Current Status

A real Story

It is 8 in the morning on a February day. An incident with a level crossing that occurred just 15 minutes ago threatens to collapse traffic and it is not up to SFM to restore service. A person has just left his private vehicle at one of the workshops on Gran Vía Asima and is preparing to use the metro at the Camí dels Ráis station to go to work in the center of Palma. He goes through the turnstiles and as soon as he reaches the platform he notices that the station panel is reporting the problem that, apparently, is keeping the trains running. 

In the middle of the afternoon, a lot of users crowd on the platforms of the Main Station hoping of taking the first train towards Inca. The information panels and the website have been reporting since midday that the next train is going to leave track 9, so they wait patiently, distributed along the platform, for the already stopped train to open its doors. However, ten minutes before the departure time, the maintenance staff notifies the command post that a breakdown has occurred and that it will be necessary to use another train, which is ready to leave on track 5. The panels change the information, but only half of those who were right next to the screens realize it and, timidly, go towards the path that has been indicated to them. Not finding any employees in the platform area and seeing that the rest of the travelers remain on track 9, they choose to think that the train they were supposed to take is still the one they see parked. Departure time arrives and track 5 train leaves the station almost empty while 70 angry people complain because no one told them about the change. 

A family is preparing to take the train to Palma from the Consell – Alaró station. Because of the traffic on the road, they arrive at the station just in time; so fair that it is impossible to know if the level crossing is open because the train has already passed or because it is late and has not yet passed. They finish parking the car and the passage closes; the train is going to arrive. They start running towards the passenger building, they patiently endure the queue of passengers who cross the turnstiles alerted for the same reason and only when they reach the waiting room do they see that the train they were waiting to take is announced 15 minutes late. The passage had been closed by another train coming in the opposite direction. After 12 of those supposed 15 minutes have passed, the train appears. 8 travelers are left on the ground because they trusted the estimate.

Floods leave the Manacor line near Petra cut off. Hours later, the trains to Manacor continue to circulate, although they end in Petra. At the other end of the line, in Marratxí, the event is reported. The letters on the panels are so small that from outside the station it is not easy to read them, but since the notice appeared on the radio and there is also sliding text at the bottom, a large number of users decide not to risk pass the intermodal card through the turnstiles and go to Palma in your private vehicle. The website provides confusing information for a user who lives somewhere between Palma and Sineu, where the trains run on time and without further incidents. 

It is 10:21 at the Verge de Lluc stop. There is just one minute left until the scheduled arrival time of the train to Palma. The Verge de Lluc panel is barely visible from the outside of the station. You must run to avoid missing the train because you can hear a sound of something approaching along the track. After arriving in extremis at exactly 10:22, the breathless user sees a train pass by that does not stop. The panels still indicate the arrival of the 10:22 train, but it is already 10:23. The user learns not to trust the indications on the panels anymore. 

Passenger Information

Volume II of the Railway Treatise by Engineer Fernando Oliveros Rives discusses the psychological impact on the client/traveler of the information presented in stations and public places related to transportation. Every information system design has to assume the uncertainty and disadvantage of the visitor or client, which can prevent the correct perception of the information, even considering that it is correct. The author recommends not assuming any type of knowledge about the infrastructure, schedules, geography or the type of service provided at the facility. The information provided must be able to remove the traveler from uncertainty on its own without resorting to any type of human reinforcement.

SFM has a website full of obstacles for the customer, who does not know what the words Anada or Tornada mean when selecting trains in one direction or the opposite. Even knowing the meaning of these concepts (assuming that any client knows the Catalan language), it is assumed that the user of the rail service always departs from Palma or always goes to some point in the direction of Inca, Sa Pobla, Manacor or the UIB. . 

It is assumed that the terminology used for the subway and underground lines M1, M2, T1, T2, T3 is in the public domain, as well as the toponymy, making the deterrent barrier with the user greater. There is a tendency to design different signage in each new development (stations, trains, brochures, website), denying the client the possibility of relating the indications they read in different areas of the network or even on different trains. 

People making design decisions assume that if they understand the information, any traveler should be able to understand it. They deny the possibility of uncertainty based on their in-depth knowledge of the company, ignoring that the user or traveler who most needs this information is precisely the least familiar or least initiated into this reality. The effect achieved is precisely the opposite of what was intended. It is especially revealing that the people who are behind making the most important decisions regarding traveler information are simple occasional users of the service in the best of cases, displaying zero empathy towards those who should be considered the most important party. important of any public transport service which is, precisely, the customer or traveler. 

Only by assuming these facts and taking them as axioms can an effective solution ve conceived. 

Proposal

Ónice 

It is a computer tool in the form of a mobile application for Android systems that I proposed to Management to be used as a reinforcement of the regulatory documentation for the traction personnel of Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca. It basically recasts the itinerary books, the circulation instructions, the order and information bulletins, the grid and the topography, calculating estimated times and recommended speeds to improve the punctuality of the trains. 

The key to this App is the algorithm that relates geographic location in a linear reference. From here the calculations are inferred that can provide the essential information for the Driver. 

Onice geolocation is the starting point for the project I propose. 

PK 

Extract from a real conversation between an SFM worker and the command office: 

• ¿What time is the next train to Palma? 

• ¿Where are you? 

• I’m in Marratxi 

• Your next train arrives in 3 minutes. 

Given the geographical position of a train and the geographical position of an observer, translating both positions into a linear reference, knowing the maximum speeds of the line, the location of the limited speed zones, the acceleration performance and the speed of the train in In real time it is possible to determine the time in which the positions of the train and the observer will coincide. 

Given the linear reference of several trains and the position of the observer, it is possible to determine the arrival times of all of them and even predict the arrival time of the observer at his destination. 

Given the linear reference of all trains on the line and the position of the observer, it is possible to determine all the useful information by showing only those trains that affect the observer. 

App Vs WebApp 

A WebApp is a web page embedded in an internet browser with the appearance of a mobile application. When well designed, a webApp is very difficult to distinguish from a native App. Many developers have seen a fortune in WebApps because they are loaded with advantages: 

• Easy to develop. 

• They work fine on any platform (Android, Xaomi, Samsung, IPhone…) 

• You can take advantage of or adapt an existing website. 

• “Auto” version update. 

However, they require a connection to the cloud in real time and this is fraught with inconveniences: 

• They stop working in the event of any data coverage loss. 

• The presentation format is defective at certain resolutions and for certain devices. 

• Unable to maintain a background process. 

This last point requires the user to open the application to interact with it. 

Event subscription 

A subscription is a form of communication in which a user receives information about a certain service when the conditions specified when registering for it are met. It works the same as subscriptions to newspapers or paper magazines, which arrive at our address as soon as they are published. 

In the world of the Internet of Things, it is common to subscribe to instant messaging programs such as Telegram or WhatsApp, which notify us of the arrival of messages even when we are not logged in, or of weather alerts, informing us of an imminent rain or storm, from activity recorders, which notify us when we have met the health objectives of the day, from the bank, which informs us as soon as we receive a transfer, from the alarms installed at home, alerting us when they have detected an intruder… 

All these services come to us as a notification and we are used to maintaining a connection with the real world without having to divert our attention to check if something has changed.