Re: CityRail Has A Bad Night and Stupid DVA's

[Marvin The Martian <choochoo@spin.net.au>]

Cityrail are useless when it comes to telling the sheep what is happening. The
new indicators are hopeless, on 16 platform they were showing a Hornsby via the
main and the SA could not do anything about it.

Hoges wrote:

> (Caution - Long Post - Soapbox mode well and truly ON!)
>
> After a day with temperatures in the 40's in Sydney, followed by one of the
> wildest southerly changes we've ever experienced, it was always a
> fair bet that train services tonight would be thrown into chaos.
>
> After the gale calmed down a bit, and with half our neighborhood
> blacked out, I went for a walk up to Hornsby station tonight to see what was
> happening.
>
> As expected, CityRail services were in shambles, with red signals in
> all directions, trees across lines, overhead down and stranded
> trains. This was at about 2100. The Up main was allegedly blocked
> somewhere between Rhodes and Strathfield, with a shuttle operating to
> Epping. Trains were also stopped between Hornsby and Cowan, and the
> first through Newcastle service was expected to run off the North
> Shore.
>
> As an interested observer, I pieced most of this info together
> from listening to passengers and chatting to a couple of off duty
> train drivers, who were relaying what information they could to the
> huddled masses on the platform. They did a good job, which is more
> than you could say for the half a dozen or so useless drongos still
> on duty in the platform control boxes on 2/3 and 4 platforms, who
> conveyed absolutely NO relevant information on the p.a. system while
> I was there.
>
> Bear with me, because I'm really annoyed about this. CityRail seem to
> have learned little from the Olympics, probably because they had so
> many people, both professional and volunteers, helping with crowd
> management and public information during the Games.  Left to their
> own meagre resources, their ability to communicate with their
> customers has actually regressed over the last couple of decades.  In
> days gone by, at a major junction like Hornsby, most platform staff
> could at least find the correct end of a microphone.
>
> Tonight's bunch cowered in their office, relying on Digital Voice
> Announcements (DVA's) to cover a situation that was well beyond the
> scope of an automated passenger address system.  One ridiculous
> example -  when the 1950 Newcastle service eventually arrived via the
> Shore at 2115, they apparently couldn't find a recording to cover
> something being 90 minutes late, so an announcement was repeatedly
> broadcast :  "The next train on number two platform is running
> (pause) LATE! "  The crowd who had been there for more than an hour
> greeted this with the howls of derision and abuse that it deserved.
>
> But the really relevant information, that the service would still
> terminate at Morisset due to trackwork (I bet that impressed them) ,
> and that it would stop all stations to Berowra to cover for a non
> existent local service, was not broadcast at all, and was only
> conveyed by word of mouth from the driver and guard.
>
> The driver even invited people into his cab to alleviate overcrowding
> (4 car set, natch) , and did his best to calm the mob down.  The
> cowards in the control room wouldn't even step out of it, other than
> one gopher who was emptying the garbage bins, but refused to answer
> any questions directed at him.
>
> There were obviously valiant attempts being made by Network Control
> to provide some sort of service to work around the major problems,
> such as the shuttle to Epping.  But even this was announced by DVA -
>  "The train on Number 3 platform goes to Epping."   A fair response
> to this was "Then what?" which of course went unanswered.
>
> Foe heavens sakes guys, when a serious network disruption occurs, and
> the timetable goes out the window , TURN THE BLOODY DVA's OFF; they
> make the situation worse!  The repeated and inane "CityRail regret
> any inconvenience caused" only inflame the public more in these
> circumstances.
>
> Having been trained in customer service, this goes against every
> principle of managing your customers. All the high tech fancy stuff
> might sound impressive when the system is running normally, but in
> crisis management, passengers want to be told SOMETHING, even if it
> is no news or bad news. One simple announcement at Hornsby tonight would
> have
> sufficed, along the lines of " Your attention please, owing to a severe wind
> storm which has brought down overhead wires, services are disrupted
> on all lines. Please stand by for further information as it comes to
> hand."   No , it appears the common sense gene has been selectively
> bred out of station attendants, either that or they are simply not
> trained at all; their blinkered management placing infinite trust in
> an automated system to cover all eventualities.
>
> Absolute shocker, CityRail, zero out of 10.  I've never seen so many
> p**sed off passengers in such as short space of time, and this was
> probably being replicated all over the network. Take a lesson from
> the off duty train drivers I spoke to, who passed on what information they
> could glean to people nearby. At least they understood the situation, and
>  had some sense of empathy with their customers.
>
> Soapbox mode off!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul