Comet IIM Displays and Automatic Announcements

[genesis11980]

I was in CIIm 5440, a former cab car, today and noticed something very interesting. The automated display pannels for the station announcements located above the end doors had been blanked out with stainless steel pannels. I was quite surprised to see this, as these cars have only been overhauled in the past 3 years at most. I know that they automatic announcents and displays have been known to show some weird information, but I was really surprised to have seen this step taken. Has NJT given up on this system, despite money spent on this feature?

[nick11a]

I doubt they are giving that system up. Maybe that car was so far gone that they decided to seal up the screens.

But it also may be that the displays were malfunctioning or had problems and they had to remove them so they could fix them. Either way, you may never see displays in that car again.

[Jtgshu]

When that car was delivered, there were no LCD screens (inside or outside) - there was probably a problem with the supplier that day and instead of holding the car, they just sent it and put it in service, adn when it gets taken out of service for maintence, inspection or whatever, if they are there, they will probably plop them in.

Also, many of the new cars don't have the visual annuncaiation keypad to program the system - again, i guess there was a supply problem when they were built and instead of holding them for somehting minor like that, they just put them in service. From what I have noticed, these are the cars that always say "NJ TRANSIT" but the announcements for the station stops still carry through. (although cars with the keypads sometimes get stuck on "NJ Transit" too

[Engineer]

The other day I had to take the train into NYP and managed to have the luck to pick a Comet IV which basically went haywire and practically recited the whole Hoboken Division all they way up. Pretty funny.