Passenger compares himself to war criminal

[GodAtum]

Did anyone see the passenger interviewed on BBC news who said if Southern treated war criminals like they treat passengers they would of broke the geneva convention?

I'm trying to find footage of it but cannnot.

 

[scotsman]

He has no idea how lucky he is...Northern have worse things to contend with

 

[LE Greys]

Has he anything to compare it with? My grandad was a POW in Italy (which I presume is what the passenger was really talking about) and he was transported in real cattle trucks several times, no seats and no heating in the middle of winter. In the summer, conditions were far worse than the Circle Line. He was also underfed and made to work for his captors, at least until he escaped.

I don't see that happening on Southern at the moment.

 

[dk1]

Damn them. Some London & South East commuters really get on your wick. Constantly banging on about how hard done they are & how much the poor darlings have to pay for a season ticket. Well either move nearer to London, drive or shut the hell up. Firstly though, get a life & realise thing ain't that bad.

 

[asylumxl]

Now, if he'd said that's how Southern's RPI treated people, THEN his statement would be more accurate.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

What a complete and utter idiot.
To even compare commuting by rail with being a POW firstly shows two things:

• He isn't mentally stable to be released to into the public environment;
• He has no respect at all for any soul who took part in the Second World War and was captured.

I would like to know exactly how having rail services disrupted for two weeks for one of the coldest winters for a while compares to being caught, enslaved and/or tortured by Germans/Japanese people.

Hate commuting by rail?Simple:

• Move closer to your place of work; or
• Get a bus pass.

What an absolute idiot.

 

[AlterEgo]

My grandad was a POW in Italy (which I presume is what the passenger was really talking about)

A POW is not a "war criminal".

War criminals are people such as Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein et al. The Geneva Convention is extremely strict as to how these individuals must be treated during a war crimes trial, and in detention etc. In this respect, the commuter probably had a point.

POWs are ordinary soldiers and officers captured during war by an opposing force.

Damn them. Some London & South East commuters really get on your wick. Constantly banging on about how hard done they are & how much the poor darlings have to pay for a season ticket. Well either move nearer to London, drive or shut the hell up. Firstly though, get a life & realise thing ain't that bad.

Surely you are not serious. If I was paying four or five grand for a season ticket to never get a seat, have the trains turn up late or not at all.....I'd be pretty miffed.

 

[Mojo]

Damn them. Some London & South East commuters really get on your wick. Constantly banging on about how hard done they are & how much the poor darlings have to pay for a season ticket. Well either move nearer to London, drive or shut the hell up. Firstly though, get a life & realise thing ain't that bad.

Do you realise how expensive it is to live in a nice area of London, or how expensive and slow it is to drive? Even if you do live in London, chances are you'll still have to find a way of transporting yourself to work in the morning; most likely on a crowded Tube train.

 

[yorkie]

Surely you are not serious. If I was paying four or five grand for a season ticket to never get a seat, have the trains turn up late or not at all.....I'd be pretty miffed.

Indeed. If a restaurant worker said "damn those customers, why don't they eat at home or somewhere else?" they'd be shown the door instantly. If someone hates dealing with customers as much as that then they need to get a different job.

 

[dk1]

Do you realise how expensive it is to live in a nice area of London, or how expensive and slow it is to drive? Even if you do live in London, chances are you'll still have to find a way of transporting yourself to work in the morning; most likely on a crowded Tube train.

Yes i do. I also know how much many earn. They have all that travelling time to think up things to whinge about.

 

[mumrar]

There's a big difference between being miffed, and comparing your situation to that of a war criminal. Yes his journey probably is delayed quite often, but in this respect, commuters are like gamblers. A gambler will tell you when they win, but hardly ever when they lose. A commuter will stretch your ear off about a delayed train, but they will never engage anyone over a punctual service.

 

[dk1]

There's a big difference between being miffed, and comparing your situation to that of a war criminal. Yes his journey probably is delayed quite often, but in this respect, commuters are like gamblers. A gambler will tell you when they win, but hardly ever when they lose. A commuter will stretch your ear off about a delayed train, but they will never engage anyone over a punctual service.

Exactly my point. I work trains into a London terminal every day. Mostly i arrive early or on time. But we pull in 15 minutes late one day & 8 the next & they can't remember the last time they where on time for work. Reminds me of Steve Wright's old radio 1 slogan 'For the millionth time, stop exagerating' :roll:.

 

[mumrar]

Waits for the mention of padding for the early or on time arrival.........

 

[87015]

Yes i do. I also know how much many earn. They have all that travelling time to think up things to whinge about.

You know how much everyone working in London earns? :roll:

There is more people commuting into London than just the high earners, even from Anglia...

 

[dk1]

Waits for the mention of padding for the early or on time arrival.........

 

[87015]

Waits for the mention of padding for the early or on time arrival.........

Public diff does me no good going home!!

 

[dk1]

You know how much everyone working in London earns? :roll:

I did say many, not all :roll:

 

[AlterEgo]

Yes i do. I also know how much many earn. They have all that travelling time to think up things to whinge about.

Sorry, but a late train is poor service to the customer, regardless of whether you like it or not. I know nearly all delays are NOT the direct fault of the TOC, but the TOC is there to provide a service to the public. If trains are late or cancelled, it's fair to expect your customer to be annoyed.

If you were working in a restaurant and you gave 95% of your customers superb food and service, but 5% had to stand to eat, and late service, you'd expect those 5% to be pretty hacked off.

Sometimes I wonder whether TOCs even bother telling some staff about customer service.

 

[dk1]

But trains are late & things do go wrong. Rail reliability is a British tradition we all love to hate. Dont think things will ever change really.

