Another Illiterate Service Message

[Deepgreen]

Southern's web homepage now - full of illiteracies about the Selhurst depot signalling failure - including "trains will be living from Norwood..." - how can people who are presumably employed on the basis of their communications skills consistently put out this tripe?!
http://www.southernrailway.com/

[FONT=&quot] Signalling fault at Honor Oak Park

We have been advised by Network Rail that the fault has now been rectified. We are now working hard to restore the train service to the normal timetable as quickly as possible. Whilst this ongoing our services will still be subject to delays and short notice alterations.

[/FONT]
Signalling problem at Selhurst Depot

Earlier this morning there were multiple signalling problems which impacted 5 of the points at Selhurst Depot prevented trains from leaving the depot. 4 of the points are now fixed and services are beginning to run with severe delays and cancellations expected as several trains are still in the depot which has limited access in and out. Majority of our trains will be living from Norwood Junction but there are plans to use Selhurst where possible.

Network Rail have advised that the depot will be in full operation by 13:00 today and are aiming to complete additional upgrades tomorrow morning.

We are working as quickly as possible to restore the train service to the normal timetable as our trains are released from the depot. However our trains and train crews are still going to be displaced and ongoing disruption is still expected for a period of time.

 

[PeterC]

More likely just bad typing and lack of proof reading.

 

[Deepgreen]

More likely just bad typing and lack of proof reading.

Exactly - all of which should be a standard element of the professional communications process! uTHERWYSE i CULD JUST TIPE OUT ANY OLE RUBBBISH LIKE TJHIS!

Quality control has vanished.

 

[al78]

Exactly - all of which should be a standard element of the professional communications process!

Where fallible humans are involved, mistakes will happen and occasionally will not be noticed and corrected. Expecting perfection is unrealistic.

 

[QueensCurve]

Southern's web homepage now - full of illiteracies about the Selhurst depot signalling failure - including "trains will be living from Norwood..." - how can people who are presumably employed on the basis of their communications skills consistently put out this tripe?!

Entertaining. Have you a URl and a screenshot?

 

[Deepgreen]

Where fallible humans are involved, mistakes will happen and occasionally will not be noticed and corrected. Expecting perfection is unrealistic.

Agreed, but it's very far from occasional - Southern's web site regularly has information that appears to have been typed by a child! The same lack of checking/illiteracy extends to their station information screens, including non-urgent messages - inexcusable.

 

[Deepgreen]

Entertaining. Have you a URl and a screenshot?

It's not entertaining - it's depressing. Just go to their web site.

 

[DarloRich]

stuff happens - I am sure we have all used a form instead of a from or an of instead of an off.

It shouldn't happen in corporate comms but it does, especially when people are under pressure and dealing with fast changing information and a desire to get the comms out.

 

[yorkie]

Entertaining. Have you a URl and a screenshot?

It's not entertaining - it's depressing. Just go to their web site.

QueensCurve is right; we do as for a quote to be provided, and details of the source would normally include a hyperlink, where available. Extract from our Forum Rules:

• If referring to an external source you should put the text in QUOTE tags (
  
  ), provide details of the source and make a relevant comment to promote discussion.

I have edited your opening post, so it now complies with this

This makes it much easier for people viewing this thread in the not too distant future, who won't otherwise get to see what the original text was, as well as our blind members/readers using screenreader software, who can find it difficult to navigate to external sites, locate the relevant text, and navigate back again.

Anyway my view on it: yes it is poor, but it's not unsurprising these days, especially from a company such as GTR, who don't portray a particularly professional image.

Their 'live information' page does appear to have been proof read, and well worded, so they will probably update the alert on their homepage to match this shortly.

http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/plan-your-journey/live-running-information/

Disruption to Southern services in London expected until 14:00

The signalling problem which prevented trains from leaving Selhurst depot has been resolved and some lines have now reopened. However, only one entrance and exit is available from the depot into Norwood Junction which is causing severe delays.

Trains are expected to be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised until approximately 14:00.

Customer Advice:

A faulty signalling cable caused a signalling problem earlier today, which has prevented Southern trains from leaving their Selhurst Depot this morning.

Network Rail have advised that normal operations are expected to return to the depot at 13:00 and further upgrades to the signalling systems are planned to take place to prevent a re-occurrence.

Southern are working as quickly as possible to restore the train service back to normal as their trains are released from the Depot. However trains are still going to be displaced and ongoing disruption is still expected for a period of time.


Southern are expecting severe disruption with many services cancelled in the London area and on the Uckfield and East Grinstead lines.

But is this thread a discussion regarding grammar, punctuation and spelling, rather than an actual railway matter? If so, I think it would be a better fit in 'General Discussion', so I may move it there...

