Are the new screens at Flinders St Station confusing or helpful?

Notice a change at Flinders St Station during your trip to and from the city? New bright and colourful screens have popped up in the concourse and on platforms. But are they helpful or confusing?

A change was made at Flinders Street Station on Tuesday night when the existing platform screens were replaced with a new-look monitor.

One change to the screens that display the train line, minutes to depart and platform went from a having a black background with white text to white background with black text.

Other changes include grouping and colour-coding train lines and changing the size of the text showing the minutes to depart.

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The new screens at Flinders Street: Do you love them or hate them? Picture: Kara Irving

The train lines have been colour-coded and grouped as part of the change. Picture: Kara Irving

A new addition also includes a separate monitor that will list the next services to major stations in the loop, including when the next service to Southern Cross Station will run, the platform and what train line you’d take.

The change has also been made to screens at the concourse and connecting subways.

Some commuters say the new screens are easier to read.

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Others say the format is packed with too much information, with the large platform number easily mistaken for minutes to depart.

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowan wrote about the changes in his blog.

“On the concourse and in the connecting subways, the sequence of the lines is now more logical — by group rather than platform — with the colours from the network map used to help find your line,” he wrote.

I've had three people stop me to ask if whatever train is on what platform or stopping at whatever station appearing in pale grey font. The new colour screens at Flinders St are not very helpful or easy for people to read.

— Temple Connolly (@tea_n_see) January 30, 2019

New #FlindersSt displays & departure countdowns quickly get confused with the usual #GreenLine delays at #FlindersSt

7:26pm #Cheltenham ultimately cancelled with 7:36pm #FrankstonLine leaving ontime off platform 8 with sporadic announcements to advise@metrotrains @aussiewongm pic.twitter.com/5fOjOik2pO

— Craig (@craig_halsall) January 30, 2019

@metrotrains new screens at Flinders Street are sooooo much easier to read! 👍👀 #goodjob

— Sean Donaldson (@seandonaldson) January 30, 2019

Quite the muck around at FSS tonight not helped by the whiz bang new screens displaying cancelled services eh @metrotrains?
The @vline_gippsland 2039 TRL service is displayed (despite being cancelled), with advice to board the 2033 PKM (also cancelled). Uh oh!@ptua @danielbowen pic.twitter.com/wyYDUM2aoF

— Phillip Tyson (@PhillipTyson) January 30, 2019

“The sequencing is by group, then by departure time. I do wonder if this may cause issues when some infrequent lines may not display because the allotted space is all taken by more frequent services.”

“Overall these changes seem like a big improvement, and no doubt they’ll keep tweaking the design and fixing issues,” he wrote.

Nikolai Lunevich, who catches the train daily, said it would take a while to adapt.

“It has been a bit confusing. There’s too much information, when it was simpler it was much easier to understand,” he said.

Another commuter Yan Wing Ho noticed the platform screens had changed, but hadn’t experienced any issues.

“I like how it tells you how much time there is to depart, and the white background,” she said.

Nick Smith, who travels into the city for work, said: “I think they’re easier to use, the previous ones were too dark.”

“The ones in the (entrance) were unreadable, I’d always go to the wrong platform.”

While Hedy said: “It hasn’t been an issue for me, they’re not confusing. I like them. I can see them better.”

“I was complaining that I couldn’t see them. The colours are much better.”

A Public Transport Victoria spokesman said: “We’re helping passengers find their platform and train at Flinders Street station more easily with the addition of new colour displays.”

“These colour displays are part of the $100m upgrade of Flinders St station to improve the passenger experience.”

@Kara_Irving