Most responsive/useful TOC twitter account?

[ainsworth74]

LNER are especially good at calling them out too.

LNER are definitely amongst the best in the business (one of the carry overs from VTEC that I'm pleased they kept! ). I especially enjoyed this exchange from a couple of weeks ago:



That's the sort of thing I can support!

A random member of the Public interjected to tell LNER off for using the word "Hi" which led to the following exchange:

Member of Public: The use of "Hi" when addressing a customer shows a complete lack of respect. This would not have been tolerated in my days on the railways. A total abuse of the English language.

LNER: Convivial salutations, x. We're inconsolable that you've perceived such a transgression I trust our linguist standards shall be exemplary henceforth. ^AB

 

[DarloRich]

LNER are definitely amongst the best in the business (one of the carry overs from VTEC that I'm pleased they kept! ). I especially enjoyed this exchange from a couple of weeks ago:

That was great. my response would have been ruder.

 

[cactustwirly]

I don't normally use Twitter, but I have to say it's definitely not TfL Rail.

 

[185143]

Absolutely. I seem to recall the froth that generated!

LNER are definitely amongst the best in the business (one of the carry overs from VTEC that I'm pleased they kept! ). I especially enjoyed this exchange from a couple of weeks ago:

View attachment 79929

That's the sort of thing I can support!

That was one of the best replies I've ever seen!

 

[FQTV]

LNER can be a bit patronising. I had cause to tweet both XC and LNER recently and XC were pleasant and helpful and LNER just assumed the air of talking to a very young child.

It may be unfair to single LNER out for this, as I don’t follow too many others, but they do have a habit of being rather dismissive. Virgin West Coast was likewise - I’ve not monitored Avanti more recently.

You can see it in the exchanges from earlier this week with the release of Advances for anything beyond this Friday (26th). They’d posted that they’d be released at 10:00 on Tuesday 23rd.

10:00 comes and goes, and by about 10:03, passengers - naturally concerned given the already exceedingly and almost uniquely short booking horizon - tweet to find out what’s going on. It then goes quite predictably (paraphrased):

Tweeter 1 - it’s gone 10:00 and there are no tickets. Is there a problem with your website?
LNER - No. It takes a while for the website to update
Tweeter 2 - you said 10:00 and there are no tickets. Is there a problem with your website?
LNER - No. It takes a while for the website to update
Tweeter 3 - it’s well after 10:00 and there are no tickets. Is there a problem with your website?
LNER - No. It takes a while for the website to update
Tweeter 4 - I thought you said that I’d be able to book at 10:00 for next week. Is there a problem with your website?
LNER - No. It takes a while for the website to update
Tweeter 5 - it’s 10:15 and there are no tickets. Is there a problem with your website?
LNER - No. It takes a while for the website to update
Tweeter 6 - are the tickets that I can buy on The Trainline the same ones that you’ll be selling? Is there a problem with your website?
LNER - it’s likely
Tweeter 7 - what does that mean?
LNER - yes. But it takes a while for the website to update
.....
LNER - there’s problem with the website. IT are looking into it.

The thing is that, from their own narrow terms of reference, individual customers are often experts in their own habits and the results that they get from them. That means that they do often spot problems before the generalists in the centre do. Dismissing their concerns is risky on that basis.

In this situation, every other TOC and The Trainline was selling the tickets that LNER couldn’t, and with quotas as low as two, experts will have been irritated by LNER not acting on the early warnings that they were being given and booked elsewhere, and non-experts will have held on and potentially been stuck with a higher fare when the LNER site was finally fixed.

 

[father_jack]

Covid restrictions are no more according to GWR twitter https://twitter.com/ClassRail/status/1275512230705090561

 

[bussnapperwm]

One thing I've noticed (and a good thing too) from the GWR Facebook team is their promotion of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Lanyard Scheme for those who are unable to wear face coverings, such as those with Anxiety, Autism or ADHD for exanple

 

[FQTV]

One thing I've noticed (and a good thing too) from the GWR Facebook team is their promotion of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Lanyard Scheme for those who are unable to wear face coverings, such as those with Anxiety, Autism or ADHD for exanple

Transpennine Express has also done this. Has SWR? Perhaps it’s a First Group initiative. To keep it on topic, I’m aware of TPE’s activity from Twitter!

