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

["Erk" <erk@erkV69.au.com>]

Paul



|



|
| 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.

That is one thing that appears to have changed over time - they seem more
prepared to run shuttles. In previous, times, they may have had buses
operating Hornsby-Strathfield when the affected area was only
Epping-Strathfield (for instance).


|
| 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.


I could not agree more. I've found that the personal touch does wonders if
the person speaks understandable english. Unfortunately (and this isn't
restricted to CityRail), political correctness means that you don't always
have a person working who speaks english to the required standard. I've
noticed in the last couple of years since I've travelled on planes more
domestically that there never seems to be bad speakers of english working
for the airlines in front line roles. Come to think of it, most of the staff
I've met on CountryLink trains can speak english too.

I know there is a lot of CityRail staff who can speak english to the
required (IMHO) standard but when the excrement hits the overhead wiring and
sizzles, they are not there on many occasions.



|
| 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."

Was the overhead down was the main problem for train running? I wonder how
they'd tell people about WOLO conditions?

If the staff read or made an announcement similiar to the DVA but it was
personalised, it would have been better. Passengers know staff can make
manual announcements and this should have occurred.

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.
|

If Management tell staff to use the system and the staff use the system even
in this circumstance, according to management, staff have done their job.
However, by doing the job 100% by the book can sometimes lead to more
problems, especially in customer relations. Of course, management in their
air conditioned offices during business hours don't see and hear what
happens outside that time for themselves.


There seems to be so many new faces around - how many of them have
experienced this sort of thing before. Let's face it, many of them were
brought in for the Olympics and some of them may be tempted to think that
they are indestructable (and so is the train running). Hopefully this lesson
will be learnt for next time (there will be a next time) but I doubt it.



| 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.

Many people across the network would have had NFI as they would have been at
unattended stations or in the same circumstance as this.

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
|
|
|
--
--
Eric

URL: http://www.erk.au.com
Transport & TV

Email: erkV69@iprimus.com.au (remove the V69)

"And Bobo thought that I was a stooge
getting a bullet proof hotbag!" -  Pauly, Pizza.(SBS-TV)