Station Status Boards - Wish List

[JayPea]

GEG is the airport code for Spokane International Airport. Some might have thought that was also Amtrak's code for Spokane.

 

[AmtrakLKL]

Missed stations.

Of late, since the announced changes to the display boards in New York and Philadelphia, the Station Status Boards have been getting an up-tick in activity. There have also been an increase in people using the wrong station codes. The most common ones are:

NYC for NYP

CUS for CHI

PHI for PHL

HOU for HOS

GCT for NYP

Those are the ones that I can figure out. I decided to add a table to convert from the bad station codes to the good ones. At this point I'm not familiar enough to know what people intended when they put in the following over just the last two days:

NCE PIO GEG SMI DNV ISL ILS DLL PJT ABT EMV EMR MTL GSP DCU SQL TIC DCA SFD

RNK RMN ABB NAV ALA RAL NCF UNI PHX ANN OIL BRD WES ABD TTN IMS MIL

If anyone can interpret what people wanted when they input these station codes, I'd appreciate it.

jb

My thoughts:

GEG is the airport code for Spokane - SPK

GSP is Greenville/Spartanburg, SC - GRV

DCA is Washington National - WAS or maybe ALX. :giggle:

MTL - Montreal? - MTR

RAL - Raleigh, NC - RGH

ANN - Ann Arbor, MI - ARB

PJT - Maybe Princton Junction - PJC

TIC - Ticonderoga, NY - FTC

BRD - Bridgeport (BDP) or Bradenton (BDT - OK - who is looking up buses)?

NCE is Nice, France. No clue domestically.

EMV and EMR could be Emeryville - EMY

DNV - Danville, VA or IL - DAN and DVI, respectively

ABD - Aberdeen, MD - ABE

MIL - Milwaukee - MKE

NCF - NC State Fair, NC - NSF (Seasonal)

Valid Amtrak codes that don't have trains:

ABB - Abbotsford-Colby - Bus Stop, WI

ABT - Abbotsford - Bus Station, BC

ALA - Alanson - Bus Stop, MI

RNK - Roanoke - Civic Center Bus Stop, VA

RMN - Rochester - Bus Stop, MN

SFD is the old code for Sanford, FL - Regular Trains.

SMI - Sainte Marie - Bus Stop, MI

WES - Los Angeles - Westwood (UCLA) - Bus Stop, CA

 

[Thirdrail7]

Missed stations.

Of late, since the announced changes to the display boards in New York and Philadelphia, the Station Status Boards have been getting an up-tick in activity. There have also been an increase in people using the wrong station codes. The most common ones are:

NYC for NYP

CUS for CHI

PHI for PHL

HOU for HOS

GCT for NYP

Those are the ones that I can figure out. I decided to add a table to convert from the bad station codes to the good ones. At this point I'm not familiar enough to know what people intended when they put in the following over just the last two days:

NCE PIO GEG SMI DNV ISL ILS DLL PJT ABT EMV EMR MTL GSP DCU SQL TIC DCA SFD

RNK RMN ABB NAV ALA RAL NCF UNI PHX ANN OIL BRD WES ABD TTN IMS MIL

If anyone can interpret what people wanted when they input these station codes, I'd appreciate it.

jb

My thoughts:

GEG is the airport code for Spokane - SPK

GSP is Greenville/Spartanburg, SC - GRV

DCA is Washington National - WAS or maybe ALX. :giggle:

MTL - Montreal? - MTR

RAL - Raleigh, NC - RGH

ANN - Ann Arbor, MI - ARB

PJT - Maybe Princton Junction - PJC

TIC - Ticonderoga, NY - FTC

BRD - Bridgeport (BDP) or Bradenton (BDT - OK - who is looking up buses)?

NCE is Nice, France. No clue domestically.

EMV and EMR could be Emeryville - EMY

DNV - Danville, VA or IL - DAN and DVI, respectively

ABD - Aberdeen, MD - ABE

MIL - Milwaukee - MKE

NCF - NC State Fair, NC - NSF (Seasonal)

Valid Amtrak codes that don't have trains:

ABB - Abbotsford-Colby - Bus Stop, WI

ABT - Abbotsford - Bus Station, BC

ALA - Alanson - Bus Stop, MI

RNK - Roanoke - Civic Center Bus Stop, VA

RMN - Rochester - Bus Stop, MN

SFD is the old code for Sanford, FL - Regular Trains.

