Wrong Information and Advice at Nailsea

[whole diary]

[John R]

Lady turns up at Nailsea too late to catch the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service that will connect with the 0900 BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) to Paddington. She has an Anytime Return (156.25 or so) and a seat reservation on the 0900.

Fortunately today, as well as our usual helpful man, there's someone who looks like she could be his supervisor, so our concerned customer should get some good advice.

Instead, having studied closely the ticket and seat reservation, the passenger is told that her ticket is only valid on the 0900. 'That's the problem with seat reservations, you have to catch that train, and if you don't you'll be charged again.' Also, that there's no way she will make the 0900, and her best bet is to await the 0944(?) from Nailsea, which is the next through train to Paddington, explain the position to the TM^‡(resolve) on that service, and hope he lets her travel withough purchasing a new ticket.

Having overheard this conversation, I went to suggest to the passenger that she could catch the 0846 XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service, and if she was first out of the doors at Temple Meads, she could still get the 0900. Then I looked at her ticket and discovered that it was an Anytime, which did not state on it 'Only valid with seat reservation'.

So whoever this FGW employee was at Nailsea this morning, she got it completely wrong with regard to the validity of the ticket, and,  having made that mistake, didn't even then make the correct suggestion as to her best course of action. Of course, had she waited an hour for the 0944  she would have been even more hacked off to be told that her ticket was valid on any service after all.

Given that she had an Open (sorry Anytime) ticket, myself and another passenger advised her to stay on the 0846 to Parkway, as the connection there only gets into Paddington a few minutes after the 0900 from TM.     

What hope is there for passengers when staff can make basic errors like that. More training please FGW. 

[gaf71]

I agree, more training needed here. The only reason I can give for this, is that on seeing the seat reservation number, the 'supervisor' presumed it was an advance ticket, and therefore only valid on said services. Still bad though, should have checked ticket type, but as I said in another thread, we have had no training on the new tickets, only a sheet of paper left in our pigeon holes.

The other issue here is, that if the lady had turned up on time, there would have been no issue!

[Tim]

I think part of the problem here and other instances were rail staff have displayed the wrong information or attitude is you can no longer assume that staff are heavy users of the network themselves.  Yesterday I was making enquiries at Bath station about getting from Bath to Worcester during the weekend disruption between Gloucester and BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)).  The person who advised me was friendly and courtious but she didn't know any more than what was on her screen (which was the same information I could have looked at on the web from home).  She ended up giving me the wrong advice about my ticket not being valid via Swindon but how I would have to go via Newport and Hereford.   She didn't give the impression of having a "railway map" in her head in the way that BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) staff used to have. 

I am not sure why the change has happened but it could be that the industry now employs far more people with non-railway backgrounds or that travel priviledges are not as generous as they used to be.  The old-time-BR staff member would have worked in various locations around the country and used his pass to travel to across the network on holiday.  I've been surprised and impressed by a guard on a Scotrail train from Aviemore knowing where Dinting was and a GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways) platform staff member at Durham knowing that Bristol Parkway was on the South Wales main line wheras BTM was not.  Neither piece of knowledge would have been in any formal training programme, but both bits of information were useful to me and served to reassure me, a passenger, or the staff member's competance.  I don't see this kind of thing as much as I did. 

i know that I am genralising here, and would be interesterd to hear what the rail industry forum members think

[smokey]

British Rail was for it's faults a wonderful organisation too work for, it was one big Happy family (for 95% of staff, there was always the odd person who hated BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) and couldn't wait to get out).
New staff were tought the ways to look after the public and knowledge was passed from old hand to new hands.

Today it's all a culture of Blame and counter Blame, nobody trust's anybody and this simple knowledge transfer is lost, and NO WAY is the Railway now a HAPPY FAMILY.

[Tim]

British Rail was for it's faults a wonderful organisation too work for, it was one big Happy family (for 95% of staff, there was always the odd person who hated BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) and couldn't wait to get out).
New staff were tought the ways to look after the public and knowledge was passed from old hand to new hands.

Today it's all a culture of Blame and counter Blame, nobody trust's anybody and this simple knowledge transfer is lost, and NO WAY is the Railway now a HAPPY FAMILY.

Tragic.   It isn't just the railway that has changed.  You try seeing someone at your back who has expertise, experience and descretion to act.  A few years ago this is exactly what a bank manager did.  Now it is a question of "computer says no".  I had a battle last week with trying to get a newly set up direct debit cancelled but because it had not yet appeared on the computer their was absolutely nothing that could be done. 

Style over substance is the order of the day.  It is the attitude that leads FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to repaint their trains into a new livery every couple of years but means that they lack the attention to detail to keep the toilets watered. 

As a passenger I much prefered travelling with BR.  Sure the trains were older and slower, but they were cheaper, friendlier and their seats lined up with the windows and when things went wrong I think that there was less of a blame culture from the passenger to the staff (perhaps because a nationalised railway in some way belongs to the passenger/taxpayer and the blame for lack of investment partly belongs to the passenger/taxpayer).  My attitude used to be much more along the lines of "oh dear *our* railway isn't as good as it ought to be" rather than "what a bunch of idiots FGW are.  Despite charging me ^120 they can't even run a decent service".  The relationshiop between staff and passenger is much more strained than ever before and I expect that this (together with huge fare increases) is something to do with this
Sorry - I've become a grumpy old man  (and I'm not yet 40!)

[eightf48544]

There are some happy railwaymen but they work for Chiltern and the open access operators like Wrexham and Shrewsbury, but then those services  are run by ex BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) men.

Are staff unhappy because because most TOCS are run by bus companies. When did you ever see a happy bus driver?

[gaf71]

There are some happy railwaymen but they work for Chiltern and the open access operators like Wrexham and Shrewsbury, but then those services  are run by ex BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) men.

Are staff unhappy because because most TOCS are run by bus companies. When did you ever see a happy bus driver?

I'm a railwayman, and i work for FGW^▸ (First Great Western). I'm happy....I think

[Tim]

I'm happy that you are happy