You’re probably going to look at one of these screens – but what order are the trains being displayed in?

It isn’t alphabetical – South Morang occupies the first two slots. Is it ordered by the network map? Possibly – Cranbourne is next to Pakenham, and Alamein is next to Glen Waverley.

Worked it out yet?

I’ll give you the answer – the next two services for each line are displayed, no matter where they terminate, and the lines are grouped by their operational ‘groups’ – ‘Clifton Hill’, ‘Burnley’, ‘Northern’, ‘Caulfield’, ‘Cross City’ and V/Line.

The same ordering logic is applied on the smaller ‘summary’ boards scattered around the station, just squeezed into less space and with a smaller font.

Given that the PTV network map has shown each group of lines in a different colour since 2017, why do the screens at Flinders Street Station persist with living in the monochrome past?

Fixing the problem

Turns out Transport for Victoria asked the same question in 2017 and set to work finding a better way, lead by senior user experience designer Carolina Gaitan.

They defined the problem in terms of user experience.

Then came up with a way to test out their hypothesis.

Spending three days sending people through a mock up railway station.

First navigating using the current monochrome design, then a new design where each railway line was a separate colour.

And the result – navigating the station was was easier with colour.

What else did they find?

An important part of the new design was realising that there two groups of users of Flinders Street Station: people unfamiliar with the station, and those who use it every day.

Some signage is tailored for people trying to find their way somewhere new.

While others deliver ‘how long until the next train to X’ information to regular users.

So what next?

Turns out what was learnt through user experience testing is being put into practice, with a wayfinding upgrade coming soon:

Flinders Street Station will be the first station across the metropolitan network to feature signage and information screens where each line has its own colour for easier navigation.

Though I take offence to the boastful “first station” claim – until the 1990s the Melbourne train network used a different colour for each group of lines.

As did the next train displays in the City Loop until 2011.

Everything old is new again?

A signage related footnote

Designer Shane Bradbury explains the new style of regulatory signage as well the suite of maps that appear around Flinders Street Station.

Further reading

You can find a summary of work at the UX Australia 2017 website: ‘Flinders Street Station: A journey to implement UX in wayfinding and customer information‘. The full set of presentation slides is also available.

Alexandra Almond has also published an article on the design process, titled Improving wayfinding at Melbourne’s busiest train station.

Meld Studios has also covered their role in the redesign of both the ‘motherboard’ screens at the station entrance, and the platform screens.

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However some people are having trouble moving on, as can be seen in Google Maps – the public transport layer still includes route 24.

The current inability to use Google Transit in Melbourne is well known, but as for the reason why the tram route is still shown, we need to dig into how Google displays public transport information in their maps.

The first version of Google Transit went live in 2005, but it took until 2007 for it to be rolled into Google Maps. A second enhancement came in 2009, when the ability to display a ‘Transit Layer’ on a map was added.

Google had the following to say when it was released:

Whereas the main Google Transit product has the goal to provide full schedule information and routing, the objective of the Transit Layer is to overlay lines visually on Google Maps. Think of a virtual metro map on top of Google Maps — even when we don’t have itinerary planning available, we want you to be able to see public transit options that are available. Our goal is to be able to offer transit information as an alternative to driving directions wherever possible.

Melbourne’s tram routes are an example of this ‘transit layer’ only mode, which is why Yarra Trams is the only Melbourne public transport operator that appears on Google Transit’s list of cities covered. It also means that the route 24 bug is caused by Yarra Trams – they need to send an updated transit layer file to Google.

Footnote

This list compiled by Hugh Waldron details the history of ‘route 24’:

Allocated from 25/9/1972, previously this route showed Route 48 when travelling from La Trobe Street.

Was extended from La Trobe and Spencer Streets to Flinders Street West via Docklands from 23/5/2005 to 18/11/2005.

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It suffers from one major defect – the same “phantom through running” problem that afflicts the current suburban rail map. Here is a closer look at the troublesome section:

‘Melbourne (Southern Cross)’ is displayed in larger text, which implies it is the center of the network, but what is going on elsewhere. Can I take a train from Geelong to Seymour? How about Bacchus Marsh to Nar Nar Goon? Or Clarkefield to Wandong?

An additional complication is the station stop at North Melbourne – since December 2013 trains from Geelong no longer stop there, because the new RRL tracks through the station lack platforms. As a result, V/Line jiggled their network map to show that trains from Geelong no longer stop there.

However even that map is out of date – in July 2014 Ballarat and Bendigo trains were also moved onto the Regional Rail Link tracks, but the network map was not updated.

An update

Down in the comments Alan pointed out that V/Line did update their network map following the removal of the North Melbourne stop for Ballarat and Bendigo line passengers.

I even use the same network map in the lead image of this post – I didn’t notice the subtle redesign that moved Southern Cross to the middle of the map, and North Melbourne station to the Seymour leg. Oops!

Footnote

V/Line also has a network map that also include their road coach services – the insert focused on Melbourne is a little better designed, showing the North Melbourne stop correctly, and avoiding any implications of non-existent through running.

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At the main entrance to Roma Street Station I noticed a useful feature of the next train display boards – they were colour coded.

Note that colours used matching those used in the network map.

The stopping pattern for the next train departing each platform is displayed, along with the colour for the appropriate railway line.

Additional screens list the next three trains on each route:

As well as the next trains heads in each direction out of the city.

Note how the line based colour coding makes the screens incredibly easy to read at a glance.

If only the next train displays on Melbourne’s rail network were as simple to read!

Footnote on Melbourne

Until a few years ago the next train displays at Melbourne’s City Loop stations used colour to distinguish the different lines – unfortunately the upgrade to LCD panels resulted in this useful feature being killed off.

At least Melbourne’s train network map is undergoing a much needed revamp – the almost useless fare zone information is being removed, with the different colours being used to indicate something far more important – which railway line goes where!

And for people searching for “brisbane train map”

For some reason I get a few hundred hits each month from people searching for “brisbane train map” – you can find the complete map over at the Queensland Rail website.

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