 

[Atomix330]

The average demographic here is one of 'railway nerd' as opposed to the average consumer.

Personally always found @GWRHelp and @LNER always very polite and courteous!

 

[43055]

Only used crosss country once for booking seats for a group of 4 that were on a mix of passes and normal tickets. Very helpfull and managed to get a table in both directions.

 

[Pete 1981]

Tyne&Wear Metros account is quick off the mark in tweeting delays/cancellations and usually gives an explanation as to why.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I’ve found South Western Railway and Great Western Railway to be fairly helpful, and Avanti West Coast and LNER reply extremely quickly. Greater Anglia’s Twitter team seem to be pretty damn rude, the same for CrossCountry and EMR. London Northwestern Railway don’t bother to respond. and Northern has a guy called IB who from my experience seems IMO more interested in telling customers off for not being polite enough or patient enough than helping them when the trains have gone tis up. Just my opinions though.

 

[SuperNova]

Transpennine Express has also done this. Has SWR? Perhaps it’s a First Group initiative. To keep it on topic, I’m aware of TPE’s activity from Twitter!

TPE were the first ones to do this RE those who are exempt from face coverings and the rest of the FG TOC's have followed suit.

 

[snookertam]

ScotRail are pretty good on twitter and quite entertaining at times as well.

 

[Huntergreed]

I must admit, Scotrail have always got back to me within 5 minutes of sending a message on Twitter. I can't fault their social media response times, although I'm not always a fan of their tone of message, especially recently.

 

[MB162435]

LNER is certainly the best with detailed, amusing and quick replies, and not afraid to stand their ground when they need to such as during disruption caused by personal and traumatic incidents, such as fatalities or suicide attempts, and people are just concerned about losing a few quid when someone has lost a loved one, and they are not afraid to tell them that

 

[Scotrail12]

A few jobsworths on ScotRail's Twitter page and some of them have been rude in the past (one's rude responses made the papers in Glasgow) but I can't fault the fact that they are generally very quick to respond.

 

[route101]

I must admit, Scotrail have always got back to me within 5 minutes of sending a message on Twitter. I can't fault their social media response times, although I'm not always a fan of their tone of message, especially recently.

Yes , they have being very strict of late with the essential travel message of late.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I found the FGW/GWR ones were particularly good in their manner of replying to irate commuters (mostly from Reading), and that those commuters were similarly very polite if very critical. It was very British in many ways. It tended to be along the lines of "@FGW Can you please explain why X has happened" (where the explanation was usually fairly obvious, and the Tweet was really just an expression of frustration rather than an actual request for information), but they would reply with an actual explanation having spent the time to follow it up.

 

[LancasterRed]

I wouldn't trust any TOC for a swift response in urgent times however Avanti West Coast are good.

CrossCountry may as well not have a social media presence they're so slow to respond! Once tried to contact them during disruption around Birmingham and only got a response while eating a Maccies in Crewe over an hour later!

 

[700007]

I think Southeastern provide the best Twitter desk. I know they aren't the most popular operator on here, or with commuters, but their constant and clear communications and fast (and sometimes witty!) replies is hugely appreciated when you need to get somewhere.

Worst one is the corporate TfL ones that fail to *timely* respond or even update any of their pages now. However I fear that's more to do with corporate TfL policy as opposed to the actual people that run the desk.

 

[357 LTSRail]

I think the best all round has to be either Southeastern or Greater Anglia from those I've contacted. Both have a sense of humour but still get to the point with good response times and often reply with any information required.
GA do go rather quiet to replies in disruption however.

I have limited experience but have found LNER, GWR and Virgin (presumably now Avanti) very good and extremely pleasant to deal with - LNER the best of the bunch - a really great team they have there.

The GTR Twitter feeds are generally not too bad but again, I have limited experience.

c2c have respond incredibly fast (the fastest I've ever experienced for any sort of customer service), but they have a habit of ignoring difficult questions or giving customer service emails instead. They are also rather humourless unless one of the managers is tweeting.

TfL Rail and London Overground tend to be painfully formal and/or corporate as well as being slow and often very unhelpful - my worst experiences are with them unfortunately.