extendedpaul
Member
Yesterday evening I had cause to use a station help point for the first time and it was not a positive experience.
This was at Charlton at just before midnight. Station unstaffed. There had been a fatality at Abbey Wood two hours earlier and no trains through to Dartford or beyond since. About 20 people trying to get home to Kent following a Paul McCartney gig at the O2 were at a loss what to do. When I arrived one person was being told on the help point to take local buses all the way to Gillingham which was clearly impossible. The lady was getting frustrated and a bit upset so I took over and explained that Gillingham was well outside London which the person did not seem to realise.
I perhaps naively assumed that the help point on a southeastern station connected to a southestern staff member but the person clearly had no local knowledge. He said he was having difficulty getting through to someone at southeastern and all he knew was that rail tickets were being accepted on local buses. I asked about the provision of taxis or a bus but he said nothing had been agreed or arranged.
After about 20 minutes holding on he told me he had just been informed that a train was a few minutes away which was the 00.01 to Gillingham and it did indeed turn up about 12 minutes late but failed to make extra stops at Belvedere or Erith for the cancelled 23.47 and 00.17 to Dartford so two couples were having to get taxis back from Dartford.
I was home only 15 minutes later than expected in the end and have every sympathy with those involved on Saturday'y incident but is it typical for the help point operatives to be so lacking in knowledge ?
This was at Charlton at just before midnight. Station unstaffed. There had been a fatality at Abbey Wood two hours earlier and no trains through to Dartford or beyond since. About 20 people trying to get home to Kent following a Paul McCartney gig at the O2 were at a loss what to do. When I arrived one person was being told on the help point to take local buses all the way to Gillingham which was clearly impossible. The lady was getting frustrated and a bit upset so I took over and explained that Gillingham was well outside London which the person did not seem to realise.
I perhaps naively assumed that the help point on a southeastern station connected to a southestern staff member but the person clearly had no local knowledge. He said he was having difficulty getting through to someone at southeastern and all he knew was that rail tickets were being accepted on local buses. I asked about the provision of taxis or a bus but he said nothing had been agreed or arranged.
After about 20 minutes holding on he told me he had just been informed that a train was a few minutes away which was the 00.01 to Gillingham and it did indeed turn up about 12 minutes late but failed to make extra stops at Belvedere or Erith for the cancelled 23.47 and 00.17 to Dartford so two couples were having to get taxis back from Dartford.
I was home only 15 minutes later than expected in the end and have every sympathy with those involved on Saturday'y incident but is it typical for the help point operatives to be so lacking in knowledge ?