Putting passengers off

[Master29]

Constant negative information is not always a good thing; the need to be told all of the time etc seems to be a common theme across the spectrum. The TOC`s are no different but really quite tame by comparison in in my opinion.

 

[Deepgreen]

"Take all your personal belongings with you" - what other sort of belongings are there? "If you see anything suspicious, or anyone behaving suspiciously, please report them to a member of staff or a police officer". Superfluous bits in bold.

 

[Via Bank]

The SDO announcements on LOROL's trains are really sloppily scripted and are a particular annoyance of mine. The fact it repeats is a defect. Plus, this wording (superfluous bits highlighted):

"Would customers please note that due to a short platform, you can only alight from the front four coaches. Please make sure you are travelling in the correct part of the train."

That, on approach, and on arrival. Repeated due to a bug. Often it'll be only halfway through once the train has closed up and left.

The DLR has the right idea: it simply says "at STATION, the first two sets and last two sets of doors will not open. To alight, please move towards the centre of the train." This is much clearer and more direct while still conveying more complex information in my view, and is the style that LOROL should be looking to adopt.

 

[Deepgreen]

The SDO announcements on LOROL's trains are really sloppily scripted and are a particular annoyance of mine. The fact it repeats is a defect. Plus, this wording (superfluous bits highlighted):

"Would customers please note that due to a short platform, you can only alight from the front four coaches. Please make sure you are travelling in the correct part of the train."

That, on approach, and on arrival. Repeated due to a bug. Often it'll be only halfway through once the train has closed up and left.

The DLR has the right idea: it simply says "at STATION, the first two sets and last two sets of doors will not open. To alight, please move towards the centre of the train." This is much clearer and more direct while still conveying more complex information in my view, and is the style that LOROL should be looking to adopt.

Southern still has announcements that Battersea Park has short platforms for ten car trains; many, many months after extensions were opened.

 

[Taunton]

The DLR has the right idea: it simply says "at STATION, the first two sets and last two sets of doors will not open. To alight, please move towards the centre of the train." This is much clearer and more direct while still conveying more complex information in my view, and is the style that LOROL should be looking to adopt.

Not really one of the "We're out to get you" messages the thread started off with, more incomprehension.

I am subjected to this DLR message daily and find it quite inappropriate because it is broadcast throughout the train, in most parts of which it is irrelevant. You see people in the centre unit of three looking puzzled. Quite apart from using words like "alight" which all those overseas visitors travelling to Cutty Sark, who have delightedly taken the front sightseeing seats in the train, do not understand at all.

 

[trainophile]

"Take all your personal belongings with you" - what other sort of belongings are there? "If you see anything suspicious, or anyone behaving suspiciously, please report them to a member of staff or a police officer". Superfluous bits in bold.

That one gets me too. After all, everyone knows that all trains are crawling with police officers :roll: .

 

[Mordac]

Am I the only one who thought this was going to be a thread about ejecting errant passengers from the train?

I actually thought it was going to be about how to put off other people from sitting next to you.

 

[tsr]

Southern still has announcements that Battersea Park has short platforms for ten car trains; many, many months after extensions were opened.

Only the Down Slow platform is a 10 coach platform. The rest are shorter. And for a Southbound train it is not generally possible to know which platform will be picked on departure from Victoria. Yes, the vast majority of services use the Down Slow, but there are a couple each day which can end up using the Down Fast, which is SDO 8 for automatic release and SDO 7 for manual release.

That one gets me too. After all, everyone knows that all trains are crawling with police officers :roll: .

Actually, they are, especially around the London area. But generally you'd be hard pushed to spot one, as they're mostly travelling out of uniform, just using their warrant card/badge for whatever travel they require! So the announcement is still a bit pointless unless you're approaching a major travel hub where they're more likely to be patrolling.

I once had a Friday morning peak express on the Brighton Mainline where I must have had about 100 police officers onboard for reasons best known to themselves; granted it's never usually quite that common, but you'll often have at least a couple on any busy train, maybe even one or two per coach.

 

[LAX54]

I had to do a couple of trips round south London today, and it struck me the number of messages around which just seem designed to put people off choosing to travel by train altogether increases every year. It must make the marketing team, and rail supporters, despair.

