Information on Disruption: Anatomy of a Southeastern Incident
London Bridge
London Bridge, often crowded on normal evenings, seems to have had particular problems:
chaos at London bridge tonight … get on a train get turfed off … try to walk up stairs get squished … another day on #southeastern ? — Tanya (@just1tanya) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway What is going on at #LondonBridge ? There are trains packed to the rafters going nowhere and passengers all over every platform? — David Cross (@Beckenham_Stag) November 18, 2014
Nice. Seeing members of staff shouting at passengers who are asking for his help at London Bridge @Se_Railway #southeastern #crowded — E (@wasaporter) November 18, 2014
London Bridge #southeastern http://t.co/U15JYWlPay — E L Ferreira (@elf2k8) November 18, 2014
Platforms 1 and 2 now closed at #londonbridge @Se_Railway no announcements RUBBISH — Olly Loosemore (@ollyloosemore) November 18, 2014
Carnage! #londonbridge #nationalrail #southeastern #fml — Zan (@Ilovecarrots84) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway something needs to be done at London Bridge before there’s a commuter on the tracks!! Disgusting service…SORT IT OUT — Heather Brown (@Cruella_HB) November 18, 2014
@theballisround @Angep13 @Se_Railway Ridiculously dangerous # of people on platforms at Ldn Bdg too – chaotic & scary, no staff to be seen. — KB (@KaxBlax) November 18, 2014
Brilliant information & crowd management tonight, @Se_Railway. Helpful & safe for everyone. #sarcasm #absoluteshambles — KB (@KaxBlax) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway Chaos & confusion at London Bridge. Why can’t cope with disruption? Misdirected by announcer from right platform & missed train. — Blackheath Revolt (@BlackheathRev) November 18, 2014
@Se_Raleway @Se_Railway what the hell is going on at London bridge ? — gracesiobhansofia (@Gracessofia1) November 18, 2014
At least one passenger decided to retreat for a while:
Carnage at #LondonBridge time for a pint @Se_Railway #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/zUtTkWHlvJ†— Steve Partos (@stevepartos) November 18, 2014
However others were worried that they would be pushed onto the tracks by the sheer crush of people.
@Se_Railway hows about you relay information to those squashed on platforms trying not to fall on to the tracks and find us a way home??? — Heather Brown (@Cruella_HB) November 18, 2014
Carnage at #LondonBridge due to speed restrictions and cancelled defective train. Dangerously overcrowded @Se_Railway pic.twitter.com/tL3ljQ1oe2 — Tony Stewart (@RockIsSponge) November 18, 2014
.@Se_Railway the overcrowding @ #LondonBridge is getting dangerous! Sort your trains and staff out before someone gets hurt! Don’t you care? — Keiren (@keirenobrien) November 18, 2014
@Se_Railway it’s coincidental that “safety checks” in one station are causing ridiculously unsafe conditions at #LondonBridge — Keiren (@keirenobrien) November 18, 2014
There appears to have been failures not only of information but also of crowd management at London Bridge. This seems to have been compounded by the decision to eliminate stops on some trains, which led to passengers leaving their trains at London Bridge and adding to the overcrowding there. Perhaps the decisions to eliminate stops had concentrated too much on speeding up the trains and too little on what this would mean for passenger experience and behaviour?
The wider point is that if London Bridge is in chaos when there are 6 Southeastern platforms, what is it going to be like when the platforms have been reduced to 2 from 11 January?
Everyone struggling with Southeastern – this looks a pre-cursor to Jan. Space for 9500 passengers an hour cut to 7500 @se_railway — Fromthemurkydepths (@TheMurkyDepths) November 18, 2014
Next page: Elimination of stops to catch up time was not well communicated
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.