Southeastern refused to give information that would help customers understand the nature of the problem
Customers soon started asking what the problem was:
@Se_Railway what are they checking and why? How comes you’re not answering this question? — Tom Prior (@thomasryanprior) November 18, 2014
Although, as explained above, the Southeastern Control Room and so the Twitter team would already have known that it was due to a driver reporting a rough ride, the official line was still to give no further information:
@thomasryanprior This is currently being looked into. Please follow our tweets for updates. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway where’s the updates on what you’re looking for? — Tom Prior (@thomasryanprior) November 18, 2014
Indeed the phrase “safety checks” repeatedly used by Southeastern failed to convey that these were urgent checks – with trust in Southeastern low, some passengers simply assumed that routine work was being done at one of the busiest times of the day.
@Se_Railway what are these safety checks and why are they taking place during the busiest time of the day?! — bal singh (@bsinghd) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway no you aren’t. Safety checks of what? The kind that take a day? People just want to know if it’s worth hanging about or not? — James Fraser (@JrFraser83) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway why are there emergency speed restrictions in the new cross area?? — Jeff Osborne (@osbjef) November 18, 2014
Southeastern stuck doggedly to the line of saying as little as possible.
#NewCross & #LondonBridge: Because of safety checks being made between the stations, trains have to run at reduced speeds. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
Passengers continued to press the point
@Se_Railway Why? What’s going on? — Andrew Quigley (@quigley81) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway you need to explain – train/station staff won’t. Not even accurate on delays. pic.twitter.com/cgeK8MjmQ4 — RichardC_Chi (@RichardC_Chi) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway perhaps it would help if you could say what the “safety checks” are and who is responsible for ordering them in the rush hour? — Sevenoaks Rail Assn (@SevenoaksRailTA) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway why are you still not telling us why you are performing safety checks in rush hour and what you’re looking for? — Tom Prior (@thomasryanprior) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway you just need to send one saying if routine or emergency. #betternotberoutineinrushhour — LucyBoo (@Lucymonckton) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway WHAT are the safety checks? WHO ordered them in the rush hour? WHY? HOW LONG will they take? Your customers aren’t idiots. — Sevenoaks Rail Assn (@SevenoaksRailTA) November 18, 2014
@SteveSangster Sometimes they are urgent. But @Se_Railway should explain why! — Sevenoaks Rail Assn (@SevenoaksRailTA) November 18, 2014
You could at least have the decency to tell us all why ‘safety checks’ are being made in the New Cross area @Se_Railway #angry #southeastern — Amy Denis (@Amybdenis) November 18, 2014
Without answering the question about safety checks, Southeastern now started to talk about the broken down train at London Bridge.
@FalconwoodCourt An earlier broken down train at London Bridge affected services. Apologies for the inconvenience caused this evening. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway what are the safety checks consisting of? — Jamie (@goon3rcrazy) November 18, 2014
@MisterJez @Se_Railway first tweet was a genuine question. WHY are safety checks being carried out during rush hour. Ignored! — KSJ (@KathrynSarah15) November 18, 2014
Finally at 2116 – over four hours after they should have known the cause – Southeastern said that the safe checks were due to a “rough ride” report.
A rough ride report between #NewCross & #LondonBridge has caused safety checks between the stations. Delays/Cancellations expected. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
However once again the minimum information was given, prompting further customer frustration.
@Se_Railway What is a rough ride report? — Kevin Nolan (@kevinjohnnolan) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway how was this Rough ride when the driver and staff was saying it was signal fault — chris foakes (@foakes1) November 18, 2014
Finally Southeastern gave a bit more of an explanation
@shelleyj89 A driver reported a rough ride. This is currently being looked into by a track specialist team. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
As has already been noted, Southeastern’s joint control room – and therefore the Twitter team – must have known that the cause was a rough ride report before around 1700. A better and earlier public explanation of this would have enabled customers to understand the importance and the urgency of checking the track. While customers would still have been delayed, with more information they might have been more willing to put up with it.
Next page: Southeastern failed to say how long the disruption could last
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.