Re: Re: [NSW] Buses ireplaced of trains.........

["Kevin Sewell" <kevinsewell@optusnet.com.au>]

You sound distinctly like a racist snot. Have you ever been to India and
ridden on their railways? I'll bet not, because if you had you'd have found
a system many many times bigger than NSW (or all of Australia for that
matter) which run an enormous number of trains. Their equipment standard is
a long way short of even the XPT, but they run this huge network largely to
time without complications or fuss. 165 zillion passengers wouldn't have it
any other way.
How dare you deride Indian Railways with your crap generalities. You may be
right about Ethiopia or Zimbabwe. I haven't been there, but I'll bet you
haven't either.
You obviously haven't a clue what you're talking about. PRAT!!

Ivan Smith <ivsmith11@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:sEHI6.2786$76.11169@news1.rdc1.nsw.optushome.com.au...
>
> "David Johnson" <trainman@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
> t9g5ftgp8nl383r06qgbqjb5vo4ncqebvp@4ax.com">news:t9g5ftgp8nl383r06qgbqjb5vo4ncqebvp@4ax.com...
> > On Tue, 10 Apr 2001 09:45:13 GMT, "Ivan Smith"
> > <ivsmith11@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > >"CityRail said it regretted that passengers had been 'left in the
dark'.
> We
> > >are very keen to improve the way we communicate with our customers",
the
> > >spokesman said - So for 3 1/2 hours nothing happened. People at Kogarah
> > >report hearing "The train to Hurstville will arrive in 3 minutes" and
it
> > >never arrived - I mean , please! Mortdale is the next station down the
> line
> > >from Kogarah, and they can't get an announcement together to tell the
> > >thousands of people there that something had happened???
> >
> > Mortdale is 5 stations down the line.
>
> Well, it still doesn't explain how in 3 1/2 hours later, 5 stations away,
a
> message of intellect and verbosity couldn't be delivered to the Kogarah
> Station Master, Cronulla SM, or any one affected for that matter. The
whole
> thing is so typical of the SRA since the Oly's, and it's slowly slipping
> back past the previous bad level of customer service we've come to expect.
>
> <hypothetical>
> I'd really be having a hard time, for instance, if I were a foreign
tourist,
> even from a country where the trains are bad (such as India, Ethiopia,
> Zimbabwe etc..) and there was no information, even in English, what has
> happened, or any information that can be forwarded or planned from. If I
> were that tourist - I've just lost my connection to my touring Coach at
> Circular Quay, my rendezvous with my group, lost the money it cost to go
on
> my tour etc....now ALL THE SRA HAS TO DO is report over the sound systems
in
> THE MOST VERBOSE FASHION POSSIBLE the bad news, so I can reschedule.
Simple.
> </hypothetical>
>
> I personally don't care if it's the worst news known to man and I
certainly
> don't care if it's nothing more than "The ... train to .... is delayed by
> approximately .... minutes, due to ........ CityRail apologises for any
> inconvenience". The more verbose the better, so that all and sundry with
on
> following plans can do something other than stand around in the cold and
> draught wondering if the speakers are going to even activate with a reason
> and information about the missing service. It doesn't happen, at all, at
> some stations.
>
> In this particular case I called 131500 and complained about the lack of
> information at Cronulla (ie. nothing was said and there were no
> announcements). If I've have had some verbose information my phone call to
> my Boss wouldn't have been along the lines of "I don't know what's
> happening, and I don't know what time I'm going to be in today because I
> can't find anything out.." it would have been along the lines of "I'll be
> approximately 1 hour late today because there has been a panto accident at
> Mordale and it's cut off the main Southern Line....they say busses will
> replace the trains if they can't get it going again, but I'll see if I can
> find a quicker way to get to work".
>
> That's only one example of what happens when verbose information is given
> out. We are requested by institutions to tell them what is happening, even
> if you can't make a payment or are defaulting etc...so why can't the SRA
be
> verbose?
>
> I don't care if it's terrible news, such as derailment or electrocution,
as
> long as I have a reason and some planning information to go on I'll be a
> happy camper. It wouldn't take much, but the institutionalised SRA HR/PR
> department may have a time dealing with openness and verbosity to it's
> valued customers.
>
> Sorry for the rant, but it's such a simple thing and they can't mange it.
It
> would do UNTOLD good will for the SRA and certainly make me back off, as
> there would be nothing really to complain about, except over zealous
Revenue
> Protection Officers and Tullock seating :)
>
> Ivan
>
>