ALMOST five years ago we were told that having to stand at a bus stop without a clue when the next vehicle was due was about to become a thing of the past.

No longer, like the old joke, would you have to stand shivering for an hour only to have three buses turn up together - you would have been warned of what was to happen via an electronic screen at the bus stop.

But the technology being trialled in East Lancashire broke down after a fortnight and the screens on Blackburn Boulevard have since merely flashed up the words: "This service is brought to you by Lancashire County Council."

Hapless travellers have been left to seek out timetables not obscured by graffiti - if their bus stop had them.

Now we are told that the useless screens are likely to be replaced in Blackburn with more modern equipment using satellite technology to give out "real time information" on when the next bus is due by working out journey times based on traffic flows.

Blackburn is to have a scheme to be trialled on routes to the Sunnybower area and the county council has got £250,000 of government money to try out a similar project in South Ribble which it then hopes to extend across the county.

We are told that spy satellites are able to seek out and pinpoint individual vehicles almost anywhere on the globe so it is not difficult to imagine how such a system could work - and what a marvellous aid it would be for travellers.

The equivalent system on the railways - and how simple is it to know where a train is on the tracks compared to a bus on the streets? - frequently breaks down.

With that knowledge and five years of virtually blank screens, travel executives should not be surprised that the travelling public is likely to hold the view: "I'll believe it when I see it."