South West Trains and Help Points

[Alex C.]

I'm curious as to if there was any other action I could have taken here (I intend on taking this up with SWT) and whether this is a normal experience or just a freak occurrence.

I came back on the last train from London to Portsmouth last night - due to engineering works, it terminated at Havant where we arrived at 1:21. The guard said there was a RRB scheduled for 1:27. We waited, along with around 10 other passengers (who gradually got fed up and got taxis which they were paying for themselves).

I used the help point several times - this is a summary of my conversations

1 - around 1:50 - spoke to someone who said they would sort things out, they then cut me off whilst on hold
2 - tried the emergency button (in reflection, I was hoping it went to the TOC control but it went to the BTP - they were as helpful as they could be but put me back through to the information line) - they took my mobile number and assured me they would call me back if I was cut off. He then went away and cut me off. I waited 10 minutes thinking maybe he would call me back but didn't hear anything.
3 - tried at around 2:10am (50 minutes after the RRB was due). Asked to speak to a supervisor as I kept getting cut off - the supervisor told me that it was a known problem with the help points and if I got cut off, I should 'try again' - he wouldn't give me a telephone number to use from my mobile and said he couldn't connect me with anyone who could actually do anything, he had to ring internally. He finally came back and said there were taxis arranged but when i asked a question, the line again cut off.

We then went to the forecourt and waited another 10 minutes, with no taxis turning up - I then thought to try NRE (i remembered seeing something about that being where some of the help points connect to). The person i spoke to couldn't confirm anything about the taxis - not when they would be here, or which company they were from - "we cannot get that information" - after pressing to speak to a supervisor again, magically they managed to confirm cabline were the supplier (which I've since found is unhelpful as cabline are a middle-man).

The taxi finally turned up around 2:35am (I'm ignoring clock change here) - it still took 5 minutes to get in the taxi because he didn't know who he was booked for. It was only when I mentioned cabline that he let us in.

I'm not going to play the vulnerable customer card - I was with a group of 3 others and safe - but I also know the railway has an obligation to get me to the station on my ticket, and it could just as easily been someone with no money or a lone traveller.

If this situation ever happens again, is there any other way of getting in touch with the TOC? National Rail insisted twice that it was Southern i needed to speak to despite it being an SWT station and an SWT service. Everything NRE did was going through two other people (their information control centre and the network information centre they told me) who it is impossible to speak to.

 

[Kite159]

Where was the guard when all this was happening?

 

[TheEdge]

Where was the guard when all this was happening?

Looking at RTT I imagine on the ECS service that 0121 arrival formed which left at 0123 (the 0121 having arrived early at 0119)

 

[Darandio]

Where was the guard when all this was happening?

On a departed train I assume, the above events happened on the platform.

 

[Monty]

Where was the guard when all this was happening?

The diagram on that particular job states the guard is to accompany the train with the driver back to Haslemere before a staff car back to the depot. There is supposed to be a member of platform staff there to usher passengers on to the bus. Very odd it appears that neither they or the bus were there. I'd keep at it until you get an answer on what went wrong though.

 

[swt class 450]

I'm curious as to if there was any other action I could have taken here (I intend on taking this up with SWT) and whether this is a normal experience or just a freak occurrence.

I came back on the last train from London to Portsmouth last night - due to engineering works, it terminated at Havant where we arrived at 1:21. The guard said there was a RRB scheduled for 1:27. We waited, along with around 10 other passengers (who gradually got fed up and got taxis which they were paying for themselves).

I used the help point several times - this is a summary of my conversations

1 - around 1:50 - spoke to someone who said they would sort things out, they then cut me off whilst on hold
2 - tried the emergency button (in reflection, I was hoping it went to the TOC control but it went to the BTP - they were as helpful as they could be but put me back through to the information line) - they took my mobile number and assured me they would call me back if I was cut off. He then went away and cut me off. I waited 10 minutes thinking maybe he would call me back but didn't hear anything.
3 - tried at around 2:10am (50 minutes after the RRB was due). Asked to speak to a supervisor as I kept getting cut off - the supervisor told me that it was a known problem with the help points and if I got cut off, I should 'try again' - he wouldn't give me a telephone number to use from my mobile and said he couldn't connect me with anyone who could actually do anything, he had to ring internally. He finally came back and said there were taxis arranged but when i asked a question, the line again cut off.

