phones in receivership

Plaintive GO Train phone

GO Transit —FYI
Pay phones on trains are out of service
We have just been notified that the company which provides the pay phones on board our trains has gone into receivership.
These phones are now out of service until further notice.
We regret the inconvenience.
June 24, 2005

So I guess nobody called after all.

revenge of the daylight-saved

My body decided to blissfully zizz through my 06:00 alarm, and wake me up an hour later. And since there’s only one train an hour, there’s not much point in me rushing off to get into work no earlier.

too much information

Too much information, Toronto Union Station

I’m only an amateur at information design, but I know bad information when it nearly causes me to miss my train.

The above image (which links to a larger version) is one of GO Transit‘s new information screens at Union Station. It shows all outgoing bus and train traffic from Union Station for the next two hours or so.

What the used to have was a slightly mouldy old teletext system, where the screen was split roughly into three colour-coded segments: two segments about the next departing train on two different train lines, and the bottom third a big digital clock. You could read the time from across the GO concourse, so you could tell instantly if you had to run for the train.

This new display, you pretty much have to be underneath it to see the time. Also, if you’re a train commuter, you don’t want to know what happens in the next two hours. All you want to know is if you’ve missed your train. This is not an airport.

I know the old system left out bus passengers, but buses don’t exactly leave from the same concourse as the trains. They should have their own information board.