On London Overground out to Croydon, at every one of the many stations there were constant scrolling messages and PA announcements about being sure you have got just the right ticketing, otherwise there will be Penalty Fares. Notices elsewhere were about this, multiple references to prosecution and the implied threat that you will end up with a criminal record if you don't get your ticket usage just right. At the start of the trip at Canada Water there was a notice about how you will be overcharged if you didn't used the pink Oyster reader (which was in an obscure corner), while on the Croydon Tram there were multiple notices about what you had to do to avoid getting overcharged (and maybe penalised) that were so longwinded that I never got to the end of them or understood quite what they were going on about before the tram came.

There were severe notices to mothers with babies in pushchairs that, compared to anyone in a wheelchair, they are very much second class citizens.

Then there are all the cautions about imminent crime, which seem to multiply by the year. LO also constantly did both a scrolling message and a PA announcement about keeping your belongings tightly with you to "reduce crime". Hijacking the scrolling PIS for blah-blah messages seems to be very much a new toy for the purveyors of constant messages to take over. The Croydon tram onward to Wimbledon had self-congratulatory bold notices inside from two seemingly quite separate organisations in Croydon about them being "anti crime partnerships", presumably against things that have happened on the tram. There were a range of sundry notices about all this as well.

Is there any understanding that this constant reference to you being fined, taken to court or assaulted on these services is a real message of deterrent to using public transport. It must put a number of the more impressionable members of the travelling public right off.

and then people STILL come on here and say, Oh dear I have been caught with the wrong ticket / without a ticket / I didn't know.....etc etc !!:roll:

 

[Chris999999]

It's why your packet of peanuts from the pub carry a warning "may contain nuts" (no s£!t Sherlock, I should hope the packet does).

This may be very important for people who are allergic to nuts. Peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes. The warning says that nuts such as sweet chestnut, hazel, pecan etc may be present in the peanuts, probably because the same factory also packs these nuts

 

[talltim]

Well breeding is optional, buggies fold and babies can go on laps. None of that applies to wheelchair users. If it wasn't for people like me pushing for basic access rights over the past 35+ years access for everyone would be a damn sight worse.

Just as people don't choose to be in wheelchairs, they don't choose to be born. A baby is unable to walk. Would you suggest that a carer take their a disabled person of restricted growth out of their wheelchair and carry them just cos they are small?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

This may be very important for people who are allergic to nuts. Peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes. The warning says that nuts such as sweet chestnut, hazel, pecan etc may be present in the peanuts, probably because the same factory also packs these nuts

Peanuts might be legumes, but they are also nuts, the clue is in the name. Things are what you call them.

 

[Chris999999]

Peanuts might be legumes, but they are also nuts, the clue is in the name. Things are what you call them.

Nuts.
People who have an allergy to peanuts mostly don't have an allergy to nuts, and vice versa.

 

[TRAX]

To me the main problem is that the more useless blah blah you throw through the speakers, the more chances you have of having no one listening to real and important annoucements.

 

[father_jack]

Hmmmm. Sent this by a friend on the 1006 Pad- Penzance.


BEING DELAYED DUE TO BIKE ISSUE READING.
6 BOOKED BIKES BOARDING BUT 3 UNBOOKED BIKES ALREADY ON EX PADDINGTON

 

[Antman]

and then people STILL come on here and say, Oh dear I have been caught with the wrong ticket / without a ticket / I didn't know.....etc etc !!:roll:

Well it's a bit late to tell them when they're already on the train and maybe they didn't realise that the ticket they have wasn't valid for the journey that they are making?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Only the Down Slow platform is a 10 coach platform. The rest are shorter. And for a Southbound train it is not generally possible to know which platform will be picked on departure from Victoria. Yes, the vast majority of services use the Down Slow, but there are a couple each day which can end up using the Down Fast, which is SDO 8 for automatic release and SDO 7 for manual release.



Actually, they are, especially around the London area. But generally you'd be hard pushed to spot one, as they're mostly travelling out of uniform, just using their warrant card/badge for whatever travel they require! So the announcement is still a bit pointless unless you're approaching a major travel hub where they're more likely to be patrolling.

I once had a Friday morning peak express on the Brighton Mainline where I must have had about 100 police officers onboard for reasons best known to themselves; granted it's never usually quite that common, but you'll often have at least a couple on any busy train, maybe even one or two per coach.

I can't say I've noticed too many police officers, well not in uniform anyway, on my train travels in and around London.