In the future, if you step into the metro train in Chennai, you would be surprised to see sleek LED screens present inside the train.
The existing route map display panels would not be there and they would be replaced by the sleek LED screens. This has been decided by the CMRL.
The superb piece of information is these sleek LED screens would include all the routes and stations of the upcoming phase-1 extension as the display panels in the existing fleet of 42 trains have been designed only to show phase-1 route and stations. By the month of June in 2020, the 9 km phase-1 extension line from Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar would be ready.
For the opening of north Chennai lines, screens would be installed in all the trains in 6 months of time. The place where the LED screens would be installed inside the metro trains is not known now and this was according to an official of CMRL. The new sleek LED screens would also be making their presence felt in the 10 new metro trains being procured for the extension line.
Every train car would have a minimum of two LED screens. One LED screen would display the route map and inform commuters when the metro station approaches and the other LED screen would display amenities available in the station, feeder services, landmarks near the station and intermodal facilities etc. This was according to an official of CMRL.
It was revealed by another official that the display panels are linked to the signalling system and it works automatically. He hinted that the panels would be switched off and signalling systems would be linked to the LED screens.
To help the commuters to know where the metro train is heading, dynamic route map display panels are present above the doors inside the train cars and light fixed next to the name of every station in the route blinks when the train nears the station. It must be noted that all the four-car trains have 8 such panels, just 4 of them work and the remaining are meant to show only the route map.