TOCs so try to do the customer service thing but we all love to hide when things go pear shaped, usually cos we haven't got any idea whats the problem or how long it will take to resolve.

I have learnt over the years though that most passengers are nice & pretty understanding & they are the ones you should remember rather than the loud mouth who thinks he is the spokesperson for them all & often arrogant & quite rude.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Sorry, but a late train is poor service to the customer, regardless of whether you like it or not. I know nearly all delays are NOT the direct fault of the TOC, but the TOC is there to provide a service to the public. If trains are late or cancelled, it's fair to expect your customer to be annoyed.

If you were working in a restaurant and you gave 95% of your customers superb food and service, but 5% had to stand to eat, and late service, you'd expect those 5% to be pretty hacked off.

Sometimes I wonder whether TOCs even bother telling some staff about customer service.

considering numerous different factors, personally I think we do pretty much O.K. yes things go wrong at times, but hate to be a killjoy half the time its the pax who cause the delays, On northern our trains are on avg 25 years old and still we have about a 92% success rate on trains on time, down south they may be newer trains in alot of areas but technology brings more than its fair share of problems!

 

[AlterEgo]

I agree with you - train service in this country is generally pretty good. I'm starting a new job with a TOC in customer relations soon, hence my interest. I'm not anti-railway - far from it! I love the railways, even with its foibles.

A passenger comparing himself to Hitler is pretty far-out, but hey, that's life.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

I agree with you - train service in this country is generally pretty good. I'm starting a new job with a TOC in customer relations soon, hence my interest. I'm not anti-railway - far from it! I love the railways, even with its foibles.

A passenger comparing himself to Hitler is pretty far-out, but hey, that's life.

I've been called a Hitler a few times lol

 

[YorkshireBear]

just seen it on russel howards good news LOL is all i have to say

 

[The Barlow Boy]

Damn them. Some London & South East commuters really get on your wick. Constantly banging on about how hard done they are & how much the poor darlings have to pay for a season ticket. Well either move nearer to London, drive or shut the hell up. Firstly though, get a life & realise thing ain't that bad.

You really haven't a clue have you. What on earth are you doing in a customer orientated job?

 

[yorkie]

Exactly my point. I work trains into a London terminal every day. Mostly i arrive early or on time. But we pull in 15 minutes late one day & 8 the next & they can't remember the last time they where on time for work. Reminds me of Steve Wright's old radio 1 slogan 'For the millionth time, stop exagerating' :roll:.

Are you a guard on the 'InterCity' trains on the Norwich-London route? (if your location is right, it appears so!) Nick W assures me you're all friendly & cheerful on that route... was he not quite correct?

 

[Pumbaa]

Are you a guard on the 'InterCity' trains on the Norwich-London route? (if your location is right, it appears so!) Nick W assures me you're all friendly & cheerful on that route... was he not quite correct?

Thought he was a driver? Doesn't need to be friendly and cheerful in that case!

 

[LE Greys]

A POW is not a "war criminal".

War criminals are people such as Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein et al. The Geneva Convention is extremely strict as to how these individuals must be treated during a war crimes trial, and in detention etc. In this respect, the commuter probably had a point.

POWs are ordinary soldiers and officers captured during war by an opposing force.

I was merely trying to make his statement make sense by reinterpreting what he had said, and incidentally suggesting that the conditions were worse. Most captured criminals, whether in war or otherwise, are transported in relatively comfortable conditions, because it is easy to escape from a cattle truck by ripping the floor up. The point I was trying to make is that people have been transported by rail in conditions far worse than what we currently have on Southern, where temperatures are controlled, at least 50% get seats and 90% of the time there is access to a lavatory.

Criminals of any kind usually go by road, but when by rail, they would have guards and travel in a normal seat.

POWs in Italy and Germany usually travelled in cattle trucks or closed vans when being moved en masse, on passenger trains when being moved in small numbers. There was moderate overcrowding, but they were given food and drink on a regular basis.

People being sent to concentration camps, and POWs in Japan, travelled in vans with severe overcrowding and no food or drink.

Commuters on Southern generally aren't as comfortable as criminals under transport on rail, but infinitely more comfortable than any of the others. If the individual who made the comment was talking literally about war criminals (which I think was a mistake on his part) he might actually have had a point. As it was, I think he was mistaken on several counts.

 

[Striker]

Why are people on here, and Russell Howard on his TV show, talking about POW's when he said "war criminals"?

 

[O L Leigh]

The punters generally do it to themselves.

I ran 4 vice 8 a couple of nights ago on one of our busiest evening peak services out of London as a consequence of a train fault. Did the extent of the crowding deter people from attempting to wedge themselves on? Did they decide to wait for one of the many 8 car trains that were going to follow? Well, what do you think...?

This isn't an excuse because sometimes things happen that result in a poor service being offered, as was the case the other evening. However, it doesn't take a lot to deploy just a modicum of commonsense and to vary your journey or wait for another train when things go wrong.

As for the wider point about overcrowding, it comes down to that most unpleasant of factors and the one that the fare and tax-paying passenger doesn't like to think about; money. Yes we would gladly run more and longer trains. All we need to do is 4-track a significant length of our core route, lengthen train platforms, procure the rolling stock and employ and train the required staff. How much, you say...? An extra hike in my ticket price...? More money taken in tax...? Yeah, right!! Go on, do one...!!

O L Leigh

 

[LE Greys]

Why are people on here, and Russell Howard on his TV show, talking about POW's when he said "war criminals"?

To make the point that rail travel could be a lot worse, which makes the man look like an idiot (at the risk of looking like one myself).