Asking for unit numbers

[sufian123]

As of today 1st May CrossCountry and Northern have seized to give out unit numbers if requested on social media platforms? They go people did it before social media existed. Other TOC's to follow.

 

[BMIFlyer]

Because there are certain people who ask 10 times a day for unit numbers, distracting the social media team from what they are actually there for - to give out help and advice to the travelling public!

There is a well known person in the North East who has 5 or 6 different user names on twitter alone and constantly bombards Northern and TPE with requests for unit numbers.

I for one am happy that this activity is ceasing.

 

[221129]

Good.

 

[sufian123]

I agree. I used to ask after seeing trains pass at speed. Now it'll be a mystery. Twitter mainly and Facebook. Only Arriva company doing it.

 

[GW43125]

I'm in two minds over it, however what gets me is Grand Central say it's for "safety reasons", when they may as well just say "boss says no"

Northern have taken a "We'll give you one a day" approach.

 

[221129]

It's new guidelines.

 

[Dhassell]

I'm in two minds over it, however what gets me is Grand Central say it's for "safety reasons", when they may as well just say "boss says no"

Exactly

 

[Kite159]

I'm in two minds over it, however what gets me is Grand Central say it's for "safety reasons", when they may as well just say "boss says no"

Imagine it, a spotter gets news their final 180 is out on a Bradford service and to make sure they get it into their book they trespass onto the ECML just to see it!

(Although I bet that has happened in the past).

I've seen some of the tweets of the particular person, and I can see why some Arriva TOCS have introduced the limit

 

[GW43125]

Imagine it, a spotter gets news their final 180 is out on a Bradford service and to make sure they get it into their book they trespass onto the ECML just to see it!

Valid point taken.

 

[Bungle965]

I think I have just stumbled across who you were on about BMIFlyer (see image)
Looking at his tweets it is embassesing and cringe at the same time. Fully support the TOCs in their decison.
Sam

 

[Dhassell]

I think I have just stumbled across who you were on about BMIFlyer (see image)
Sam

He must have had 10 accounts with different names over the past 2 weeks?
His famous phrase is 'Don't call police'! :P

 

[AlterEgo]

Unless the volume of enquiries is preventing the agents from doing their job, it strikes me as a bit petty.

That said, when I worked on a Twitter desk it was quite irritating to get daily unit number requests from spotters. I always thought part of the spotter appeal was building up a network of in-the-knows, so tweeting to ask seems a bit lazy.

 

[GW43125]

Unless the volume of enquiries is preventing the agents from doing their job, it strikes me as a bit petty.

That said, when I worked on a Twitter desk it was quite irritating to get daily unit number requests from spotters. I always thought part of the spotter appeal was building up a network of in-the-knows, so tweeting to ask seems a bit lazy.

"Wait and see what turns up" is part of the fun.

 

[Mag_seven]

Whatever happened to "the thrill of the chase"?

 

[GW43125]

I think I have just stumbled across who you were on about BMIFlyer (see image)
Looking at his tweets it is embassesing and cringe at the same time. Fully support the TOCs in their decison.
Sam

The person in question has just sent me a message... Delete...

 

[PHILIPE]

Because there are certain people who ask 10 times a day for unit numbers, distracting the social media team from what they are actually there for - to give out help and advice to the travelling public!

There is a well known person in the North East who has 5 or 6 different user names on twitter alone and constantly bombards Northern and TPE with requests for unit numbers.

I for one am happy that this activity is ceasing.

If it's the person I'm thinking of he bombards all TOCs, gets referred to Northern Rail and then asks whichever to find out from "internal site". The person suffers from autism and keeps changing his name.

 

[dk1]

If it's the person I'm thinking of he bombards all TOCs, gets referred to Northern Rail and then asks whichever to find out from "internal site". Tje person suffers from autism.

I thought there must be something wrong with that person. He/she asks Virgin West Coast for unit numbers on Newcastle-Middlesbrough route & when they advise them to contact Northern the reply is "No, you find out"

Sensible news that this has been brought in. Ridiculous that some spotters think this is acceptable but then some TOCs are far too accommodating for their own good.

 

[E_Reeves]

I never even knew TOCs did this...

 

[bb21]

This should not be the job for a Customer Relations employee. This is what enthusiast outlets are for.

That said, I am happy that social media teams are being accommodating, especially if they are aware of this guy's autism. If they are too busy and have more important things to deal with, they can always ignore such requests until a suitable time.

 

[221129]

This should not be the job for a Customer Relations employee. This is what enthusiast outlets are for.

That said, I am happy that social media teams are being accommodating, especially if they are aware of this guy's autism. If they are too busy and have more important things to deal with, they can always ignore such requests until a suitable time.

Unfortunately he is just the tip of the iceberg. It's not just XC that has changed their policy, I would expect to see all TOC twitter feeds follow suit soon.

 

[bb21]

Unfortunately he is just the tip of the iceberg. It's not just XC that has changed their policy, I would expect to see all TOC twitter feeds follow suit soon.

People who are simply greedy or lazy can just be dealt with in the same manner, ie. only when the social media team have spare time and pretty much at the bottom of the priority list. If they don't get answered then so be it. Any rudeness and/or abuse will mean even less chance of an answer.

 

[Segedunum]

Think I've asked Northern just about once for a unit number because it was my last required 156. They were a tad vague and it took a bit of work pinning down the exact diagram it was on but I appreciated it nonetheless as it got me what I wanted.

