Southeastern were slow to get any news about possible delays out
The first report on Twitter that there might be something wrong came at 1722:-
Dartford commuters: be prepared for fun times this evening. Charing Cross station currently looks like a zoo. Cheers, @Se_Railway. — Richey 1977 (@Driver_8_Ace) November 18, 2014
and two minutes later the speed restriction and its delays were reported
what is speed restrictions at new cross ? @Se_Railway just another excuse to delay trains 15minutes ! — Matt Huseyin (@ITmattie) November 18, 2014
Speed restrictions in the New Cross area! 15mins delays! There goes my chance of getting home early! @Se_Railway @rtsoutheastern #jokers!! — Richie Powell (@Richiep1032) November 18, 2014
It wasn’t until 1736 that Southeastern first tweeted that there were speed reductions due to safety checks
Safety checks being made between #NewCross and #LondonBridge: Trains have to run at reduced speed. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
By 1725 there was already congestion at Charing Cross and 15 minute delays were being reported. This implies that the speed restrictions must have been introduced before 1700. Since, as later emerged, the speed restrictions were due to a driver reporting a “rough ride”, the control room must have known about them around then. The Southeastern Twitter team are now supposed to be in the joint Southeastern/Network Rail control room. So why were Southeastern not first to break the news on Twitter, at or before 1700?
Next page: Southeastern refused to help customers understand the problem
Wow. Just, wow. Excellent article. I trust David Statham has circulated this to all staff to assist in their learning….
15 minutes ago our lights went out, along with all neighbours. We have had two texts from the power company telling us what the problem is and when it will be fixed.
Latest info is below. Why can’t SER do that?
Update at 23:35 – Our engineers are on their way. We believe the issue to be due to an underground cable fault. We can usually fix a power cut within 2 hours, so we hope to have you back on by 01:00. We’re often able to re-route power remotely around problems of this nature so you may be back on sooner, or your power may go on and off. We’ll better understand the cause and update you when engineers are on site investigating.