Are twitter teams causing more disruption than good?

[ivorytoast28]

Tonight there is severe disruption on the SWML due to flooding and heavy weather. It happens fine. I don't know enough to comment whether SWR could have done more or not.

However, people have gone to twitter/X to ask questions and scrolling through the answers it's very clear that the SWHelp responders have no more knowledge than anyone reading the departure boards and arguably less local knowledge than those at stations looking on realtime trains and seeing the situation and where units actually are. There have been numerous responses saying confidently that the next service is X when a few seconds look at realtime trains shows clearly X isn't getting there. Arguably this is more an issue with incorrect departure boards perhaps.

But this false information is going to make people wait longer at stations and not attempt other connections even though to those in the know it is very clear the service they have been told is the next has no chance of running

It just feels like sometimes it would be better to have an honest answer of "we don't know" than make a guess based on limited information

 

[Horizon22]

I think it does depend somewhat on where the social media team is located.

During disruption, often times trains remain showing as running until they are actually cancelled by a CIS/information controller based on information from the service controller / other tools. If the social media team is just looking at official sources - and not something like RTT - they would look at something that appears to be running as "delayed" when in reality it isn't running at all. If the social media team is distant / detatched from the control centre then they won't be able to get clarity around certain headcodes/services as much as those co-located with information/crew/service controllers.

Some teams are and can make more informed decisions and. Some of it comes down to how much "weight" the TOC puts on the social media team and what they believe their role to be it. This clearly differs - sometimes wildly.

Saying "we don't know" is fine in certain situations (line is blocked awaiting response with no set ETA) but when services are running, that's obviously less than ideal and might as well not bother responding.

 

[gabrielhj07]

I haven’t opened twitter once, the guard on 1M74 has been most informative.

 

[ivorytoast28]

If the social media team is distant / detatched from the control centre then they won't be able to get clarity around certain headcodes/services as much as those co-located with information/crew/service controllers.

And if that is how it is, then fine, I don't know what the expectations should be necessary.

But I'd rather they just stayed silent or word it in a way that is clear that is what they are doing than lead people astray by just reading the departure boards as the general public will interpret that (rightly or wrongly) as information from a more informed source.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Aug 2024 ==

I haven’t opened twitter once, the guard on 1M74 has been most informative.

Good to hear, hope you get moving from Southampton soon, looks like a long night on XC. I was just at Farnborough main for nearly 2 hours waiting and thought it'd be a good idea to look at all sources because why not. Luckily the time gave me plenty of opportunity to work out exactly what was going on myself and have time to browse the misinformation swr were putting up on twitter to others

 

[gabrielhj07]

Good to hear, hope you get moving from Southampton soon, looks like a long night on XC. I was just at Farnborough main for nearly 2 hours waiting and thought it'd be a good idea to look at all sources because why not. Luckily the time gave me plenty of opportunity to work out exactly what was going on myself and have time to browse the misinformation swr were putting up on twitter to others

XC is moving now, 1M78 joined 1M74 to run North via Salisbury.

 

[ivorytoast28]

XC is moving now, 1M78 joined 1M74 to run North via Salisbury.

Benefits of diesel I suppose, good to have a more interesting route too

 

[The exile]

Once again, it seems that providing accurate and timely information to the travelling public is treated as a “nice to have” rather than as second only to safety. As said - if they don’t know, then that is what they should say, rather than giving false information, but the only justifiable reason for any person whose job it is to inform the passenger not to know something is that no-one knows. But hey, we have a system where two information systems on the same platform can be giving out conflicting information for minutes on end, so why should we expect consideration for the passenger?

 

[MrJeeves]

XC is moving now, 1M78 joined 1M74 to run North via Salisbury.

I'm always impressed about how XC can just divert to avoid issues in many cases like this. Route knowledge and retention is critical, especially for operators like XC, and it does show that XC at least care about their service in that respect.

 

[HullRailMan]

I’m not sure there is any situation where society has gained any positive benefit from the existence of Twitter/X.

 

[gabrielhj07]

I'm always impressed about how XC can just divert to avoid issues in many cases like this. Route knowledge and retention is critical, especially for operators like XC, and it does show that XC at least care about their service in that respect.

Absolutely, was glad to be on XC rather than SWR yesterday.

 

[Belperpete]

I think it does depend somewhat on where the social media team is located.

During disruption, often times trains remain showing as running until they are actually cancelled by a CIS/information controller based on information from the service controller / other tools. If the social media team is just looking at official sources - and not something like RTT - they would look at something that appears to be running as "delayed" when in reality it isn't running at all. If the social media team is distant / detatched from the control centre then they won't be able to get clarity around certain headcodes/services as much as those co-located with information/crew/service controllers.

But if you embed them with the controllers, then they won't be embedded with those who deal with fares, station facilities, customer complaints, and the host of other queries that come in on such social media feeds. It is swings and roundabouts.

It also doesn't help that nowadays people expect definitive answers to things that can rapidly change in a fluid situation.

 

[Surreytraveller]

In some TOCs, Social Media staff are new entrants with no knowledge, training or experience in the railway. In others, they are on a roster that rotates with controllers.
Therefore some are clued up, and others (through no fault of their own) are clueless
Some managers don't like controllers doing Twitter, as controllers will tend to give honest answers to queries

 

[signed]

Twitter may not be the best way to get info, but to resolve issues it's usually the best way with most businesses now that most call centers have been outsourced

 

[Bungle965]

I'm always impressed about how XC can just divert to avoid issues in many cases like this. Route knowledge and retention is critical, especially for operators like XC, and it does show that XC at least care about their service in that respect.

Which is ironic because XC have been pruning a lot of route knowledge, for instance Birmingham drivers no longer sign via Styal which meant during the disruption with the trespasser on the Stockport viaduct yesterday services couldn’t divert around the problem.