Chennai Metro trains to get audio-visual info display screens

CHENNAI: A large LED screen will soon play out audio and video alerts to passengers travelling by metro trains on the approaching station, major landmarks around it and feeder services. Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is expected to install such screens on all trains by early 2022.
A prototype of the screen will be ready in six months. The digital screens will also help boost CMRL’s non-ticketing revenue options as they will also have provision to display advertisements.
A metro rail official said a company has been awarded a contract to customise and design screens that would fit in the space above the automatic doors of the trains. “A prototype of the screen will be ready by the end of this year and our entire fleet will have the LED screen display by early 2022,” the official said. “Each of the four cars in a train will have these screens above the automatic doors,” the official added. The screens will be installed in metro rail’s fleet of 52 trains including the 10 new trains.
Officials said the screens will have automatic visual and audio broadcasting of route-related information in CMRL two-corridor phase-1 and phase-1 extension lines as well as inter-corridor operations between corridor-1 and corridor-2.
There may be two screens in each coach with one displaying the route map and informing commuters when the train approaches a station, the other will have information on the amenities available at the station, feeder services, intermodal facilities and landmarks around the station. The screens will be linked to metro rail’s signalling system and they will display information pertaining to a particular station and the locality when the train approaches the station.
The existing fleet has static and dynamic route maps installed above the train doors. The dynamic display has lights blinking next to each station name as the train approaches that station.