Email from Northern says they are investigating the complaint and will endeavour to get back to me within 20 days.
Why 20 days? Sounds very specific?
It's a service level agreement, possibly defined as part of their franchise agreement.
You should have it printed out onto A1 size paper and then email it to the station manager with a CC to the CEO and the Sun newspaper saying that if the staff attitude does not improve by the end of the week it will be snuck into the advertisement frames (tell them you have a key, you might not but they don't need to know that) Tell them you've sent copies to twenty other people so it'll keep appearing as fast as they can remove it. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his office when he opens that email lol
you certainly won't have issues with station staff at Blackpool South.I was wondering whether booking to go to Blackpool South instead would be any better. It doesn't look too far to walk from there to the town centre.
you certainly won't have issues with station staff at Blackpool South.
Meaning there aren’t any?
If you know about this in advance, and print your tickets beforehand, is there a side entrance that one can take to bypass the "holding area" and get straight onto the platforms?
I know this is the case at some stations, such as Manchester Oxford Road.
It does exist, it's just hardly used (I have used it before, I just can't remember when, sometime during or after the electrification).There is not and even if there were you'd be fetched by a member of staff before to long and sent back to the holding area.
In that case I stand corrected on the first part of my post but I remain fairly confident on the second! Such a miscreant would soon be rounded up and sent back to the holding area.It does exist, it's just hardly used (I have used it before, I just can't remember when, sometime during or after the electrification).
you certainly won't have issues with station staff at Blackpool South.
You should have it printed out onto A1 size paper and then email it to the station manager with a CC to the CEO and the Sun newspaper saying that if the staff attitude does not improve by the end of the week it will be snuck into the advertisement frames (tell them you have a key, you might not but they don't need to know that) Tell them you've sent copies to twenty other people so it'll keep appearing as fast as they can remove it. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his office when he opens that email lol
I would certainly be interesting the reply you might get... In fact i might try the same with Southern...
Where abouts is it? I might try to use it, given that I hate to be stuck indoors, and see what happens.It does exist, it's just hardly used (I have used it before, I just can't remember when, sometime during or after the electrification).
If you are thinking about the gate on p4 it’s not for public use and is usually locked.It does exist, it's just hardly used (I have used it before, I just can't remember when, sometime during or after the electrification).
Doesn't that apply for the whole of Blackpool other than the sea front?It is a fair walk though, and the bit around the station isn’t the nicest of areas.
Doesn't that apply for the whole of Blackpool other than the sea front?
I bet if the staff in question were made to pay the Network Rail penalty for delay minutes they'd soon start dispatching in good time...A Northern train service possibly incurring delay minutes due to Northern platform / dispatch staff has a certain irony, doesn't it?
Yeah, it's kept closed most of the time IIRC, but the one & only time I used it. The strange part was nobody checked our tickets.In that case I stand corrected on the first part of my post but I remain fairly confident on the second! Such a miscreant would soon be rounded up and sent back to the holding area.
In between the main entrance and the cycle storage. It's usually shuttered.Where abouts is it? I might try to use it, given that I hate to be stuck indoors, and see what happens.
No, it's still on P1. Here's a picture of it from streetviewIf you are thinking about the gate on p4 it’s not for public use and is usually locked.
The other public entrance was up some steps to p1, but that went about 40 years ago.
Has Northern really put that poster up with those uninvited comments? Not exactly very professional of them if it was. If it was some sort of joke and that it may have been funny but not very good to publicly put that.
No it's a joke poster someone of this parish made up. Having a few printed up and sneaking them into the advert frames at 2am would be funny as hell though. They have those allen keys with the spigot in them if anyone is tempted... [sarcasm]Not that I can condone trashing the TOCs obviously [/sarcasm]Has Northern really put that poster up with those uninvited comments? Not exactly very professional of them if it was. If it was some sort of joke and that it may have been funny but not very good to publicly put that.
Sorry, I don't mean to dampen the mood on here but I'm very surprised!
Absolutely. It would probably make the papers when someone spotted it and it would definitely make me fall out of my chair laughing along with anyone else who has had their ears chewed by the staff there.I'm fairly confident that it's a work of sarcasm developed by somebody who doesn't represent Northern. The poster you quoted is suggesting that they should be surreptitiously displayed in the station in an attempt to make it look like an official communication.
Don't forget the legendary Blackpool guest house landlady...I would argue that the closer you get to the sea front the worse it gets, the warren of streets and lanes just behind the promenade are horrible, but the further inland you get it has a much nicer feel to it.
5 years is nothing in rail industry terms. Sheffield station has been well renowned for having poor customer service going back at least as far as the 80s, and I can hardly imagine that there are many staff left who are still working at the same station 40 years later.This thread has been going now for almost five and a half years.
You'd think they'd have had at least some staff turnover; some new people who might be able to improve morale a bit...but no.