Too good to be true!

Update 15th July: The screen is reported as back in action today, the latest fault having apparently been a “loose cable”!

Bus Users’ Group members were overjoyed last week to find that the overhead electronic display screen in Lancaster bus station was working again after a lengthy absence.

It seems that much of delay to its repair was due to nobody being prepared to take responsibility for it. Data for the display comes from Stagecoach and Lancashire County Council, the bus station is owned by the City Council and the screen itself was originally provided by the University, with funding from United Utilities, but it seems that none of these bodies takes overall responsibility for it.

Eventually the fault was found to be with the hardware – the unit itself – rather than the software, which apparently meant that it was down to the City Council to deal with it, which after much prodding from the University (encouraged by the BUG) they agreed to do.

The problem was corrosion of the casing and it will require a further bout of deep cleaning, which will be done out of normal hours to avoid disruption. The cause of the corrosion has not been disclosed, but the cleaning is intended to remove a large amount of bird droppings. It is also intended to attach spikes to the top of the screen to prevent a recurrence of the problem!

All’s well that ends well, we thought. Until a visit to the station today found this:

That, to our non-expert eyes, does look more like a software problem. We’ve asked the council to investigate and will keep our fingers crossed for an early solution.