 

[daikilo]

Agreed, but it's very far from occasional - Southern's web site regularly has information that appears to have been typed by a child! The same lack of checking/illiteracy extends to their station information screens, including non-urgent messages - inexcusable.

Personally, I have regularly become frustrated with auto-correct which occasionally manages to convert perfectly good words with a single typo into incorrect ones.

 

[Loop & Link]

There's a freeform box in Tyrell, where you can type your own 'Additional or Internal Information' bearing in mind, regarding Tyrell and CSL2 you are under pressure to get the information out, sometimes mistakes happen! Done it myself, typed a message and found it to be complete garbage after typing!

 

[Deepgreen]

QueensCurve is right; we do as for a quote to be provided, and details of the source would normally include a hyperlink, where available. Extract from our Forum Rules:

I have edited your opening post, so it now complies with this

This makes it much easier for people viewing this thread in the not too distant future, who won't otherwise get to see what the original text was, as well as our blind members/readers using screenreader software, who can find it difficult to navigate to external sites, locate the relevant text, and navigate back again.

Anyway my view on it: yes it is poor, but it's not unsurprising these days, especially from a company such as GTR, who don't portray a particularly professional image.

Their 'live information' page does appear to have been proof read, and well worded, so they will probably update the alert on their homepage to match this shortly.

http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/plan-your-journey/live-running-information/


But is this thread a discussion regarding grammar, punctuation and spelling, rather than an actual railway matter? If so, I think it would be a better fit in 'General Discussion', so I may move it there...

Thanks. As I have never been able to get the search function to provide anything useful on this forum, I wasn't aware that a thread might already exist on the topic. I'll be happy for it to be moved to an appropriate place.

 

[Llanigraham]

It must be wonderful to be such a perfect human being that you NEVER make any mistakes!!
It happens because we are exactly that, imperfect human beings.

 

[TheManBehind]

Southern's web homepage now - full of illiteracies about the Selhurst depot signalling failure - including "trains will be living from Norwood..." - how can people who are presumably employed on the basis of their communications skills consistently put out this tripe?!
http://www.southernrailway.com/

In disruption comms, on-train crews are expected to announce a delay after 2 minutes at a stand, so core messages like this very rarely get a chance to be initially proof-read. Mistakes happen - it's not good, but it does happen.

I would also make the point that many roles putting out line problems are old ones and may not have changed for some time; those in the role may have been employed for operational skills rather than comms ones.

 

[dviner]

I'm not saying that this is the case - but I'm thinking that not having auto-correct would be a consideration for operational comms. It does put the onus on the person entering the information to get the correct information across, but it reduces the risk of having the meaning being changed through the application of grammar rules.

If you see what I mean.

 

[TheNewNo2]

In my job, I've learnt to not expect anyone else to be able to write a coherent sentence, let alone a paragraph. Language allows you to convey your meaning with precision, or at least that should be the aim. It also projects the sort of impression you want to make: austere, friendly, professional, etc. Now that's not to say my posts here don't have spelling and grammatical errors, but I'm not aiming for professional here. If you're a communications professional, then at the very least you should reread everything you type before you press paste. Ideally make someone else read it. What you showed from GTR is just plain sloppy, and if I were in their managerial chain I'd be wanting names of who let that out into the wild.

 

[AndrewE]

My take is that given the importance of the railway, especially in our conurbations (and the need to get things right every time whenever possible) poor or misleading communications undermine passenger confidence and will damage the long-term prospects for the whole industry including the supply chain.

A colleague once quoted an example to me: "If you pull down the seat-back table on an aeroplane and it falls off, it is likely to make you wonder if they serviced the engines with a similar attention to detail!"

When things aren't going to plan (especially when it seems to be shambles) an uninformed punter is likely to say "Never again..."

 

[infobleep]

I don't mind spelling and grammar errors in disruption information as time is critical but if someone points our an error on say Journey Check or another part of a Web Site, I'd like to think they woild fix it. Especially if it's misleading information such as incorrect train times.

 

[route:oxford]

My take is that given the importance of the railway, especially in our conurbations (and the need to get things right every time whenever possible) poor or misleading communications undermine passenger confidence and will damage the long-term prospects for the whole industry including the supply chain.

It just tells me that there is someone human in the workflow, and is sometimes reassuring that it isn't just an automated message.

Many years ago, I input "broadcast messages" that were distributed to branch terminals instantly. They were up to 250 characters long and displayed in a 40 column UNIX window at the recipient end - we keyed them "blind" and only saw the final message when we hit the "send" button. It was always such a relief when there were no typos. Even then we got hassle for breaking words across two lines.

A colleague once quoted an example to me: "If you pull down the seat-back table on an aeroplane and it falls off, it is likely to make you wonder if they serviced the engines with a similar attention to detail!"

