Photo of the Week - Week 3:
Summerhill's former Harristown based Enviro 400 bodied Volvo B7TL, EV37, is seen loading passengers on O'Connell Street on the 14th November 2010.
Summerhill recently acquired EV37-EV50 from Harristown, along with EV22 from Clontarf for cross city route 123, replacing the WV class and RV class that had been allocated previously. Route 123 was the first route tested with real time stop information, with displays indicating which stop was next on a scrolling LED display. This was positioned behind the driver on the WV class midibuses.
Recently, EV37 has been equipped with two of these displays, one on each floor. The downstairs one is positioned on the ceiling, above the central ailse, just behind the staircase. The upstairs display is fitted just in front of the stopping sign, in fact the display is no doubt being powered from this feed as the stopping sign has been switched off.
The LED sign alternates between showing the route number and destination and the next stop. More recently, EV37 has also been equipped with a next stop announcing system, something that was not fitted to any of the WV class. Using GPS positioning, the same that is used in the scrolling LED displays, the system announces the next stop in good time as the bus approaches. A female voice is used, and in general the voice blends quietly into the background.
Dublin Bus must be commended on this initiative, and one hopes it becomes fleet wide. A few minor points, that could be updated, is the occasional announcement of the route and the destination would be informative for the visually impaired, a few more via points to scroll by instead of just one when indicating the route and destination, and continuously updating, i.e. "via City Centre" not appearing after bus has already passed through city centre, and a removal of the whine that is present when the system engages. Otherwise its a very professionally done system, especially given its only in trial phase.
DublinbusStuff took advantage of a free evening of the Christmas holidays to sample the new system on EV37.
Video of EV37's stop information system taken from Griffith Avenue to Philipsburgh Avenue.