As a passenger what problems/incidents do you report to station staff/TOCs/Network Rail?

Tom B · 27 Aug 2019

I manage maintenance of things (outside the railway) and I like over reporting. It's much easier to say "thanks but irrelevant" or NDF a load of things, but yet get lots of information about actual jobs that need doing. Makes life easier!

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AntoniC · 27 Aug 2019

I have rung BTP once (a long time ago) when going home from Moorfields to Southport after work, when a gentleman who was high as a kite on illegal drugs threatened to stab a fellow passenger with a chisel as he didnt like the way he was being looked at.
The knave heard me on the phone to the BTP and got off at Bootle New Strand (with his equally high girlfriend) and left us all in peace.

Ianigsy · 27 Aug 2019

The last thing was an unlocked gate leading from platform to track at Wakefield Kirkgate. Before that, a drunk trying to pick a fight on a train (removed by police at Leeds) and an obvious fare dodger (either that or the weakest bladder on the planet).

Metal_gee_man · 27 Aug 2019

I regularly annoy SouthEasterns twitter team, and whilst they are regularly overworked (because they can't run a proper rail service and regularly get abused by idiots on Twitter) they do have 2 levels of customer service, the customer service reply to idiots, whingers and damn right rude people, and genuine replies to semi knowledgable railway users and enthusiasts because they alway appreciate a head up about a messed up display, broken ticket machine, graffitied train, incidents onboard! I often use station codes and headcodes to shorten my tweets and they reply back on the same level.
Southern are a bit slower and not so easy to breakdown those barriers with as they must staff their socials team with different fresh meat regularly rather than ops mgrs or planners etc...
And remember most twitter teams don't operate 24hrs a day, SE do, I tweeted Chiltern a few months ago, and found them to have very short opening hours and closed on Weekends.
Station staff normally care about their stations so unless they are area support staff or On Trak agency staff (overworked, undertrained and paid close to minimum wage to cover the holes the TOCs don't want to pay decent wages and pension for) the things that get reported generally get attended to in my experience
Never braved a BTP text/phone call for fear of reprisals from said dickhead on train.
And from the sounds of things Network Rail would be a proper ball ache to get sense out of.

Chris M · 27 Aug 2019

I've reported many things over the years, particularly to TfL - graffiti, wheel flats, possible track fault (at Leystonstone, it was dipping by a few inches as train wheels passed over it), out of date posters, illegible bridge identification notices, audio announcements going backwards (a 350 from Birmingham to Liverpool thought it was travelling from Liverpool to Birmingham), door buttons not working (at least three times on the DLR), very dirty trains (Piccadilly line more than once), missing/broken station signs, a whistling noise on a Chiltern 165, etc. Most recently a very broken PIS at Llanfairpwll (it would flash on for about ¼ second every 2 seconds but was otherwise blank).
Mostly no response but I have had a few, occasionally positive.

Chris M · 27 Aug 2019

Metal_gee_man said:
Never braved a BTP text/phone call for fear of reprisals from said dickhead on train.

I don't think I've ever reported anything to the BTP, but years ago now (circa 2007) I was the only one on a full Class 158 who was prepared to offer a statement to them when a guard was assaulted between Bristol Temple Meads and Nailsea and Backwell, despite others have a much better view than me (I heard verbal abuse, and the reaction of the guard was more consistent with physical abuse (retreated to rear cab, contacted the driver who stopped the train and came to check on the guard) but I didn't directly witness that).

6Gman · 27 Aug 2019

al78 said:
Someone who was vomiting on a train as it arrived at Three Bridges. I got off the train to report it to a member of staff, who dismissed it as being the standard someone who had had one too many, then the train left without me so had to wait for the next one to Horsham.

A very poor staff response. Maybe it was the result of overindulgence. Maybe it was a medical emergency. Either way it should have been checked.

6Gman · 27 Aug 2019

chris_in_salop said:
I've never reported anything. This is probably a personal fault of mine, but it feels like telling tales to teacher. I realise that this is irrational!

That seems an extraordinary position to adopt. Does it extend to issues of safety?

6Gman · 27 Aug 2019

Bungle158 said:
As a guard I once phoned in a body lying beside the track at Filton Junction. Everything went on stop and l continued to observe the corpse from my window. BTP turned up and the stiff turned out to be a very drunken vagrant. How he got there without incident is a miracle.

