Re: Email to John Laws regarding comments this morning

["Garry Hoddinett" <hoddos@netspace.net.au>]

Rod <comtrain@mpx.com.au> wrote in message
83a2m3$6gf$1@news1.mpx.com.au">news:83a2m3$6gf$1@news1.mpx.com.au...
>
> A  few weeks ago I had a very comfortable trip down to Melbourne on a
train,
> we arrived Spencer Street 10 mins late, but we did take over 13 mins to
get
> from South Ken to S.St, and I guess a broken down Spark had caused this
> delay. A truck had jammed itself under a Railway Bridge and no trams were
> running along Spencer Street and the traffic was just not moving. I
finished
> up walking  to do most of my messages. When I passed the scene of the
> accident I noticed that there was plenty of room for traffic to move past
> the truck, and in fact it was not badly damaged and did not look unsafe.
And
> yet the young cop on duty stopped everything from moving, and held no
regard
> for the convenience of the people, either waiting for a tram, or in their
> cars. On the way back a heavy tow truck was working to release the truck,
> and a more senior Policeman had the traffic almost back to normal....Guess
> you would get a bit upset by that as well?? Or is it one thing for the
road
> and a different thing for rail??
> Rail does a bloody good job doing what it does best!!......particularly
when
> you think that your local friendly Poli"s can find less than $200 million
a
> year to keep it going!
>
I fail to see the relevance of the road industry to your argument.  Non the
less I generally agree with your comment that " Rail does a bloody good job"
with the little funds it receives from government coffers.  I have been
travelling by train twice every working day for the last 16 years.  The
service generally runs smoothly although the evening train is always at
least a  few minutes late to my destination.  In my travels I have seen
quite a number of CityRail "problems"and the thing that irks me about
virtually all of them is they way CityRail handles them - it stuffs them up.
I was on the 9:57 to Lithgow, the train was being progressively delayed as
it traveled west but, as is rather typical, there was no apology or word of
explanation why.  CityRail fails the  most basic customer service rule of
keeping the customer informed when there is a problem.  I have spoken to
many CityRail management personnel over many years and they all agree that
the organization fails in this despite the fact that they say staff are
trained/ told to keep customers informed.  Studies have found that people
are far more tolerant of problems if they are kept informed - yet CityRail
constantly fails to do this.  I really appreciate those few guards in
particular who, not only make an effort to find out what the problem is, but
also make an effort to keep their customers informed.  When their are
service delays beyond a few minutes or a service is cancelled there should
be a word of explanation - yet CityRail usually doesn't do this.  Your
example above illustrates my point - you knew of a problem and you could
understand the problem (because you saw it) and you could graciously accept
it.  CityRail rarely tells you there is a problem and even more rarely
explains why.