What's wrong here?

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

London Victoria earlier today. Something not quite right...

[patch38]

Either the clock is wrong or the departure information is a couple of hours out-of-date!

[JayMac]

Clock was right. All departure information across entire station, including staff LDB, NRE^▸ (National Rail Enquiries) feeds in bars/eateries, was stuck after 0956.

Causing some chaos. Neither Southern, Southeastern, Gatwick Express or Network Rail appeared to have put additional staff on the concourse. Folk having to resort to get info from gateline staff who were struggling with requests and struggling to liaise with their control and signallers. Platforms being called once over PA^▸ (Public Address (broadcast loudspeaker announcements) or Passenger Assist (railway staff providing physical assistance to passengers with mobility issues), depending on context) with as little as 3 minutes notice.

Poor show all round.

[Chris from Nailsea]

There was a "frozen time" incident like that at the beginning of 'The Midwich Cuckoos' by John Wyndham.

Completely irrelevant to this topic, of course, but that's what occurred to me. 

[ellendune]

Neither Southern, Southeastern, Gatwick Express or Network Rail appeared to have put additional staff on the concourse.

How many staff do these organisations have that they can put on the concourse at short notice?

Would there be enough that any ordinary person would notice?

[JayMac]

Short notice? Three hours and counting when I departed Victoria.

And by the skin of my teeth thanks to a very late platform change that was only being communicated by gateline staff and not PA^▸ (Public Address (broadcast loudspeaker announcements) or Passenger Assist (railway staff providing physical assistance to passengers with mobility issues), depending on context).

But not to worry. This is the railway. "Can't do" is the default. A major London terminus would have more than it's fair share of back office staff and managers who could have been out there assisting. Even if it's just to say, '"I'm sorry for the problems, but let me see if I can find out." On the Southern side, apart from gateline staff, there were just two staff in the tiny 'Information' booth on the concourse. No floor-walkers at all. Gatwick Express staff had all disappeared. Southeastern side seemed little better.

[ellendune]

Thought you might reply in that vein!

I was genuinely asking how many staff any of these companies might have on duty in roles that are not immediately essential to the continued running of the service and who therefore might be deployed to help passengers. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm. 

We're discussing this in 'the lighter side' on the Coffee Shop forum, but I would like to say that I have some agreement with bignosemac's criticism.

When things are going well (or even fairly well), I have observed many members of TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) staff (not just GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) standing in groups, perhaps outside the staff room in their smoke break, or whatever, chatting and even being available for the occasional customer who might approach them with a particular query.

However, when the proverbial hits the fan, I've also observed how remarkably quickly those groups of relaxed members of TOC staff seem to disappear into the woodwork, leaving nobody to answer questions from the hoards of disgruntled passengers.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Hmm. 

We're discussing this in 'the lighter side' on the Coffee Shop forum, but I would like to say that I have some agreement with bignosemac's criticism.

When things are going well (or even fairly well), I have observed many members of TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) staff (not just GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) standing in groups, perhaps outside the staff room in their smoke break, or whatever, chatting and even being available for the occasional customer who might approach them with a particular query.

However, when the proverbial hits the fan, I've also observed how remarkably quickly those groups of relaxed members of TOC staff seem to disappear into the woodwork, leaving nobody to answer questions from the hoards of disgruntled passengers.

I think this is true of a lot of organisations but just TOCs. My recent experience was at Gatwick on Sunday when flights started being delayed...all of a sudden the number of BA^» (British Airways - about) staff available to help seemed to reduce very quickly. I stood in line waiting to be put on a later flight for at least an hour.