There's been a 'push' on providing "Quality Service Information" recently,
hence the amount of information boards everywhere. There are lots of
office-based staff who are auditing these things, who only rely on pagers
telling them what lines are running normally/ delayed/ suspended and mark
the boards accordingly. However, what goes out on the pagers isn't the
reality that occurs. Instead of allowing staff to decide when a delay turns
into normal service we have to change it once we're told the service is
normal, despite what we may see in actuality. I'm getting increasingly fed
up with having to tell people there is a normal service when I know it isn't
so, for example, normal service on the Circle Line, then a 20 minute gap. If
that's normal I'm Alistair Campbell!

Robin Mayes wrote:
There's been a 'push' on providing "Quality Service Information"
recently, hence the amount of information boards everywhere. There
are lots of office-based staff who are auditing these things, who
only rely on pagers telling them what lines are running normally/
delayed/ suspended and mark the boards accordingly. However, what
goes out on the pagers isn't the reality that occurs. Instead of
allowing staff to decide when a delay turns into normal service we
have to change it once we're told the service is normal, despite what
we may see in actuality. I'm getting increasingly fed up with having
to tell people there is a normal service when I know it isn't so, for
example, normal service on the Circle Line, then a 20 minute gap. If
that's normal I'm Alistair Campbell!

We seem to be heading for a completely centralised information system, which
is fine if the centre knows what's going on everywhere and has the manpower
to fine-tune the information. But currently, I agree it's daft to impose
centralised info when local people know better.

I had an example today at High Street Kensington, with a message saying that
the "westbound Circle line" was suspended. How are passengers meant to know
whether "westbound" at HSK means the northbound track or the southbound
track at that point? Presumably it was a message broadcast to some subset
of the Circle stations.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

"Robin Mayes" wrote in
:

There's been a 'push' on providing "Quality Service Information"
recently, hence the amount of information boards everywhere. There are
lots of office-based staff who are auditing these things, who only
rely on pagers telling them what lines are running normally/ delayed/
suspended and mark the boards accordingly. However, what goes out on
the pagers isn't the reality that occurs. Instead of allowing staff to
decide when a delay turns into normal service we have to change it
once we're told the service is normal, despite what we may see in
actuality. I'm getting increasingly fed up with having to tell people
there is a normal service when I know it isn't so, for example, normal
service on the Circle Line, then a 20 minute gap. If that's normal I'm
Alistair Campbell!

The other weekend the northern line was suspended via bank, later on I
checked via the web and it was working, phone some people to tell them to
get the tube and I would meet that at golders green. When I got there the
board still said it was out. Spoke to an SA to enquire and was told it was
running, I told him the board said otherwise...nothing happened, I had to
suggest that perhaps he should change the board. So while not all SAs are
the same, some clearly cannot be left to do it because accurate information
is not a concern to them.