CityRail Has A Bad Night and Stupid DVA's

["Hoges" <pghogan@NOSPAMbigpond.com>]

(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