Many years ago a freight driver reported a body on the platform at Church Stretton. Police and ambulance rushed there on blue lights to find not one but two bodies !

Both alive. One male, one female. Entwined.

Skie · 27 Aug 2019

Just remembered an incident I reported to NR some years ago, where 2 orange snowmen got on a train and absolutely stank of weed. Only bothered to report it as they were off to a job (loud convo about how they hated one of the people in charge), not sure I'd trust them to hammer Pandrol clips whilst being hammered on the 'erb. Thing is, they stank so much you wonder how anyone on the job with them wouldn't have noticed.

martinsh · 27 Aug 2019

Smokers

Llama · 27 Aug 2019

6Gman said:
A very poor staff response. Maybe it was the result of overindulgence. Maybe it was a medical emergency. Either way it should have been checked.

Absolutely spot on. I've had enough medical emergencies on my trains to know that not only intoxicated people vomit. And intoxication can hide other medical issues.

thenorthern · 27 Aug 2019

On the roads I regularly report potholes and they normally get fixed within a week.

A friend of mine was moaning about potholes and that the council wouldn't fix them, I then told them to report the council and they did and the potholes they were moaning about were fixed within a week. Its like that with a lot of public services they only fix things if you ask them to.

sftfan1909 · 28 Aug 2019

I reported someone at a station which has trains passing at up to 100mph for walking off the platform ramp with a bag, going behind a bush and emerging soon after without the bag. For some reason 20 minutes later he was still hanging around outside the station and I saw him soon after being questioned by BTP :lol:

High Dyke · 28 Aug 2019

A group of us travelling once (all railway staff) once saw a lad board the train at an unstaffed station and promptly disappear in the toilet - typical fare dodger routine. The guard came through checking tickets so we mentioned about his passenger in hiding. He continued with his checks and then returned and banged on the door saying "Either you come out now or I'm coming in!" Laddo suddenly appears looking rather sheepish. He was told that until someone paid for his ticket he wasn't travelling on the train, and that He (the guard) was working every train on the line that afternoon. The lad was made to get off at the next station. We just sneered at the miscreant as the train departed without him.

Jocques · 28 Aug 2019

I reported to TfW just the other week, as someone left a honking jobby on the toilet seat.

northernchris · 28 Aug 2019

ainsworth74 said:
To be honest though the main thing I report is helpful staff. Ticket office clerks who have persisted to issue what I need despite not knowing what it is. Catering crew who have been very friendly and generous with the booze. Guards who have got me out of sticky spots when trains are cancelled and I'm in danger of missing connections. Etc etc.

I've done this a few times to Northern and LNER, and always hope the feedback does get back to the staff members.

Living next to the railway, last year there were some loud bangs coming from the overhead line equipment followed by smoke. I tweeted Network Rail who immediately asked me to DM them with more info. A few days later I got a really nice email saying it had been investigated and it was birds building a nest coming in to contact with the wires and were being electrocuted and that is was of no danger to those around.

RichJF · 29 Aug 2019

Broken seat to OBS,
aggressive loud passengers to platform staff,
rancid smelling toilet to guard, none of the carriage lights working to driver through his window (both of these on the same 171 a while back),
icy steps/pavement outside to ticket office staff (no other platform staff around),
departing train with red lights on the front to platform dispatcher.

geml90 · 29 Aug 2019

A few times I've pointed out to the guard or driver that the panel on the exterior next to the doors on a Pacer is open, allowing access to the buttons. They say thanks and close it but I'm not sure whether it matters?

Bletchleyite · 29 Aug 2019

geml90 said:
A few times I've pointed out to the guard or driver that the panel on the exterior next to the doors on a Pacer is open, allowing access to the buttons. They say thanks and close it but I'm not sure whether it matters?

Doesn't really matter as they'd also need to be keyed in. Finding door panels open is fairly common.

ainsworth74 · 29 Aug 2019

Bletchleyite said:
Doesn't really matter as they'd also need to be keyed in. Finding door panels open is fairly common.

Different panel. This is on the outside of the train underneath the drivers cab window.

I'm not sure if it's particularly important but it does appear to be a common fault on a lot of 142s for that panel to be open.

al78 · 29 Aug 2019

thenorthern said:
On the roads I regularly report potholes and they normally get fixed within a week.

