Marco
August 26, 2026, 5:03pm
224
I debated reopening the 2025 topic but ultimately decided on just posting it here.
It’s LCD. The system to power an LCD display is hideously complicated for a public transit system. It has numerous points of failure, costs a tonne to repair and makes the train look ghetto when it is broken. That extra expense has to come from somewhere. Maybe fare increases?
In Italy, places with LCDs like Trenord and Milano Centrale all look horrible after years of ageing. Half of them are non functional, the others have yellowed. LCDs also smell like armpits when they degrade and when the polarising filter eventually separates due to the glue degrading, it makes it look like shit.
LED Arrays are simple and dumb in a good way as in not ‘smart’ tech. No ‘smart’ technology. Just replace the defective array. It’s quite modular. Robust and uses reliable mature controllers that do one job really well and does it for little cost.
I expressed my opposition towards LCD screens being used for station information several times over the course of the years, especially as they were implemented in buses and subsequently the MRT for the numerous points of failure these technologies provide.
Now it’s started happening as I fear.
LCDs installed on MRT trains in 2010 are starting to degrade and turn yellow while suffering from vinegar syndrome.
As more of these degrade, they will make the trains here look more rundown.
Meanwhile:
LED matrices look as new as they did when they rolled off the lot.
If I want to ride trains run by sciemi, I would go ride Trenitalia!
