Often, the point about information is that the means to distribute it is there, but the raw data being fed into it is not. I do understand that there may be reasons why information is only available at short notice when severe delays cause unpredictable flows of trains, or where all hands are needed on deck, but it should be possible to communicate this at least. It's incredibly frustrating to make a (sometimes quite lengthy) journey to a station when the 'live departure boards' are showing as on time, only to find there hasn't been a single movement through the station for a couple of hours (and no chance of there being one). It's even more frustrating when you find out that this information was indeed communicated via one of the media (e.g. Twitter) but not the others.
Information is also often lost among the dross of pre-recorded safety announcements. Annoyingly, I suspect these are actually effective on a number of people, while some legal times and laws insist on them. So there's likely little can be done about them, even though many rather resent feeling patronised by them.
I'm slightly sceptical about passing on the blame to its source - this may be worthwhile politically, but from a customer point of view, it really doesn't help. If I get a battered Amazon parcel delivered by the execrable Yodel, I expect Amazon to sort it out - that's who I've bought the product from, and they've opted to use Yodel as part of their supply chain. I appreciate it's different when a company has no choice in its suppliers, but you still expect the service provider to take up any grievances on your part.
Fares are another bone of contention. The rail industry keeps telling us it wants to sell us more and more advance-purchase, inflexible tickets, and spins it that it's because they're so popular. Well yes, because they're the affordable tickets. People want flexibility, and they want it to be affordable.
And finally, there is the attitude towards revenue protection in some parts of the railway. Yes, I know people try it on all the time, are hostile towards guards, conductors and RPIs, and this should be properly dealt with. But for every consummate professional, there is a hired hand who knows far less, but will insist he's right. There are byzantine rules on some tickets with little leeway if you're caught out (and it can feel like a trap). There is a lack of clarity on what happens with Advance tickets when you're delayed. There's this dogged insistence that it's not a 'fine', it's a 'penalty fare', which just looks like a euphemism.
Barriers are an interesting one. They do help keep a station a much more civilised place, but the quality of assistance there varies. At long-distance stations, can people help you (or particularly elderly/disabled) passengers through with luggage? Can you accompany an elderly relative through to the platform easily? Can you use toilet/cafe facilities when you're meeting/leaving someone at the station? Do the staff know the tickets well, or do they have an attitude of 'barrier says no'? If you do have problems, do you get timely assistance so you're not overly delayed? Has the introduction of barriers meant you now have a ridiculously roundabout route to the bus stop or car park? It's very, very variable.
Another example is railcards. Forget a railcard, and your tickets are worthless. And yet you filled in a form with multiple details to get the railcard, so presumably they're stored somewhere (they're certainly capable of sending you out all sorts of junk mail). Surely it would be quite simple to prove, after the event, that a customer had a valid railcard at the time of travel, and to issue a refundable excess/fine/whatever? But no.
I love rail travel, I'm lucky to be able to commute on a comfortable and reasonably reliable rail service (I would hate to have to drive to work), but... There are aspects that are so user-unfriendly and are at least superficially solvable.
Information is also often lost among the dross of pre-recorded safety announcements. Annoyingly, I suspect these are actually effective on a number of people, while some legal times and laws insist on them. So there's likely little can be done about them, even though many rather resent feeling patronised by them.
I'm slightly sceptical about passing on the blame to its source - this may be worthwhile politically, but from a customer point of view, it really doesn't help. If I get a battered Amazon parcel delivered by the execrable Yodel, I expect Amazon to sort it out - that's who I've bought the product from, and they've opted to use Yodel as part of their supply chain. I appreciate it's different when a company has no choice in its suppliers, but you still expect the service provider to take up any grievances on your part.
Fares are another bone of contention. The rail industry keeps telling us it wants to sell us more and more advance-purchase, inflexible tickets, and spins it that it's because they're so popular. Well yes, because they're the affordable tickets. People want flexibility, and they want it to be affordable.
And finally, there is the attitude towards revenue protection in some parts of the railway. Yes, I know people try it on all the time, are hostile towards guards, conductors and RPIs, and this should be properly dealt with. But for every consummate professional, there is a hired hand who knows far less, but will insist he's right. There are byzantine rules on some tickets with little leeway if you're caught out (and it can feel like a trap). There is a lack of clarity on what happens with Advance tickets when you're delayed. There's this dogged insistence that it's not a 'fine', it's a 'penalty fare', which just looks like a euphemism.
Barriers are an interesting one. They do help keep a station a much more civilised place, but the quality of assistance there varies. At long-distance stations, can people help you (or particularly elderly/disabled) passengers through with luggage? Can you accompany an elderly relative through to the platform easily? Can you use toilet/cafe facilities when you're meeting/leaving someone at the station? Do the staff know the tickets well, or do they have an attitude of 'barrier says no'? If you do have problems, do you get timely assistance so you're not overly delayed? Has the introduction of barriers meant you now have a ridiculously roundabout route to the bus stop or car park? It's very, very variable.
Another example is railcards. Forget a railcard, and your tickets are worthless. And yet you filled in a form with multiple details to get the railcard, so presumably they're stored somewhere (they're certainly capable of sending you out all sorts of junk mail). Surely it would be quite simple to prove, after the event, that a customer had a valid railcard at the time of travel, and to issue a refundable excess/fine/whatever? But no.
I love rail travel, I'm lucky to be able to commute on a comfortable and reasonably reliable rail service (I would hate to have to drive to work), but... There are aspects that are so user-unfriendly and are at least superficially solvable.
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. And I recall someone on here having a dislike of 442s after they ended up stuck in a tunnel on one broken down for 2 hours :P.
. Passengers have a negative view of many TOCs from high fares and overcrowded services mainly. FGW get hit because they often suffer delays outside their control, and dont have enough stock to ensure most Turbo-operated services run with more than a single unit which are usually busy. Many passengers dont realise or care about who pays for what and what the TOC can and cant do, they just resent having to stand and being late with the high fares. I dont have problems with FGW, nor SWT which are also hated, and passenger grievances are often understandable, but it is the unreasonable views/comments/expectations that I hate.
