Re: [NSW] Indicator Board - Wrong Destination

["Chris Downs" <cvdowns@ozemail.com.au>]

Blame the passengers (customers) - bad approach.

If a store announced over the PA numerous times that an item cost $5, I
picked it up and went to the counter, was focusing on pulling out my money
at the checkout when a corrective announcement of $10 was made and I found
later that I'd paid $10 and not $5 I'd be pissed off.  That's how these
passengers felt.  As far as I'm aware no one went to any extra length to
advise that the indicator and announcements were wrong - an essential step
(and a bare minimum) considering the timing of the correction after the
train had stopped at the platform.

Most people are generally reasonable (shock horror disbelief) and will
happily live with a clear, comprehensive and timely corrective announcement
(yeah they'll grunt and groan but only the ones with a tenuous grip on
reality go ballistic) rather than losing 5% of their day because they didn't
listen to a revised platform announcement that made no mention of an error
or a correction (that's a good reason to lose it unfortunately).

The mind set that the passenger has it wrong and the attendant contempt for
passengers is a significant problem for CityRail.  You only need see the
difference in passenger reaction when a delay occurs and an announcement is
made (even if it can't advise the length of the delay) compared with the
frequent deathly silence that often accompanies a delay.

Wow - this is almost as good as having a shot at Miranda Devine or Piers
Ackerman in the Tele's letters to the editor.  I'll jump off my soap box
now.

Chris

Dave Proctor <thadocta@spambait.dingoblue.net.au> wrote in message
884qeo$ph9$1@news1.mpx.com.au">news:884qeo$ph9$1@news1.mpx.com.au...
> Chris Downs wrote in message ...
> >It's a tragic fact of life that most people don't give a rats what their
> >train looks like, although they do like it clean and prefer it to be
> >air-conditioned.
> >
> >These passengers were told it was a Richmond train in concurrence with
the
> >platform indicators.  They had probably listened to the Richmond
> >announcement 10 times.  A Lithgow announcement made in the same voice and
> >tone does not draw their attention especially once the train has already
> >stopped and the doors are open.
> >
> >The problem is numerous people had an hour added to their trip through
what
> >was really no fault of their own.  A clearly corrective platform AND
> >on-train announcement was a minimum requirement for these people.  They
get
> >home an hour late, are pissed off with CityRail and probably wish to hell
> >they could drive home.  A pretty sad way to erode the passenger base.
> >
> >No one's perfect but the two issues are the initial error should not be
> >made, but if it is, all stops should be pulled to correct the error, by
all
> >affected staff, once the problem has occurred.
>
> And they did correct the error, except the sheep did not listen to the
> announcement that it was a Lithgow service. You cannot blame CityRail for
> people not listening.
>
> Dave
>
>