I had one of my regular trips to West Sussex the other day, to the eye hospital. For me the travelling is all part of the day, and I always look forward to it, although there is always the knowledge that everything can go belly up in a split second. And so it proved.
A good journey down, a productive hour taking videos at East Croydon, including completely missing an approaching new Thameslink Class 700 as I was focused on a 377 on an adjacent platform - most embarrassing - and a productive hospital appointment. In fact too productive as I was in with the consultant for ages discussing possible new avenues to explore, and that made getting back to London in time for my train back to Suffolk a bit of a rush.
However I made it to Liverpool St for the 2000 with around 15 mins to spare. Searched for the platform on the departure board, only to see it displaying that most dreaded of all platforms - platform cancelled. Deep joy - apart from anything else I would have to let the person picking me up from Darsham know that I would be late, but no real worries. Until I couldn't get hold of her. Never mind I'll keep trying - let's make sure the 2100 is running as I'd rather wait the extra time in London than on Ipswich Station. So having checked the midweek engineering work posters and seeing the 2100 terminated at Ipswich I tweeted Greater Anglia and asked them if the 2100 was running, only to be told that the 2100 was terminating at Colchester and I'd have to change. That would mean missing the last connection up the East Suffolk Line so another swift change of plan and I caught the 2030 out of Liverpool St and that's where the real fun began.
We got as far as the Olympic Stadium when we stopped. And waited.
Now people take the mickey out of us enthusiasts but there are times being one comes in very useful. Being a supporter of Railcam I get access to live running diagrams, so I quickly pulled up the Stratford diagram to discover we were stuck behind an empty train, which had stopped for no apparent reason as the line was totally clear in front of it. Cue the Conductor on the PA: "I'm sorry for the delay to this service tonight, which is being caused by congestion in the Stratford area". Excuse me? At the very point he made that announcement there was not a single train in Stratford Station, and in front of the empty train our line was clear to Ilford. Anyhow the empty train decided it had had sufficient rest and off it went, us following in its wake and that was the end of the excitement.
Until we got to just outside Maningtree where we stopped again at a signal instinct told me we shouldn't really be stopping at unless there were problems ahead. I pulled the diagram up again and sure enough a freight train was in front of us going nowhere fast. According to its schedule it had been there for around 20 mins. I told the people around me what I had seen and as I told them the PA crackled into life again confirming that indeed the freight train in front of us had failed, not just failed but had run out of diesel. Those locos have 1,400 gallon tanks. It had run out. We were stuck behind it. So we were told a rescue loco (known in the railway world as a "thunderbird") would be sent from Ipswich and drag the freight train out of the way.. No time scale was estimated.
Thanks to my Railcam diagrams I was able to see when the thunderbird left Ipswich, and follow its progress to the failed train. In the meantime the poor Conductor kept making announcements saying that they didn't know how long this was all going to take and in the meantime we would reverse back to Colchester. We started reversing as the thunderbird was within half a mile of the train it was rescuing. I was able to keep people in my coach updated far quicker than the conductor was.
To cut a long story short the thunderbird did its job we got moving again, and I was treated to a taxi home from Ipswich, which Freightliner will end up paying for, arriving home some 2 hours later than planned. The person picking me up was contacted in the nick of time and stood down and all's well that ends well.
However it got me thinking. I'm pretty sure I was the only person on that train, crew included, who knew exactly what was going on. At first I thought the Conductor was lying through his teeth about Stratford, but if that is what control told him what reason would he have not to believe them. Now you hear time and time again that one of the main complaints about rail travel is lack of information when things go wrong. I got really irate when we were told the 2000 was cancelled due to an "earlier incident". What incident? What happened? The day before we had been told extremely quickly in graphic detail of the tragic mass shooting in Orlando. Yesterday the news broadcasters couldn't wait to tell us how poor Jo Cox was murdered in broad daylight. Yet Greater Anglia think we aren't grown up enough to know when someone has been hit by a train. It's not industry standard by the way - both Virgin Trans and Great Western say what the incidents are and treat their customers as grown ups. I found when I was a Conductor that if you tell people exactly what's going on they will accept it. People get a lot more irate a lot quicker if they are kept in the dark or treated as if they aren't entitled to know. That's a poor policy.
But the bigger question remains. If I could pull up on my phone wthin seconds the diagram of where we were and work out what was going on why couldn't the crew? Are we still in the days where the train crew have to call supervisors or signallers to find out what's going on? That's tortuous as for obvious reasons the very people you are trying to contact are busy trying to sort the situations out. I remember being berated by a passenger one evening when she complained I hadn't given any information out, when I was pacing up and down the platform on my phone trying to get the informatin she wanted to know. Of course then she compounded the situation by asking "Why haven't you made an announcement telling us you have no information" I very nearly turned into John Cleese as I explained that if I was making announcements saying I had no information I couldn't be on my phone trying to get information to announce!