SMI - Sainte Marie - Bus Stop, MI

WES - Los Angeles - Westwood (UCLA) - Bus Stop, CA

I agree with almost everything you stated but I'm wondering if they meant Westerly, Rhode Island for WES. Additionally, PJT was the old city code for downtown Princeton, NJ which is a different stop than Princeton Junction, NJ when the Clockers operated.

Additionally, I'm wondering if DLL is Dillion, South Carolina, DCU is Washington DC-Union Station, RNM is Raton, New Mexico and is DNV actually Denver, Colorado?

 

[John Bobinyec]

Thanks for the help.

jb

 

[west point]

A brand new one WPR ---------- Winter Park Resort

 

[trainman74]

My guess for NCE would be New Carrollton (as a typo for the actual code, NCR).

 

[John Bobinyec]

The Amtrak Station Status Boards had a link to Amtrak's stations list. Recently, when Amtrak changed their website, they removed that list. Of course, that broke the link. So I added a search function so that anyone can find a station and its station code.

jb

 

[Skyline]

It's a Solari Board. It should look and function like one. What's with all these impatient people who can't wait a minute or two for all the lines to appear? How would they have ever coped with the 1950s?

 

[John Bobinyec]

It's a Solari Board. It should look and function like one. What's with all these impatient people who can't wait a minute or two for all the lines to appear? How would they have ever coped with the 1950s?

It was more a situation that if you tried to run the solari simulation on an old computer, it did take an unacceptably long time - even for me. So I created the faster options.

jb

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I want a holographic status board the looks like a Solari board, but transforms into a discotheque dancer when announcing a train.

 

[trainman74]

I want a holographic status board the looks like a Solari board, but transforms into a discotheque dancer when announcing a train.

What is this, a sci-fi movie from the early 1980s?

 

[Green Maned Lion]

This is a mostly silly thread. I figured I'd add more silliness to the silliness to form a more complete silliness.

 

[jis]

LOL!

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[user 13416]

My first time seeing this. Nice job! One question: Is there a time limit on how early a train shows up on the board? Meaning that if the local time is 10am, trains arriving at 8pm don't show up on the board even if there is space available.

 

[John Bobinyec]

My first time seeing this. Nice job! One question: Is there a time limit on how early a train shows up on the board? Meaning that if the local time is 10am, trains arriving at 8pm don't show up on the board even if there is space available.

The visibility limit is 8 hours. It keeps down the amount of processing that must be done.

jb

 

[John Bobinyec]

Someone has proposed a change that I'd like to have y'all consider.

See Amtrak Station Status Boards . The last column Is "Revised Time" (choose the 'long' format for the Solari type board). This is simply calculated as the scheduled time adjusted by how late or early the train is currently running. The suggestion is to use Amtrak's "estimated" time rather than do this simplistic calculation.

Amtrak's estimations have gotten better over the years to the point where I'm considering doing this. The question is: Can anyone see a reason not to?

jb

PS I'd really not want to do both and then have an option to allow the user to choose. It's A LOT more work.

 

[PRR 60]

I like using the estimated time instead of minutes late or early. One other comment: Acela is now called just "Acela" or "Acela Non-Stop" (2401 and 2402). The Acela Express name has been retired.

 

[acelafan]

I think the estimated time is better, too.

PRR60, I didn't know Acela dropped "Express". Thanks for that tidbit.

 

[Qapla]

Either way is fine with me ... one thing I have run across is the 3 letter station codes. There have been time when I forgot to use CAPS and it returned the result that the station did not exist ...

I haven't used the board recently - maybe this has been addressed ... if it has, please disregard this comment.

 

[John Bobinyec]

The CAPS issue has been fixed.

jb

 

[Qapla]

Thank You

 

[daybeers]

I see no reason not to change the way actual times are shown as you suggested. You're right, Amtrak no longer predicts trains will travel at hyperspeed to reach their next stop. Thanks for all your great work, John! As a programmer myself, I can understand the complexity.

 

[PRR 60]

One new glitch. The Keystone service trains are showing as "KE STONE".

 

[John Bobinyec]

I even saw "KERSTONE" a minute ago, but I fixed it.

jb

 

[John Bobinyec]

I finally finished the change to the Solari boards so that Amtrak's estimated time is presented rather than my simple calculation of adding or subtracting time from the scheduled time, based on lateness or "earliness".

jb