The Railway:First Great Western Series 2

[jimm]

Verbal abuse is calling people names and insulting them, questioning their parentage, abusing their race. Merely shouting at them is not.
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Please do not mis-quote me to suit your apparent attempted bullying of me. I repeat, I have not anywhere said or implied it is acceptable to shout at staff. I took pains to carefully write a reply explain this. You have totally ignored this and continue to harangue me whilst deliberately - it seems - misreading my reply. The bloke in the episode was being shouted at, that is not acceptable but it is a fact of life during the situation portrayed. He was not being verbally abused. Being shouted at is not verbal abuse - or has the dictionary definition changed since I sat a G.C.E. "O" level English paper in 1966? It seems to me that people nowadays are a little more sensitive than we post war baby boomers. Or perhaps as a woman I just have a little too much common sense for you.
I originally came on to this web site to try and obtain some help for a ticketing question. I thought I'd stay and try and find out more about the "how things work" side of the railways that I commuted to London and back on for over thirty years. All I've really learned is that apparently:
passengers are a nuisance
passengers should never complain
passengers should always be grateful no matter how bad it is
the railway staff are always right

Well if we're going to nitpick, then maybe what was seen in the programme is verbal aggression, which is not exactly a positive thing either.

I do not work for FGW, or the railway, but have on occasions encountered this in my line of work and find it equally as unacceptable as the rail staff posting here. It may well be the way that some people react to situations they don't like, but that doesn't make it right.

Some passengers are just plain nasty - and they don't all wear hoodies. I still vividly recall an incident a few years ago travelling into Oxford where the train manager carried out a ticket check and encountered a man with a pretty cut-glass accent who did not exactly appear to be down to his last penny, who had: no ticket; no money; no bank card; and no intention to pay. But plenty of attitude. He was adamant that he was going to travel all the way to London, where, he loudly informed the entire carriage, his wife would meet him and pay.

The train manager was patience itself in the face of some pretty extreme verbal aggression for about 15 minutes, trying to explain that the man would have to get off at Oxford and arrange for a ticket to be paid for there, then gave up and went off to call for more staff and police to meet the train at Oxford and remove the man, which they duly did and escorted him off the platform. He wasn't arrested but deserved to be.

 

[Flamingo]

Verbal abuse is calling people names and insulting them, questioning their parentage, abusing their race. Merely shouting at them is not.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Please do not mis-quote me to suit your apparent attempted bullying of me. I repeat, I have not anywhere said or implied it is acceptable to shout at staff. I took pains to carefully write a reply explain this. You have totally ignored this and continue to harangue me whilst deliberately - it seems - misreading my reply. The bloke in the episode was being shouted at, that is not acceptable but it is a fact of life during the situation portrayed. He was not being verbally abused. Being shouted at is not verbal abuse - or has the dictionary definition changed since I sat a G.C.E. "O" level English paper in 1966? It seems to me that people nowadays are a little more sensitive than we post war baby boomers. Or perhaps as a woman I just have a little too much common sense for you.
I originally came on to this web site to try and obtain some help for a ticketing question. I thought I'd stay and try and find out more about the "how things work" side of the railways that I commuted to London and back on for over thirty years. All I've really learned is that apparently:
passengers are a nuisance
passengers should never complain
passengers should always be grateful no matter how bad it is
the railway staff are always right

You might think that it is a fact of life for staff to be shouted at because this is how you would deal with the situation yourself, by screaming at the working class person in front of you until you had got your own way or vented your frustration.

Times have changed since 1966, lots of things that were acceptable then are not acceptable now, even if they are coming from a "female" (I hesitate to use the word "lady"). Shouting at the lower orders is one of them.

The definition of abuse or threatening behaviour is how the person on the receiving end of it perceives it. Standing up in court and telling the magistrate they were being over-sensitive does not get one very far (elderly female or not).

Your motivation for coming on to the site is of no interest to me, and if all you have gleaned from your time on it is an apparent conformation of your prejudices that the oiks don't know their place any more, that is sad. But not my problem.

 

[455driver]

If somebody is looking at me and shouting then they are shouting at me!
Not difficult to understand is it! :roll:
All your 'swearing at the uniform' bull is just an excuse that rude people use to excuse their lack of manners!

You've now resorted to insult me by imaginary name calling which not only shows a lack of vocabulary but a lack of respect.

I have a large vocabulary thank you, how many names would you like me to call you to prove the point?

Oh and you want respect? Earn it sunshine because I have zero 'respect' for you at the moment and I cant see that changing any tine soon!

 

[PaxVobiscum]

I think it's time we had a few verses of Silent Night and a game of football.

 

[Flamingo]

I think it's time we had a few verses of Silent Night and a game of football.

It's not Xmas Eve and I bloody hate football...

 

[455driver]

It's not Xmas Eve and I bloody hate football...

And I cant sing!

 

[timbo58]

Ok, the threads a little cold but not dead yet IMHO.......


Many moons ago about a year after Reading station had it's gateline installed, there was major disruption and coaches were ordered etc as the line was closed and trains only going into London as far as Ealing Broadway, anyway -after hearing the 'customer help desk' staff were refusing to man the desk due to a few people who didn't understand there is a line between 'being annoyed and being downright abusive', I offered to help.
Being an RPI manager at that time, I asked the first person in the queue to step forward and was met with a torrent of bad language which under normal circumstances would have been met with a chap from the door opposite (BTP) pretty damn quickly!

I apologised for not making my 'position' clear, got my shiny RP wallet/badge out, stuck it in my top suit jacket pocket pointed out clearly to everyone in the queue that the help desk would help them all quickly and politely but that, despite the circumstances, we were unable to deal with those only able to converse in 'anglo saxon' and chucked matey to the back of a 20 deep queue.

Funnily enough we didn't have any more aggro from anyone who saw this, although I had to remind newcomers a couple of times that afternoon to remain polite and they would be dealt with or to seek alternative transport that would out up with aggressive /rude language.
Matey wasn't there 19 customers later, I care not where he went frankly either.

Unfortunately for most staff nowadays they do not have the chain of managers I had above me which I knew would back me up, far from it, usually IME staff know full well a complaint from a 'customer' will be taken at face value and the staff member asked to explain what they 'did wrong'.


A good series, I did have to raise an eyebrow that a late night train was double guarded as 'routine', we asked for that for years and nothing happened, despite assaults and delays, so it must've been something serious! Nice to see so many familiar faces and not see the tw@ts in management for the most part.