People who habitually sleep through their train stations could soon be woken
up in good time to get off, thanks to an alarm invented by Clive Wallington of
Colchester (GB 2 312 979). Wallington says that the guard鈥檚 announcement is
often 鈥渢oo late, incoherent, or not loud enough to wake a sleeping
辫补蝉蝉别苍驳别谤鈥�.
The device is preprogrammed with the name of the station where the owner
wants to get off. A beacon by the track a few kilometres ahead of each station
transmits an identifying code. The device compares the codes with the
preprogrammed station and bleeps to wake the traveller.