Some station staff did not give good information, but others were praised
For passengers on the station, accurate and audible announcements and the presence of station staff is vital. Moreover if there are changes to the platforming of trains then passengers need to be told in good time. Waterloo East seems to have had particular problems.
@Se_Railway why are there NO announcements at Waterloo East , all trains delayed , why ???? — Phil Green (@PhilontheG) November 18, 2014
It gets better, after telling everyone to move to platform C….the train comes in at platform a…@Se_Railway you have outdone yourselves. — Jason Jacob (@JJthemanc) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway there was literally only one train running with people climbing over each other to get on. The next train that came had limited — Tems (@Temi_talks) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway carriages and there was no notification even at stations saying how long the delays would be, reasons why. Or that — Tems (@Temi_talks) November 18, 2014
@Temi_talks Apologies for the lack of info provided. What station wasn’t leaving updates for passengers? — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway Waterloo East station. It only said a delay of 15 minutes. The train arrives and all of a sudden it’s skipping stations — Tems (@Temi_talks) November 18, 2014
@Temi_talks We’ll pass this info on to the station manager. If affected by 30+ minutes you can claim for delay repay: http://t.co/k5FIXiCMDd — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014
There were also issues at Cannon Street.
.@Se_Railway Your managers at Cannon Street don’t care about safety when they shut all the from platforms 4-7 before the end of the rush hr — Mark Doig (@MarkDoigFC) November 18, 2014
Out at Lewisham there was the all-too-common disappearance of station staff at the time their visible presence is most needed.
@Angep13 @Se_Railway exactly the same here at Lewisham. Staff have gone into hibernation. — Stuart Fuller (@theballisround) November 18, 2014
On the other hand, the announcer at Charing Cross seems to have been doing a very good job.
Well done to announcer at Charing Cross tonight. Tough situation but really clear and regular updates. Good stuff. @networkrail @Se_Railway — Mark Hatton (@markhatton) November 18, 2014
Thanks to the announcer at Charing Cross tonight – good job! #southeastern — Mark Ede (@markjamesede) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway v helpful tannoy at Charing Cross this eve, keeping everyone up to date with info about the delays…Good work Southeastern! — Rachael Frankel (@rachaelfrankel) November 18, 2014
In addition some drivers were doing a good job with on-train announcements too.
@Se_Railway the 18:27 from Charing x was delayed but driver was very helpful and apologetic! Great driver — sophie (@SophieBubbles_x) November 18, 2014
This analysis shows that information must have been available to station staff; there’s no reason why the announcer at Charing Cross would have had better information. It’s a matter of all station staff being trained to make accurate, actionable announcements; issuing them with tablets will be a waste of money unless they are prepared to pass on the information. When they do, and even if it is bad news, it is clear that it is much appreciated by Southeastern’s customers.
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.