Passengers moaning on social media

[PHILIPE]

I've noticed on ATW Twitter that when answering a query, people are referred to links, Journey Check etc. when the answer can be a straightforward "Yes" or "No"

 

[philthetube]

As someone that does both for my employer, there's a big difference in putting together a 2000-character line problem message in Tyrell for guards and customers and my colleague behind me putting together a 140-character message for twitter - one takes a lot longer and requires a lot more thought! Aim is for initial line problem message to be issued within 10 minutes, and twitter takes a fraction of that time.

Worth remembering that everything twitter does is quotable and everyone expects a compromise on quality because :twitter: but a line problem needs to be written like a press release - you can and do get quoted in full by local press, and the line problem go out to traffic agencies so they need to be understandable by laymen.

Last thing intended is to keep crews out of the loop, and I take pride in making sure that crews on my TOC are kept regularly informed during disruption - y'all'd still be on pagers if not 2B46 LT SOU WT CRW EXP 20M.

But all the Guard/ Driver might need is " Broken down train ahead"

 

[TheManBehind]

But all the Guard/ Driver might need is " Broken down train ahead"

The message is sent to all guards due to the size of the company and limitations of the system used - I endeavour to send an internal message first with a brief description, but even that needs to be a lot more specific than "broken train ahead" - it needs headcode, location, line blocked, expected impact, and ideally next few services affected. As an example:

2B46 at a stand Clapham Junction plat 7 with door fault. Driver is PAF. UMFL blocked. 1A48, 2L48, 1P46 first affected and trapped behind. Services may be switched to UMSL at Wimbledon. Further information to follow.

Whilst that doesn't take that long to run out (maybe a minute), your average information controller has a heck of a lot to do additionally to that, with service alterations, listening out to the status from fleet, ensuring that their team managing CIS and announcements are all informed as well - it's an additional task there may not be time for, and you could as well be better off just getting the public one together.

 

[LowLevel]

We used to love having a station announcer who could react to such messages locally, amend platforms and provide info to both passengers and staff locally, alongside useful jobs like phone through and coordinate passenger assistance.

Unfortunately they were withdrawn in favour of an automated system that couldn't anticipate platform alterations and CIS Control looking after over 5 large stations and lots of small ones. It felt like hurting into a rush hour crash barrier - you knew the platform alteration was coming but had no time to get back to it and no explanation.

How wonderful centralised CIS and subsequently Darwin is, not.

 

[TheManBehind]

Unfortunately they were withdrawn in favour of an automated system that couldn't anticipate platform alterations and CIS Control looking after over 5 large stations and lots of small ones. It felt like hurting into a rush hour crash barrier - you knew the platform alteration was coming but had no time to get back to it and no explanation.

How wonderful centralised CIS and subsequently Darwin is, not.

Not sure about other TOCs, but my employer at least has semi-localised CIS controllers to help bridge the gap - and of course, there's nothing stopping them from making announcements either. Maintaining announcers at every station, of course, as you can well imagine, was never going to be sustainable! They also deal with coordinating staff response to assistance requests (or at least I would hope they do), but the proliferation of mobile telephones hardly makes that a chore these days for staff.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

The message is sent to all guards due to the size of the company and limitations of the system used - I endeavour to send an internal message first with a brief description, but even that needs to be a lot more specific than "broken train ahead" - it needs headcode, location, line blocked, expected impact, and ideally next few services affected. As an example:

2B46 at a stand Clapham Junction plat 7 with door fault. Driver is PAF. UMFL blocked. 1A48, 2L48, 1P46 first affected and trapped behind. Services may be switched to UMSL at Wimbledon. Further information to follow.

Whilst that doesn't take that long to run out (maybe a minute), your average information controller has a heck of a lot to do additionally to that, with service alterations, listening out to the status from fleet, ensuring that their team managing CIS and announcements are all informed as well - it's an additional task there may not be time for, and you could as well be better off just getting the public one together.

What does PAF mean?

 

[jon0844]

What does PAF mean?

P**sed as f**k?

(angry that is, not drunk)

 

[Bletchleyite]

We used to love having a station announcer who could react to such messages locally, amend platforms and provide info to both passengers and staff locally, alongside useful jobs like phone through and coordinate passenger assistance.



Unfortunately they were withdrawn in favour of an automated system that couldn't anticipate platform alterations and CIS Control looking after over 5 large stations and lots of small ones. It felt like hurting into a rush hour crash barrier - you knew the platform alteration was coming but had no time to get back to it and no explanation.



How wonderful centralised CIS and subsequently Darwin is, not.

Better than Manchester Oxford Road 20 years ago, where once the staff had gone home the PIS showed what it liked and nobody was able to correct it. Many last trains must have been missed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[TheManBehind]

What does PAF mean?

Phoning a Friend - we have two defect reporting lines - a non-emergency one, and an immediate response line (on a red phone, no less) we call "phone a friend", which solicits a direct response from the fleet manager and puts the rest of us on edge..!

 

[PHILIPE]

Many people are complaining to ATE Twitter during this current spell of hot weather re Air Conditioning not operative on 158s. Very often ATW tell them to speak the Conductor who may be able to adjust it or turn it off. Or they say, we'll report it to Fleet. They won't refer to the 158 Hot Weather Syndrome which has been with some TOCs for over 20 years and say that ATW or the ROSCO involved will not or can not solve the issue. SWT have managed it by paying for a new system.

 

[LAX54]

But all the Guard/ Driver might need is " Broken down train ahead"

Broken down train ahead of ??? messages go out to everyone within the TOC / FOC / NR as applicable !