We then went to the forecourt and waited another 10 minutes, with no taxis turning up - I then thought to try NRE (i remembered seeing something about that being where some of the help points connect to). The person i spoke to couldn't confirm anything about the taxis - not when they would be here, or which company they were from - "we cannot get that information" - after pressing to speak to a supervisor again, magically they managed to confirm cabline were the supplier (which I've since found is unhelpful as cabline are a middle-man).

The taxi finally turned up around 2:35am (I'm ignoring clock change here) - it still took 5 minutes to get in the taxi because he didn't know who he was booked for. It was only when I mentioned cabline that he let us in.

I'm not going to play the vulnerable customer card - I was with a group of 3 others and safe - but I also know the railway has an obligation to get me to the station on my ticket, and it could just as easily been someone with no money or a lone traveller.

If this situation ever happens again, is there any other way of getting in touch with the TOC? National Rail insisted twice that it was Southern i needed to speak to despite it being an SWT station and an SWT service. Everything NRE did was going through two other people (their information control centre and the network information centre they told me) who it is impossible to speak to.

Doesnt sound good. Especially that late at night. I would be interested to know what happened to the Rail Replacement Bus. The one good thing about SWT's help points is that i believe that (except during busy times) they do actually go through to SWT control in Basingstoke (where as most other TOCs just go through to NRE in India). When you called up NRE they are based in India which is probably why they were not able to help. Many help points at all different stations seem to have a problem where they cut out after a few minutes which is annoying. I think situations like this are quite normal occurances unfortunately. It has happened to me many times late at night (especially at Southern stations) and i have often had to wait around two hours for a Taxi.

 

[Alex C.]

Thanks for the responses - I'm 95% sure that it was NRE I was speaking to both via the help point and (obviously) when I called - and not the TOC control in Basingstoke. The guard did indeed depart on the train when it left the station - 4 minutes before the RRB was due in (according to the times he gave us). There were definitely no platform staff around.

It seems like just a lot of things have gone wrong at the same time. I've provided info to SWT so will wait and see how they respond

edit: someone on the forecourt (random stranger) did mention seeing a Lucketts coach pulling out of the car park shortly before we arrived - it's possible that was the RRB but it would have been running at least 10 minutes early and there wouldn't have been any passengers to pick up.

 

[TheEdge]

I've known RRBs to run early and not use logic to notice they are carrying no passengers and that maybe they should wait.

 

[theironroad]

Thanks for the responses - I'm 95% sure that it was NRE I was speaking to both via the help point and (obviously) when I called - and not the TOC control in Basingstoke. The guard did indeed depart on the train when it left the station - 4 minutes before the RRB was due in (according to the times he gave us). There were definitely no platform staff around.

It seems like just a lot of things have gone wrong at the same time. I've provided info to SWT so will wait and see how they respond

edit: someone on the forecourt (random stranger) did mention seeing a Lucketts coach pulling out of the car park shortly before we arrived - it's possible that was the RRB but it would have been running at least 10 minutes early and there wouldn't have been any passengers to pick up.

Lucketts are used for rrb so may well have missed the train. There may have been a communication breakdown as to how long the rrb should have waited and whether it had a official departure time.

On Swt the new video contact ticket machines connect to a video suite at Basingstoke which are run by swt but situated within the NR roc. I'm pretty sure the existing non video help points are connected to the information section of current Wicc at Waterloo, they also monitor the CCTV cameras. Not really sure where nre is run from but think some is answered domestically and some internationally depending on time of day and how busy it is etc. While I use the nre app almost daily, I've not spoken to nre in many years.

 

[Alex C.]

Just to update briefly - I've had a response which addresses most of my issues (they are still liaising with national rail to try and obtain a response on the specifics of the problems with help points). They have quite openly acknowledged that a RRB was timetabled but then not actually arranged and that the fault for this is with SWT - i.e there never actually was a bus. They have also confirmed that no staff members were rostered beyond 23:30 that evening and that all my communication was with NRE.

Sounds like a mistake or miscommunication but they seem to have taken seriously enough. A reasonably generous offer of compensation has been made (although I'm not sure if this incorporates the delay repay i'd mentioned to them) so I'll consider the matter closed. Thanks for everyone's comments.

edit: It also appears I was unlucky - they have checked and every other RRB during the blockade did run

 

[HowardGWR]

Thanks for your very interesting reports.

You wrote that you did not want to play the vulnerable passenger card, but you could have been someone in that category, which makes the failure such a dreadful one.

I suppose what is important is, what changes to procedures has SWT (and NR?) to ensure such a debacle does not recur?