Then your colleague is a fool. The seats will be leased from and maintained by a completely different company from those leasing the engines.

When things aren't going to plan (especially when it seems to be shambles) an uninformed punter is likely to say "Never again..."

Or just move on, the future is always much more interesting than the past.

 

[TheManBehind]

I don't mind spelling and grammar errors in disruption information as time is critical but if someone points our an error on say Journey Check or another part of a Web Site, I'd like to think they woild fix it. Especially if it's misleading information such as incorrect train times.

Absolutely - such is the benefit of social media these days..!

 

[hairyhandedfool]

As someone who works for a company that regular puts errors out on public facing engineering work alteration and information notices, despite claiming to "check and double check everything" before printing, I'd be happy if all you could notice was grammer and spelling errors in hastily written last second disruption notices that relatively few people actually know about.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Here's another dubious communication, this time on NRE:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/today.aspx

South West Trains received reports of a points failure affecting one of the lines towards London Waterloo.
Points are sections of track that allow trains to change from one line to another

There are no spelling/grammatical problems.
But I don't like the third-person style of the opening sentence.
Either there is a problem or there isn't, not "reports" of one, anything else smacks of not being in control, or at the centre of operations.
And as for the explanation about points!
I've seen this several times before, it seems to be a default sentence inserted whenever the word "points" is used.
I find it patronising.

 

[bigfoote]

LNW, is it not considered correct to use third person when referring to a corporation? And you may consider it patronising, but to the layman, and casual punter who does not dive deeper into railways than just using them, an explanation is always welcome. The target audience for explanations like that are the "general" public.

 

[goblinuser]

I think a typo on live information is the least of GTR Southern's issues.

 

[LAX54]

Thanks. As I have never been able to get the search function to provide anything useful on this forum, I wasn't aware that a thread might already exist on the topic. I'll be happy for it to be moved to an appropriate place.

so should that have been... Thanks, as I have never......... comma, not a full stop ?

 

[LAX54]

In my job, I've learnt to not expect anyone else to be able to write a coherent sentence, let alone a paragraph. Language allows you to convey your meaning with precision, or at least that should be the aim. It also projects the sort of impression you want to make: austere, friendly, professional, etc. Now that's not to say my posts here don't have spelling and grammatical errors, but I'm not aiming for professional here. If you're a communications professional, then at the very least you should reread everything you type before you press paste. Ideally make someone else read it. What you showed from GTR is just plain sloppy, and if I were in their managerial chain I'd be wanting names of who let that out into the wild.

All that takes time, the public do not have time ! They expect exact details to be in their hands, almost as soon as it has happened, so they guys at the computer terminal no doubt doing FB / Twitter / Website info, tap away as fast as they can, otherwise there will be more complaints via said Twitter/FB, that no info is being given !

 

[theironroad]

Southern's web homepage now - full of illiteracies about the Selhurst depot signalling failure - including "trains will be living from Norwood..." - how can people who are presumably employed on the basis of their communications skills consistently put out this tripe?!
http://www.southernrailway.com/

Calm down man.....

I know you like assailing front line rail staff at any opportunity but it's a simple typo.

 

[AndrewE]

Then your colleague is a fool. The seats will be leased from and maintained by a completely different company from those leasing the engines.

You don't get it, do you? People go by train, or they don't.

They don't know or care which franchise/TOC/concession pays the staff that they see, or who pays the cleaners or maintenance staff, or who own the trains, or the tracks for that matter.

I have absolutely no understanding of the structure of the air industry, but know that enough friends have had bad experiences with Ryanair that I avoid it, and that I almost trust Easyjet and Jet2 (but still have reservations, as I accept that you get what you pay for.)

People go by train, if it performs to their expectations and isn't too expensive they will do it again, if they are let down they will not - and they will tell their friends.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

The sporadic announcement for the benefit of Thameslink 'metro' passengers is a bit misleading by stating that "the first class sections are not in use". It kind of indicates that they shouldn't be used at all rather than they can be used by all passengers regardless of ticket held.

 

[philthetube]

In my job, I've learnt to not expect anyone else to be able to write a coherent sentence, let alone a paragraph. Language allows you to convey your meaning with precision, or at least that should be the aim. It also projects the sort of impression you want to make: austere, friendly, professional, etc. Now that's not to say my posts here don't have spelling and grammatical errors, but I'm not aiming for professional here. If you're a communications professional, then at the very least you should reread everything you type before you press paste. Ideally make someone else read it. What you showed from GTR is just plain sloppy, and if I were in their managerial chain I'd be wanting names of who let that out into the wild.

You wouldn't believe how carefully I read and re-read this before spotting the deliberate mistake, and there is one.