Abuse from passengers on train drivers

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

A train driver has described how abuse from passengers effects him and his colleagues.

Ben Waterhouse, from London, drives for South Western Railway (SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)) - often on routes through Hampshire and Berkshire.

He said abuse had "got worse" since the COVID-19 public - "people don't seem to have the patience they used to".

The comments come as SWR launched a new campaign to stop verbal abuse directed at its employees.

It is directed primarily at customers who wouldn't normally be aggressive, but who might lose their temper when things go wrong on their journey.

Mr Waterhouse said: "Most of the time is fine, but you do occasionally get passengers saying things that are directed to you that hurt more than perhaps they should."

"Some of them you can brush off, but when it happens time and time again, it can kind of get to you."

He added that there had been "moments where you just don't want to go to work", and that "everyone deserves to feel safe at work".

Abuse of staff is never acceptable.  At the same time, I can understand the frustration at times that passengers feel which can lead to incidents.

Yes, a campaign to reduce (ideally stop) staff abuse is to be applauded.  It really needs to have two threads - one to stop passengers being abusive, and another to look at and update systems such that there's no longer the frustrations which lead to the abuse in the first place.

[grahame]

A personal story from the last few days.  Lisa and I arrived in Munich on Saturdy at around 16:15 on Saturday afternoon, planning to travel onwards on Sunday via Mannheim to Paris.

Frustration 1 - there is an insistance on booking and paying for a reservation on the Mannheim - Paris train, even though there is no such requirement on other ICE routes (and typically there are open seats) Why should I need to reserve in addition to having bought a ticket?

Frustration 2 - the Rail Planner app points to an ability to resereve online via the DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) website.  However, clicking on that link took me to a page which told me that the site linked no longer offered reservations - offering a further onward link to another site - however, following that link gave me "Internal error". Why is the online reservation system broken?

So - we are left with having to reserve in person at the station

Frustration 3 - we are issued with a chit / number as we enter the passenger service area at Munich station - 359 - and that takes us into a large room with a dosen service points and screens calling people forward. But less than half the desks are staffed, and there is virually no seating - people are standing around and waiting, and the screen gives an estimate waiting time "in excess of 20 minutes"  In the end "in excess of 20 minutes" turned out to be an hour. Why was ther such an understaffing to cope with what I suspect a regular issue at that time of the week?

Frustration 4 - having been called up to a counter, a helpful assistant - but a system that kept coming up with "no seats available" and he was only able to offer me an evening service from Mannheim bringing us into Paris very late at night. Looked at other alternatives even via Brussels.  Same problem. It turned out that he had put in the wrong day and was looking for "today" not "tomorrow" resvations and of course the system was denying reservations for trains that had already departed! Why did the system not make in obvious to the clerk that he was looking to book a train that had already left

Having been though that, I can understand how frustrations can boil over. 
Why are reservations needed? 
Why is the online booking system broken?
Why is there such a long queue?
Why is there inadequate seating for people who have an hour to wait?
Why does the system allow agents to waste time looking at gone trains?

We arrived at 16:15 and should have gone straight from the station to our hotel. The reservations we eventually got (for an ideal train) had a print time of 17:47.

I don't believe I was in any way grotty with the agent - in fact we had quite a good techincal exchange on options if no seats at all had been availble, but I can understand why tempers could get short.  Db need to sort out their online systems - for the public to be able to reservre from the Interrail App, and to help their agents identify trains that are still to run.

[ChrisB]

I suspect the driver was reacting to comments thrown in relation to industrial action taken by him & his colleagues?

[PhilWakely]

I can sympathise with some drivers. Whilst waiting for a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service at Exeter St David's earlier this week, the driver of an XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service starting at St David's was attempting to prepare his train when a member of the public approached him and started ranting about the lack of XC services beyond Exeter this week, implying it was the driver's fault. Eventually, the driver shut himself in his cab whilst the member of the public was still ranting!

However, I am a little disappointed with SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and their attitude towards abuse towards staff members. Having just boarded a SWR service, the first automated announcement is not "Welcome aboard this SWR service to....", but words to the effect of "violence and abusive behaviour to our staff will not be tolerated....", followed almost immediately by "you must have a ticket". Hardly welcoming! 

[Fourbee]

I can sympathise with some drivers. Whilst waiting for a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service at Exeter St David's earlier this week, the driver of an XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service starting at St David's was attempting to prepare his train when a member of the public approached him and started ranting about the lack of XC services beyond Exeter this week, implying it was the driver's fault. Eventually, the driver shut himself in his cab whilst the member of the public was still ranting!

I'd rather drivers could concentrate on driving or have the full time value of their personal needs break without answering queries like this. There are plenty of other channels away from train cabs where answers can be sought. I'm not really sure of the benefit of having drivers in uniform as it just invites this sort of exchange.

[JayMac]

Problem is, the other human sources of information can be difficult to locate. Particularly during disruption when they have a habit of disappearing behind 'Staff Only' doors.