A friend of mine was moaning about potholes and that the council wouldn't fix them, I then told them to report the council and they did and the potholes they were moaning about were fixed within a week. Its like that with a lot of public services they only fix things if you ask them to.

Not necessarily in the SE, particularly on the minor roads. Poor road surfaces are the norm, the local authority's response if they get very bad is to stick up a red sign saying "Uneven Road", then they might, if you are lucky, bother to resurface it within a couple of years.

On the other hand, a certain West Sussex local authority (Horsham District) seems to love having regular and long lasting roadworks that do nothing to improve the surface of the road.

riceuten · 29 Aug 2019

*a certain West Sussex local authority (Horsham District) seems to love having regular and long lasting roadworks that do nothing to improve the surface of the road*

You mean the roads that West Sussex County Council are responsible for ?

noddingdonkey · 29 Aug 2019

Nothing major, but the "driver aware" lamp on the passcom in the vestibule of a 185 I was standing in was flickering on and off. Figured as it's safety equipment with a fault condition I'd give the guard a heads up as I got off (only traveling one stop). He seemed to appreciate me mentioning it, and said he had noticed it earlier, which I thought was a satisfactory response.

trainophile · 29 Aug 2019

I tweeted TPE once when I was the only person in 1st Class and a group of yobs got on, occupied the middle table in 1st and proceeded to use foul language loudly while laughing at the fact they were sat in 1st. I was getting really uncomfortable while trying to ignore them. Hadn't seen a guard at that point and didn't want to draw attention to myself by going looking for one. Within five minutes I had a reply from TPE saying they were on the case, and a guard appeared and asked the youths if they wanted to upgrade their tickets (they did actually have Standard Class tickets). Upon being told the price they sheepishly left the carriage, whereupon the guard apologised to me profusely and gave me a card to use for a free upgrade on a future journey, to make up for the unpleasant experience. Fair do's to TPE, they handled it very professionally.

Peter C · 30 Aug 2019

Personally, I would only report something if I believed there was a Health & Safety risk or if someone was in danger. Things such as lights not working on panels and the like are things I won't report. Usually because I notice these things at the end of the journey when going down the train to get out!
However, if there was a broken piece of equipment, I would report it - purely because if it is something like a ticket machine I would get annoyed if it was broken.
But then again I have pretty much next to no self-confidence so trying to speak to strangers is hard!

-Peter

FrodshamJnct · 30 Aug 2019

Reported a very drunk bloke on the 0716 from Frodsham to Lime Street the other week. He was on cans of super strength lager and talking to himself constantly. He wasn’t aggressive but was clearly making passengers in the carriage feel nervous/uneasy.

The TFW guard dealt with him brilliantly and made sure the situation remained stable.

I’ve also reported things to BTP via text a couple of times (welfare check for someone at Piccadilly and an aggressive bloke at WBQ).

Peter C · 30 Aug 2019

Tom Maddox said:
Reported a very drunk bloke on the 0716 from Frodsham to Lime Street the other week. He was on cans of super strength lager and talking to himself constantly. He wasn’t aggressive but was clearly making passengers in the carriage feel nervous/uneasy.

The TFW guard dealt with him brilliantly and made sure the situation remained stable.

I’ve also reported things to BTP via text a couple of times (welfare check for someone at Piccadilly and an aggressive bloke at WBQ).

That's also a good thing to report - I wouldn't have the confidence to do so, and if I had been in your position I would have just moved away! But good on you!

I saw a man get stopped by the lady at the barriers at BMO yesterday for something. And for some reason what I assumed had started out as him saying something rude turned into a full 3/4min conversation! (I say conversation, I mean a sort-of argument, but the lady was just doing her job).

-Peter

CalderRail · 30 Aug 2019

Unattended luggage on the underground. I'm paranoid about that (but not anywhere else - I doubt anyone is going to bomb Todmorden station).

Peter C · 30 Aug 2019

CalderRail said:
Unattended luggage on the underground. I'm paranoid about that (but not anywhere else - I doubt anyone is going to bomb Todmorden station).

Fair point - I don't like going places where there are going to be big crowds, and that sort of horrible thought is always in the back of my mind.

-Peter

As a passenger what problems/incidents do you report to station staff/TOCs/Network Rail?

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