Otherwise I prefer to ask the TOPS request thread if I need anything specific or if I don't, just see what turns up. Like it's been said, TOC Twitter accounts aren't enthusiast gen sites.

 

[185143]

Because there are certain people who ask 10 times a day for unit numbers, distracting the social media team from what they are actually there for - to give out help and advice to the travelling public!

There is a well known person in the North East who has 5 or 6 different user names on twitter alone and constantly bombards Northern and TPE with requests for unit numbers.

I for one am happy that this activity is ceasing.

This individual in on twitter would bombard Northern with unit requests *constantly*. I came across him in December when I was heading to Newcastle-I tweeted Northern wanting to know where my last pacer was, and then he saw the tweets and started asking where loads of units were. Northern had already limited him to one per day by that point-so he'd turn to literally every other TOC, and even DMing people asking them to pretend they were on it and ask Northern.

I did offer, when I was in the North East, to pass on the units I saw, which I did. It was constant, and got very irritating very quickly! I'd say '1420xx has just passed me going to Saltburn' for example and get about 10 replies of 'where's 1420xx' (different numbers each time).

When Northern went to the one per day policy, someone told me on twitter that this individual actually lived in Plymouth, not Hartlepool as he's so frequently claimed in the past. Personally, I'm very confident he does live in the North East. I noticed today he apparently had 91111 Darlington-Leeds!

GWR ceased a while ago to give out info, apparently EMT have stopped too. I found out earlier that GC have stopped by asking for a 180-the first time in a very long time I've tweeted GC or XC (XC cover both) and got the response GW43125 mentioned. Strikes me as the case of 'one d******d spoiling it for everyone!

I do ask for units a fair bit, admittedly, however I'm always trying to plan my next move. I certainly wouldn't ask during disruption-or start demanding they answer me if they don't manage to get to it. I strongly agree with bb21-if someone asks for a unit and the TOC doesn't get round to answering, hard luck.

 

[221129]

GWR ceased a while ago to give out info, apparently EMT have stopped too. I found out earlier that GC have stopped by asking for a 180-the first time in a very long time I've tweeted GC or XC (XC cover both) and got the response GW43125 mentioned. Strikes me as the case of 'one d******d spoiling it for everyone!

The problem is it's not just one. There are a lot of them out there. As I say expect to see more TOCs following soon.

 

[AlterEgo]

If it's getting that bad with certain accounts just block them.

Seems a bit silly to just pee off a load of spotters.

I haven't much time for spotters but in general it's no big deal to keep them happy.

 

[Dhassell]

If it's getting that bad with certain accounts just block them.

I expect they do! They just create another twitter account and close the old one!

 

[LowLevel]

If it's getting that bad with certain accounts just block them.

Seems a bit silly to just pee off a load of spotters.

I haven't much time for spotters but in general it's no big deal to keep them happy.

The request volumes are significant and largely from young kids who owing to the geographical range of the requests are just asking for the sake of it, along with regular requests for merchandise or other junk like that.

It's no different to people going to the station supervisor's office and asking for train gen.

Then you have the weirdos who think they're actually friends with the people operating the social media accounts who somehow end up finding out who the staff actually are and contacting them outside work.

I've had to deal with rail enthusiasts with obvious mental health problems who have convinced themselves that they are friends or even worse with staff who have no interest in them beyond a professional level and it's gotten to the point of having the police involved. London Midland I believe have had particular problems with one such person in real life and on Twitter and I know it's not a one off - they get quite creepy at times.

At one point some social media folk thought they were being nice giving a train number to a kid and it's now snowballed out of control.

I'm glad it's stopping.

 

[Chrism20]

The request volumes are significant and largely from young kids who owing to the geographical range of the requests are just asking for the sake of it, along with regular requests for merchandise or other junk like that.

It's no different to people going to the station supervisor's office and asking for train gen.

Then you have the weirdos who think they're actually friends with the people operating the social media accounts who somehow end up finding out who the staff actually are and contacting them outside work.

I've had to deal with rail enthusiasts with obvious mental health problems who have convinced themselves that they are friends or even worse with staff who have no interest in them beyond a professional level and it's gotten to the point of having the police involved. London Midland I believe have had particular problems with one such person in real life and on Twitter and I know it's not a one off - they get quite creepy at times.

At one point some social media folk thought they were being nice giving a train number to a kid and it's now snowballed out of control.

I'm glad it's stopping.

Some of that does sound pretty freaky and I can see how some staff would get freaked out with some of it.

I must admit I don't pay much attention to twitter unless there is disruption but I was on it the other day and saw the GC response about unit number and another asking TPE to check on the internal system where a pacer was.

Another thing that really annoys me with twitter is when someone else jumps into a series of tweets to answer for the TOC. There are a few that do it regularly and it's only a matter of time until someone gets the wrong answer and the TOC doesn't notice in time and the passenger ends up with a penalty fare or having to shell out for another ticket.

 

[PHILIPE]

With all due respect to the person from the North East whom we have been discussing, it would be difficult to reason with him due to his autism condition. I know this is not an ideal situation but we have to sympathise with the individual concerned.

 

[455driver]

With all due respect to the person from the North East whom we have been discussing, it would be difficult to reason with him due to his autism condition. I know this is not an ideal situation but we have to sympathise with the individual concerned.

Reasoning with people who suffer from Autism is relatively easy (most autism sufferers are quite intelligent) as long as you go about it the right way, although some do like to use autism as an excuse for poor behaviour and just plain ignorance.

I speak as a father of a child with mid to high spectrum Autism and ADHD so do have a lot of experience of it and not as one who read how to do it from a book!