But surely the crew should have access to the same diagrams I do, so information can be quickly ascertained, or at least a rough idea so passengers can be kept informed. If I was Greater Anglia I would be a bit embarrassed to know a passenger knew what was going on before my crew did. Perhaps all train crew should have access to Railcam and the diagrams. It is something I will be researching further as anything that improves customer communication has got to be a step in the right direction.
Of course the bus companies are even worse! I think Chelmsford depot have a carrier pigeon, that has a habit of getting distracted on its journey to Norwich. We might get one piece of information volunteered a day, and that's our ration. I feel sorry for the CS people, I really do. And it's not just First.
ReplyDeleteBut it's the problem in many, if not most, of the so-called public service industries isn't it? They just don't trust the staff. I recall the local case where a poor soul locally got electrocuted because they couldn't turn the public supply off until someone had been the look at it. Their policy (in place for decades they argued in justification, as ever) didn't allow them to believe a member of the public who was pleading with them and describing the damage in graphic detail. A million pound fine, paid for by us, helped to focus their mind; I hope.
Depends which conductor you get I guess. There are a few good ones on the main line which stand out and actually give you updated information. For example the man with a voice like a professional (Mat?) and also those twins. Then there are some who try to help, but just go on info from control. Others assume we all know what happens
DeleteYes Matt is good at his job. Always keeps people updated. He has a great voice yes. And I know who you mean, but I think they're both rail enthusiasts anyway so they have a passion for their job. They really go for attention to detail which is good.
DeleteSteve - you've actually answered your own question there!! It's great that you were able to look on a website to see what the problem was, but you were also in the envious position in being able to understand the information presented to you in detail, and that you had the luxury of not being pestered by passengers for information.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's better to actually say "at present I don't know, but I'll try to find out". it's also courteous, when told that, to leave that person alone to get on with the job, and not continually annoy them for an update.
On the journey you've described, there appear to have been multiple problems, some of which were caused by earlier upsets, so it's not surprising that the system was in some disarray.
Almost everyone nowadays demands instant information, and simply cannot cope when it's not available. We all need to take a chill pill, sometimes!
{{As an aside . . . . I used to be a radio bus controller in London not so long ago, and we had a saying in the office: after a really bad day, when we had bomb alerts, serious accidents, collapsing scaffolding, hotel fires (and they all happened to me one afternoon on my three routes!) . . . . never mind; all the buses will come back to the garage at some time this evening; and then tomorrow we can start again! Sometimes we forget that staff are dealing with random occurences, and they really are trying hard, but they just can't know everything!!}}
Sorry, but I don't think the public are the problem here. I actually think they are remarkably understanding with what they sometimes have to put up with. Far too often the attitude within the industry is still that the public shouldn't be told. "They'll get what they're given . . . like it or lump it". PR is skin deep, and it shows.
DeleteI also think the public facing parts of the business are, too often, treated in the same contemptuous manner, which is why they have my sympathy too. Yes, people are trying their best, sometimes in extraordinarily difficult situations, but it doesn't mean they can't be accountable too.
London is perhaps lucky, in that it has strong and well-resourced, though it may be bureaucratic, regulation that is to a degree accountable. Out in the sticks the patchwork quilt is much more threadbare, and the regulation beyond basic licensing, and accountability, almost non-existent.
Knowing many people who travel regularly on the Anglia lines into London as I happily don't now; the trouble is that the really bad days aren't the exception, they're the rule. Sure the problem is that there are just too many of the public. Now where I have heard that one before?
DeleteWell staff need to use their intitiatvie. They are trained that info to pass is vital, but just sometimes don't get going on rail cam etc
DeleteThey have their devices, so why not?
To access the live diagrams on railcam requires a donation - they are not free, so that excuses the individual conductors. However why TOCS don't approach railcam so their staff get access and make arrangements is beyond me.
DeleteNew government designed industry standard of reporting fatality as "emergency services attending incident" except half the companies do no even do this as they go and say what they like. Yes Abellio want to tell customer, but don't want to go against standard
ReplyDeletePerhaps the companies that ignore this ridiculous Government directive appreciate that the majority of their customers are over the age of 3 and can be trusted with the truth. Just a thought.
DeleteWe always have been the most regulated country on earth (and it's nothing to do with the EU). The other side of the coin to "You'll do as you're told" is "I can't; I haven't been told anything". Have you read the staff handbook lately? The exact point is to kill off any initiative the staff might have to start with. Compare us with anywhere else (except the North Korean state railways, perhaps).
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