, late, go to the dart website, and the timetable is completly different!

they've actualy found a new way to make you late for work!

oneweb

It tells ya the time it leaves the first station, not when it leaves yours.
Just like the bus text.

Having said that, I needed to know last New Year's and it gave me a the wrong times - buses were on a Sunday service but the text told me otherwise.

LegacyUser

i'm prety sure it's supposed to tell you what time it leaves your station.

oneweb wrote:

It tells ya the time it leaves the first station, not when it leaves yours.
Just like the bus text.

Having said that, I needed to know last New Year's and it gave me a the wrong times - buses were on a Sunday service but the text told me otherwise.

ferdi

bus + dart text are usless, unless yu catch the bus/dart at the terminus/first stop

whiskeyman

Dart / Bus timetables never work anyway.... they are just guidelines so you can calculate how late the service is.

bullrunner

you should report it to comreg. This is a premium service that doesnt do as it says on the tin...Comreg have strict guidelines on these services. Also make a complaint to Iarnrod Eireann over it. Make them refund you the cost (it'll cost them much more than they made on the text in the first place).

LegacyUser

sent em mail

bullrunner wrote:

you should report it to comreg. This is a premium service that doesnt do as it says on the tin...Comreg have strict guidelines on these services. Also make a complaint to Iarnrod Eireann over it. Make them refund you the cost (it'll cost them much more than they made on the text in the first place).

ambro25

I've not yet seen any buses and traffic signs/red lights equipped with the flashy-little-"I'm here now" gadgety thingies, in Dublin.

Granted you probably won't know what I'm on about, but back in France I've seen these in place for 3 years or so now, in a big city in the North East. Each bus has got a flashy thing mounted at the front / top right (a bit like a small box with a LED), and everytime it drives past a red light or a traffic sign equipped with a similar flashy thing... guess what... they both flash :rolleyes:

Now, I don't know this for a fact (don't do public transport much) so I'm only surmising, but I can't see the point of equipping nearly the entire city's supply of signs and lights with the widgets if it's not to report "where is which bus when" (and presumably, when is it likely to be where). And every bus stop has a green LED/LCD sign that shows next 3 buses (Route numbers) with accurate (within 30 secs) times.

Amazing that a European Captial City is not there yet... especially consdering the size of it.

Edit - found a pic of a bus in question, equipped with it

Eoin

paperclip wrote:

i had to be in a bit earlier for work this morning, so, this morning, i texted dart text. if you're not familiar with this, it's a text service that basicly text you the times of the next couple of trains, for 30c.

anyway, tells me there's a train leaving at 8.42, and then 8.47.

i get to the station on time, and dart clock says, next train 15min!

Do you have to enter the name of the Dart station and the direction you are going as well?

Alun

eoin_s wrote:

Do you have to enter the name of the Dart station and the direction you are going as well?

Just the name of the station, and it gives you both northbound and southbound trains.

nesf

Arrrr... To Commuting/Transport with yee!

Victor

bullrunner wrote:

you should report it to comreg.

Actually its www.regtel.ie

Eoin

Victor wrote:

Actually its www.telreg.ie

Close, it's actually www.regtel.ie

radiospan

ferdi wrote:

bus + dart text are usless, unless yu catch the bus/dart at the terminus/first stop

Is the bus text service for Bus Eireann or just Dublin Bus?

ergo

that's strange

I used Dart text yesterday and it worked fine

I missed the feckin train mind you, mainly cos it arrived at exactly the time the Dart text predicted :rolleyes:

only used it once before and it was spot on that time

and the whole point of it is that it's supposed to be in real time and adjusts for delays etc and doesn't rely on timetable

and on a related issue.. :

how about a Luastxt...?

every time I get to the station the Luas crosses in front of me, me having just missed it, and off peak this can mean 20 minutes wait

Traffic

Im sure you used the service correctly as in texting the name of your station as well??
eg. DART TARA

daymobrew

plazzTT wrote:

Is the bus text service for Bus Eireann or just Dublin Bus?

Dublin Bus only.

When busTXT was deployed I contacted the service operator to ask if it was real-time information. Unlike DARTtext it's not, it's just a copy of the timetable.

