Right time departure or poor customer service

[notadriver]

T-15 seconds - hustle alarm sounds
T-5 seconds - doors are closed and train is ready to leave.
On departure time - 4 late runners appear banging on the doors to get on.

Should the train re-open it's doors for customer service?

 

[Flamingo]

T-15 seconds - hustle alarm sounds
T-5 seconds - doors are closed and train is ready to leave.
On departure time - 4 late runners appear banging on the doors to get on.

Should the train re-open it's doors for customer service?

No. End of. Especially if they are carrying fast food/coffee. Everybody else made it to the train, and have connections, buses, and other things to do, and it's very poor customer service to them to delay them unnecessarily.

However, if there is not a guard/dispatch staff to ensure they are standing clear of the train when it starts to move it's probably best to let them on, as otherwise when one or more of the dozy buggers ends up under the train, it'll be your fault.

 

[themeone]

Provided the latecomers can be kept back from the departing train then no - it's not customer service to delay maybe hundreds for the benefit of a handful.

Also 20 seconds delay at the start can easily mushroom into a far more substantial delay further into the journey.

 

[Antman]

T-15 seconds - hustle alarm sounds
T-5 seconds - doors are closed and train is ready to leave.
On departure time - 4 late runners appear banging on the doors to get on.

Should the train re-open it's doors for customer service?

I guess it depends on circumstances, on high frequency services certainly not but if there wasn't another train for an hour or more or it was the last one of the day then probably yes

 

[reb0118]

We need all the facts here. Where they good looking?

 

[Senex]

T-15 seconds - hustle alarm sounds
T-5 seconds - doors are closed and train is ready to leave.
On departure time - 4 late runners appear banging on the doors to get on.

Should the train re-open it's doors for customer service?

No -- but it does need to be properly advertised that T = the time when the train begins to move. It's far from generally clear in this country whether T is that or the time when the departure sequence begins, and too many people think the latter (whereas the WTT is based on the former).

 

[Carntyne]

You've said it yourself, departure time. Not time to arrive to get on.

 

[hounddog]

How about what happened to me at Camden Road last week? The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

 

[313103]

How about what happened to me at Camden Road last week? The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

The Guard is to blame in this instance.........
Oh wait I forgot they got rid of us. Must be the only other member of staff then.

 

[najaB]

Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

Love the attitude. :roll:

The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

If the platform clock was correct, and it was a full minute before departure time, then the driver closed the doors early. Simple really.

 

[70014IronDuke]

I would say: case by case.

If it is, say, a 20 minute (or better) interval service, then no way. As others have noted, you hold a train for 45 seconds for four passengers, but you delay perhaps 200 people for a minimum of 45 seconds, and more if the train should lose its path.

But if it is what used to be, under BR, an advertised connection, well, I disagree. I don't know what they do today, but soon after privatisation there were reports of what used to be regularly held connections ignored with passengers running down the platforms for the onward train. I'm thinking of Swindon-Cheltenham DMUs leaving seconds after a later running HST arrives from Paddington, Glasgow & S Western services arriving at Carlisle and passengers hammering on the windows of Euston trains still in the station, but with doors locked. Things like that, which, according to reports, sounded incredibly frustrating and liable to drive passengers away from rail travel for life.
With BR, you at least had one company in which to sort such issues out. With the fragmented railway, and everyone trying to protect their own *ss*s, well ..... very difficult.

 

[XC90]

I presume the 2 bells have not been given yet......I would open the doors.

We are not Ryanair. Also depends if platform staff are dispatching because they are in their sequence and its up to them.

 

[trentside]

I re-opened the doors for some late running passengers yesterday, as I was still stood on the platform and decided a 20 second hit was ok on a service with a two hourly (or less) frequency. If I'd have already shut my local door, then it would've been two on the buzzer and we'd have been away. Once the doors are fully shut, we don't re-open them except in an emergency situation - rules are rules, and they override customer service whether you like that or not.

 

[carriageline]

How about what happened to me at Camden Road last week? The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

I agree the doors maybe shouldn't of been shut, but we have argued plenty of times why trains sometimes leave early etc.

But please, if your arriving a minute before a train is booked to depart, can you explain how you are completely blameless?

If you had a flight which check in closes at 6:30, would you AIM to arrive at 6:29? If a shop shut at 22:00, would you arrive at 21:59?

I have no sympathy for people who do everything last minute, aim to get at the station EARLY.

 

[Searle]

Depends on the circumstances. If it's the last train of the day, I'd say yes, you should reopen the doors. If it's a metro service and the next train is 15 minutes away, the doors should stay closed imo

 

[northwichcat]

If it's the last train of the day, I'd say yes, you should reopen the doors.

What if... it is the last train of the day but passengers are on board who need to make a connection with the last service on a different line? Delaying the train could result in a missed path and to cause the passengers who were on the train on time to miss their connection.

But then those passengers on the platform after the doors have shut might be late because of a late arrival of another service.

