TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
I am deliberating complaining to Cardiff Central staff about their dispatch team, because frankly, the disposition of almost the entire team, save one cheerful lady usually on Pl. 1/2 (two or three men I'm thinking of in particular), is nothing short of shocking.
Today, I watched an elderly dispatcher on Pl. 1/2 (looked a little bit like Mark Drakeford with a redder face) waft his dispatch pad in customer's faces to get them to go away (!!!!) when they were asking him about a cancelled Holyhead train.
To me, when I enquired as to whether the Manchester train had been cancelled, he told me "Well I don't know, do I, look it up." He screamed at an elderly woman, "MOVE, I CAN'T SEE THE SIGNAL! MOVE!! MOVE!!" and has bellowed at a number of people nowhere near the yellow line in a truly outrageous manner.
Yesterday, another dispatcher on Pl. 3/4, middle aged, scruffy brown beard, yelled at a customer "GET A MOVE ON!" when they attempted to board a train with heavy luggage, and then shouted at them, saying that the train was too busy and that it wouldn't fit on board. It did easily. He then made an announcement telling parents to "keep their children and dogs under control" after a dog started barking at two children passing by, who were laughing loudly as children do.
Not long ago, I myself asked a dispatcher if I had the right train (it turns out I did), and as he began to answer, a woman with pink hair snapped "No you can move along actually, now, we've got faults to discuss." OK, she actually turned out to be a driver of the adjacent 175, not a dispatch, but the dispatcher then turned his back to me and did not answer my question. When I asked another dispatcher where I could complain about this, he shrugged at me.
I've never known such poor conduct from a dispatch team. Nowhere else is it like this. I use Cardiff Central every day and this has really started to infuriate me. After hearing them bellow at people for the umpteenth time today, I very nearly bellowed at them. Has anyone else had similar encounters with rude dispatch staff at Cardiff Central?
Today, I watched an elderly dispatcher on Pl. 1/2 (looked a little bit like Mark Drakeford with a redder face) waft his dispatch pad in customer's faces to get them to go away (!!!!) when they were asking him about a cancelled Holyhead train.
To me, when I enquired as to whether the Manchester train had been cancelled, he told me "Well I don't know, do I, look it up." He screamed at an elderly woman, "MOVE, I CAN'T SEE THE SIGNAL! MOVE!! MOVE!!" and has bellowed at a number of people nowhere near the yellow line in a truly outrageous manner.
Yesterday, another dispatcher on Pl. 3/4, middle aged, scruffy brown beard, yelled at a customer "GET A MOVE ON!" when they attempted to board a train with heavy luggage, and then shouted at them, saying that the train was too busy and that it wouldn't fit on board. It did easily. He then made an announcement telling parents to "keep their children and dogs under control" after a dog started barking at two children passing by, who were laughing loudly as children do.
Not long ago, I myself asked a dispatcher if I had the right train (it turns out I did), and as he began to answer, a woman with pink hair snapped "No you can move along actually, now, we've got faults to discuss." OK, she actually turned out to be a driver of the adjacent 175, not a dispatch, but the dispatcher then turned his back to me and did not answer my question. When I asked another dispatcher where I could complain about this, he shrugged at me.
I've never known such poor conduct from a dispatch team. Nowhere else is it like this. I use Cardiff Central every day and this has really started to infuriate me. After hearing them bellow at people for the umpteenth time today, I very nearly bellowed at them. Has anyone else had similar encounters with rude dispatch staff at Cardiff Central?
