Staff on the platform announcing mind the doors

[Tom B]

LUL made a big deal, probably about 20 years ago, about (re-)introducing 'SATS' to do the announcement, bat raising etc. I assume that the hours and locations are set depending on perceived demand, and like other posters I have noticed that many of them disappeared during covid (which isn't always a bad thing as some were a little redundant at quieter stations).

Like with anything, the quality and benefit can vary depending on the location and the individual staff - some clearly either aren't bothered or (more likely) are on auto-pilot, repeating the message irrespective of benefit (e.g. on a dead quiet platform asking people to let passengers off first).

On the topic of OTT announcements, the oft-cited reason was that there was apparently a survey many years ago where passengers complained of a poor quantity of information. There then followed a period where there were PAs for absolutely everything, most of them utterly pointless and usually wrong. (You'd be standing on a dry platform and there would be a PA about how extra care should be taken on the wet floors, or you'd be waiting for a delayed train and hear how there was a good service in operation). Fortunately, someone in LU appeared to have taken in the distinction between 'quality' and 'quantity' and reduced the number in recent years.

There's still a regular lack of information when things go wrong. Even if there's limited information which the staff have, they likely can give advice or suggestions which allow passengers to decide what to do. Being frank and saying "It is unclear how long this will take to resolve, in the meantime trains are terminating at X. Passengers for Y, may wish to take bus 123 from outside the station, passengers for Z could travel to X and take bus 456 from there". As a passenger, albeit one who perhaps appreciates the operation a bit more than many, it is best to be able to decide whether to sit it out and know that the service will resume in 10 minutes, or whether to give up and try and catch an (invariably overloaded and insisting on double-charging you) bus.

But I suppose in the context of staff shortages, and TfL's financial trouble, setting and enforcing expectations for information has been usurped.

 

[Mawkie]

There's still a regular lack of information when things go wrong. Even if there's limited information which the staff have, they likely can give advice or suggestions which allow passengers to decide what to do.

These days passengers expect immediate answers to questions, and staff cannot in all faith instruct people to take alternative means if nobody at that moment in time knows how long something will take to resolve - signal failures are notoriously unpredictable for example, and the inevitable "Person on the Track" could cause anything from 30 seconds to 1hr delay.

Passengers for Y, may wish to take bus 123 from outside the station, passengers for Z could travel to X and take bus 456 from there".

The cover groups for station staff are massive now - and getting bigger! For example, when station staff could work anywhere from Edgware to Chalk Farm it's not possible for staff to know every alternative route to every destination point. They have an Ipad, but that doesn't give them any better information than a passenger has on their own smartphone. I've worked at stations where I have never even been outside the station. The time when Station Supervisors knew every bus route, where the local library was, and was the font of local knowledge has long gone - some of them don't return to the same station for weeks or months.

(Edit: as a driver, I'm so isolated from the decision making processes regarding situations, that I'm left for long periods with no updates - I just have to reassure passengers that the most appropriate staff are working as quickly and as safely as possible. I personally have zero ideas of alternative routes for people, I'm not even au fait with the tube map anymore, let alone bus routes from 60 stations.)

But I suppose in the context of staff shortages, and TfL's financial trouble, setting and enforcing expectations for information has been usurped.

I don't think this is the case, LU invest a lot of time and resources into Real Time Information, but for reasons explained above, sometimes the information required to make an informed decision simply isn't available. I know this is a cause of great frustration for passengers because they often tell me!

 

[trebor79]

There's still a regular lack of information when things go wrong. Even if there's limited information which the staff have, they likely can give advice or suggestions which allow passengers to decide what to do. Being frank and saying "It is unclear how long this will take to resolve, in the meantime trains are terminating at X. Passengers for Y, may wish to take bus 123 from outside the station, passengers for Z could travel to X and take bus 456 from there".

They were doing just that when service was suspended on the Jubilee through Canada Water due to fire alarm activation elsewhere a few weeks ago.