 

[Max]

How about what happened to me at Camden Road last week? The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

Not uncommon on London Overground sadly. It's a known issue that trains frequently depart Blackhorse Road westbound as much as 2 minutes early! Conveniently, there are no Overground staff at this station so there's little that can be done to stop it. While this sort of thing is fine on London Underground where services are so frequent, it's not really acceptable on a line where trains are only every 15 minutes (or less depending on time of day).

 

[gimmea50anyday]

So wjere do we draw the line? At what point do we say enough is enough? If i waited for every straggler that turned up at my train when it was timw to leave, id still be waiting on the platform!

 

[Carlisle]

Its been said on here previously that all London Overground stations are staffed from first to last train

 

[hassaanhc]

Surely "right-time departure = customer service"?

 

[t0ffeeman]

How about what happened to me at Camden Road last week? The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

All those screens are wrong. If there is 61 sec till departure it'll say 2mins. Between 60-01 sec it'll say 1 min.

 

[Flamingo]

Surely "right-time departure = customer service"?

Only if you are the customer on the train. Otherwise, it's " The bloody jobsworth started the train as I was running down the platform"...

 

[FordFocus]

You dammed if you do, your dammed if you don't.

Let late runners on, it's a constant stream of them running over the footbridge. Now the train is 1 minute late, next station is similar, now it's nearly 2 minutes down. Possibly misses it's path through a very busy junction, 5 late now. People miss connections for their next train. Miss PPM and a please explain has found it's way to you from control.

Don't let late runners on, the majority i.e. the passengers on the train are on time but the railway and traincrew get a bad rep for 'poor customer service'.

You just can't win.

 

[313103]

Its been said on here previously that all London Overground stations are staffed from first to last train

They are!

Blackhorse Road is a London Underground station currently staffed by LU members.

 

[notadriver]

Thanks for all replies. I think passengers notice a right time arrival into London (for example) and often their plans depend on the service running exactly on time as I see many leaping and running off the train once the doors are released. (And no it's not because of driving) lol.

 

[craigybagel]

Best piece of advice I got when I as a dispatcher - it might be good customer service to small amount of people you're holding a train for, but what about the hundreds of people already on the train? They're your customers too.

 

[redbutton]

How about what happened to me at Camden Road last week? The door button was lit but as I reached out to press it the driver closed the doors. When he pulled out the countdown display on the platform still showed 1 minute to departure. Please explain why the driver was completely blameless here.

In addition to the aforementioned "feature" of the departure boards reading "1 min" all the way down to departure time, I can add the perspective of a driver of similar DOO services.

The in-cab monitors that the driver is looking at to decide when to close the doors and start the train gives a very narrow view of the side of the carriage only. I can't usually see if someone is running for the train until they've arrived at it.

So it just sounds like bad timing that you may have entered the driver's view just as his/her finger was on the button.

Personally, I wouldn't reopen the doors in that situation, as it would add at least 30 seconds to the process, which would cause me to lose my path. I drive in a very congested part of the network, as do LOROL, so losing the path means a potential 5 minute wait at one of the major junctions further along the route or at the terminus station.

It doesn't help that the last time I did reopen the doors for someone who ran for the train, they then proceeded to hold the doors for their friends to finish buying the tickets or coffees or something. That really ground my gears.

OTOH, if I manage to see someone making a genuine effort to run for the train, and I haven't closed doors yet, I'm usually inclined to give them an extra 10 seconds or so. If they don't then board at the nearest open door and instead hunt for the emptiest carriage, then they've exhausted the opportunity and I close doors.

But everything depends on being able to see the person in the first place, which I just may not be able to do until it's too late.

 

[MrPIC]

Similar to as stated for me (DOO driver). If I'm at a station where the entrance is close to the cab and I can see someone running for the train, I'll generally wait. If they are sauntering along not a care in the world then they'll have to wait for the next one. On some stock too once you've pressed close all doors, you can't simply re-release them immediately as it screws up the system.

 

[LAX54]

T-15 seconds - hustle alarm sounds
T-5 seconds - doors are closed and train is ready to leave.
On departure time - 4 late runners appear banging on the doors to get on.

Should the train re-open it's doors for customer service?

Not a chance, delay a trainload for a few people who can't get there in time, you are looking at a minimum of a 3 min delay, then maybe loss of pathing, and worse missed connections, then of course delay 'fees' to the TOC

 

[sarahj]

Problem is for us its,:

Phone the driver to release the doors.
They then open, folks get on, but might faff.
Go through the dispatch sequence again.
And off. Now about 1 min down,
x by 19 and whooaaaaaa (Brighton to Southampton)

Plus late at Arundel Junction, so loose some more, perhaps with a stopper now in front.
Late at Warblington Junction, No slot for you in SWT land, well your so late so you will have to terminate at Fareham.

So thats stuffed all the passengers looking to change for a connection to Cardiff and Cornwall.

And if you re-open for one lot, what about the next lot, and the next. I could be still sitting at Hove.

Most times you just gotta go.
Train departs at 00.01
Blow whistle at 00.00.30
Close doors, and then go.