Just had a peruse of my Twitter and seen a lady complain to Virgin EC about the overcrowding on the train from Cleethorpes to Manchester! How on Earth can people mix up such polar opposite TOCs, different colours and the lot? Makes you worry for some folk.
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Passengers mixing up TOCs on Twitter
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From what I've experienced, customers that don't travel often tend to confuse who they've booked with against who they've travelled with. So they might have travelled with Northern or TransPennine but because they've booked with Virgin Trains East Coast, they'll complain to us.
Of course, there's not forgetting the chaos of redirects between Virgin Trains and Virgin Trains East Coast. At least LNER twitter will get rid of that.
Of course, there's not forgetting the chaos of redirects between Virgin Trains and Virgin Trains East Coast. At least LNER twitter will get rid of that.
High Dyke
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It doesn't surprise me with some people... It's surprising how many think we're still British Rail. That reminds of those passengers that complain when they get on a local connecting service; for example they've travelled 1st class from Kings Cross to Peterborough and then seemed confused to find no 1st class on their train to Spalding, even though they've booked a 1st class ticket.
Iskra
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To be fair, Cleethorpes is on the East Coast
Lots still seem to think XC is run by Virgin too.
DarloRich
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because real people are not experts like everyone here. They make errors, unlike everyone here.
I remember when that fake bomb caused an evacuation of a football stadium in Manchester when Bournemouth were playing. A customer sent a Tweet to Virgin Trains saying thanks for allowing Bournemouth customers to travel back early, and a photo of what was quite clearly an XC Voyager; Virgin replied to the customer thanking them for the praise! So even the staff don’t know, let alone the customers!
Robertj21a
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I would guess that a good proportion of 'ordinary' passengers haven't a clue which TOC is involved in their journey. Most of the time it doesn't really matter anyway.
Bwlch y Groes
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Add in Northern vs Great Northern, and Northern vs TPE. Both quite common in my experience
syorksdeano
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Virgin can easily be mixed up... Well for now anyway.
Joe Paxton
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They may well worry for folk who spend time on a forum such as this!
Spartacus
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Not just confined to railways, take cats, the number of people claiming to have a British Shorthair (breed) but who actually have a short haired moggie in Britain when you see the picture is quite remarkable, even more so when you see pictures of so-called British Longhaired cats which are just moggies which are perhaps a little fluffier than most, certainly not long-haired or a specific breed. I don't think any are actually trying to con anyone, the picture to anyone who has a clue is as instant a giveaway as an XC Voyager instead of a Pendo, just many people just don't have a clue.
700007
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TfL Rail is one that gets a lot of misdirected tweets - a lot of people aren't aware TfL Rail is actually the name of, well now two lines, temporarily until the Elizabeth line rolls out in December. They just think it's a generic handle that covers all railway lines and companies within the Greater London area! The amount of times the twitter desk have to redirect people to the relevant TOCs is quite funny now, but I imagine it's getting annoying for the two lovely gents that usually man it!
Polarbear
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Reading some of the twitter/facebook comments regarding the GTR timetables woes last week, it was notable that a number of people sought to link Richard Branson's name to the problems. That Mr Branson has nothing to do with GTR seems to escape quite a few members of the general public.
I've also heard continued reference to British Rail, though quite what people think their role would be is a mystery?
I've also heard continued reference to British Rail, though quite what people think their role would be is a mystery?
xotGD
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Why should a passenger, who merely wants to get from A to B, be obliged to know the intimate details of our ridiculously fragmented railway system?
And just when you do learn the name of who runs what train, they go and change the name for the umpteenth time. All part of the farce.
And just when you do learn the name of who runs what train, they go and change the name for the umpteenth time. All part of the farce.
Bar a few exceptions, such as when a unit is on loan from another operator, the company name is usually printed on the side of the train and on posters inside.
In my experience, people just aren’t very observant. People can find out things if they just look and take in information, rather than expect everything to be spoon fed.
A Challenge
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On the point on the timetables - I went to find the timetable for Birmingham New Street to Coventry and so went onto the WMR side, searched for it and it wasn't there. It turns out there isn't one, and it is only available on LNWR, which seems a bit strange given that it is fuly in the West Midlands and the stopping trains are mostly operated by WMR - the LNR services are the fast oneas and are in the 'Euston lines' timetable as well, and all the other TOCs that operate over the route have their services between them in both their own and the LNWR booklet.
OwlMan
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No that is wrong. Very few if any WMT services run between Birmingham International and Coventry. The intermediate stations are served by the three LNW trains per hour.
The trains are operated by West Midlands Trains. There is no such operator as WMR or LNWR; these are route brandings and not TOCs, similar to Island Line, Stansted Express and the four GTR route brands. This is causing a lot of confusion, which is the way the DfT like it.
Mutant Lemming
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We could easily prevent all this confusion by re-nationalisation.
class387
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I’ve seen someone tweet GWR asking why the train to Manchester Victoria was cancelled before. Can’t blame the average passenger for not knowing TOCs. I assume they typed ‘train company’ or something into google and GWR was the first to come up.
I just think a lot of companies don't have very good marketing departments. Intercity is still known to this day - there is a reason for that. Marketing and strong brand identity. Example: GTR have 24 hour services, they can't be bothered to promote it; despite TfL banging on about theirs. I know people in Croydon who had no idea Thameslink is 24 hour until I said. They've even allowed TfL to get away with not showing 24 hr NR interchanges on the night tube map.
Then there are just all the brands. Look at Liverpool St. We've had since privatisation, First Great Eastern, WAGN, Anglia, Stanstead Express, c2c, One Railway, NXEA, Greater Anglia, Abellio Greater Anglia, Greater Anglia, London Overground and TfL Rail since privatisation. Before it was just NSE and Intercity. People just can't be bothered to keep up - as far as they're concerned the service is still cr*p. If we had Great Eastern Railway since 1996, with strong marketing I doubt this would even be a thread.
Then there are just all the brands. Look at Liverpool St. We've had since privatisation, First Great Eastern, WAGN, Anglia, Stanstead Express, c2c, One Railway, NXEA, Greater Anglia, Abellio Greater Anglia, Greater Anglia, London Overground and TfL Rail since privatisation. Before it was just NSE and Intercity. People just can't be bothered to keep up - as far as they're concerned the service is still cr*p. If we had Great Eastern Railway since 1996, with strong marketing I doubt this would even be a thread.
Mutant Lemming
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They are 24/6 not 24/7 though and the one night they do not operate is the one of the two nights the tube does. So highlighting the night interchange would have to indicate that it is for Friday Night/Saturday Morning only.
Just envisaging constructing a business case based on savings in TOC twitter team time saved having to explain "No, we're not the one you want, you want ..."
It's really not as silly as you think.
Let's say they in that case they were travelling with Transpennine, but had an issue with tickets a few days before and were contacted about them. Guess where the email comes from? Yup, GWR.
Bertie the bus
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That’s an odd interpretation. Had it been a complaint I expect VT would have known it wasn’t one of their trains and made it pretty clear to everybody else.
matt_world2004
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Considering some seperate companies have employed the use of similar branding to suggest that they are the same organisation or run by the same organisation it is understandable
For example vtwc and vtec is easy to confuse. Cross country was once a Virgin service.
Or tfl rail being confused with all tfl contracted railway services in London
Or Overground being confused with National rail services in London.particularly when some stations like Feltham say "overground network " on them
For example vtwc and vtec is easy to confuse. Cross country was once a Virgin service.
Or tfl rail being confused with all tfl contracted railway services in London
Or Overground being confused with National rail services in London.particularly when some stations like Feltham say "overground network " on them
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