If you own a PocketPC or a Palm you can get my free timetable based version of busTXT to carry around with you (link below). There is also a version for Windows desktop and a colleague is writing a version for Unix (Gnome app). I hope to write a version in Java for use on phones with Java (Java Mobile Edition).

AndyWarhol

Whatever about the dartTXT service being ****, their scrolling text 'information' displays are **** too.

I was on a southbound dart this morning, yet the scrolling information display insisted we were heading towards Howth and that the next station was always going to be Monkstown no matter where we were.

Whatever about making the DART better, this misinformation is worse than having no information at all. Such systems need to work 100% of the time, not 99% of the time, because then people cannont rely on the system and an uncertain system is worse than having no system at all.

Also, what idiot decided to put Irish charachters on a 5x7 dot matrix display system? Any engineer with a bit of intellegence will know that to display the full ISO charachter will need more than a 5x7.

daymobrew

AndyWarhol wrote:

Whatever about the dartTXT service being ****, their scrolling text 'information' displays are **** too.

Please tell Irish Rail Customer Service, preferably in writing. Or write to the CEO - I've written to him multiple times and gotten thorough replies and I've seen changes too!

If you don't get a timely response (the Customer Charter used to say they'd write back in 2 weeks - but that's gone now - I must have commented on that failing too often) you can move up the chain - to the CEO or to the Minister for Transport. If you are polite you will get a good response.

Last week I asked Customer Services about new services on the Maynooth line. No response after a week so I completed the form again and said I'd write to the CEO. I got a response within a few hours!!

Alun

AndyWarhol wrote:

Whatever about the dartTXT service being ****, their scrolling text 'information' displays are **** too.

I was on a southbound dart this morning, yet the scrolling information display insisted we were heading towards Howth and that the next station was always going to be Monkstown no matter where we were.

I've seen two other variations on this ...

a) The stations change, but are constantly "one off", i.e. you arrive at Dun Laoghaire and it says you're at Salthill. Cue lots of confused tourists wondering whether to get off for their ferry

b) The stations change, but only about 100m before the station, rather than just after leaving the previous one.

Once, just for a laugh, when I got off the Dart at Bray (and the display told me I was in Shankill!) I wandered up to the cab and told the driver to be met with a shrug of the shoulders, and almost complete indifference. I won't bother again.

AndyWarhol

Alun wrote:

I've seen two other variations on this ...

a) The stations change, but are constantly "one off", i.e. you arrive at Dun Laoghaire and it says you're at Salthill. Cue lots of confused tourists wondering whether to get off for their ferry

b) The stations change, but only about 100m before the station, rather than just after leaving the previous one.

Once, just for a laugh, when I got off the Dart at Bray (and the display told me I was in Shankill!) I wandered up to the cab and told the driver to be met with a shrug of the shoulders, and almost complete indifference. I won't bother again.

I'm just finished a degree in electronic engineering and I know I could do a much better job. I'd even work for free for maybe a month or two a) cos I'd enjoy it (sad, but true), b) because I'd get a kick out seeing a system that I designed work and c) it annoys me this much.

I heard the information displays were all done in-house by IE engineers. They should be shot.

Alun

AndyWarhol wrote:

I'm just finished a degree in electronic engineering and I know I could do a much better job. I'd even work for free for maybe a month or two a) cos I'd enjoy it (sad, but true), b) because I'd get a kick out seeing a system that I designed work and c) it annoys me this much.

I heard the information displays were all done in-house by IE engineers. They should be shot.

Actually, I suspect that most of the problems, inlcuding the ones I've noted above, are due to some kind of "operator error".

MarkoP11

Majority of issues as software based there is a bug which is corrupting the code on some units. There is a new version out there in recent weeks, aka this train has CCTV

Operation is easy, key in train ID and hit enter, confirm info correct and you are in business

DART txt seems to have issues it is back off a database which is part of the signaling information management system, the platform displays, realtime on the website and DART txt are all backed off the same system

It works fine until the signaling system has to be switched to manual mode, most of the time the system runs it self once even one small part of the system is run in manual you don't know which train is which and the system seems to fall back to the timetable (which is not quite the same as the published one)