The IECC information generator [rail passenger information systems]

A variety of passenger information systems that employ varying degrees of automation have been implemented on stations by British Rail. The quality of the information provided to the passengers tends to be good while the service is running to plan but breaks down when there are disruptions. The quality can be improved by either employing more staff to operate the manual information systems or by using fully automated systems that have access to a computer-based timetable and are driven by signalling information. Until recently automated systems have been difficult and expensive to achieve. The author describes how development of the Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) (a source of current train movement information) and the implementation of the Train Service Database (which makes timetable data readily available to computer-based systems) have presented an opportunity to provide highly automated passenger information systems at reasonable cost