Stupid questions from passengers

[Irascible]

Tbf, at Havant that's a valid piece of information several ways - primarily in the case of a train terminating at Portsmouth and Southsea (or Fratton), but also if a train was diverted away from Portsmouth generally to Southampton. Hopefully there was enough confidence not to need to clarify that the Chichester or Guildford trains weren't stopping at Portsmouth Habour either!

"This train is not stopping at Portsmouth Harbour. Next stop Ryde, and all stations to Shanklin" presumably

There *are* stupid questions. Double-checking where the train is going despite being signed is not one of them given trains do get replatformed occasionally & at least in the past the displays have not necessarily kept up with that, but anything indicating a basic lack of observation is not something that should be pandered to. Not something to be rude about, obviously.

 

[Lockwood]

I think there is a difference between an uninformed question - the one upthread about a Penzance train and Plymouth is an example of that... I don't know my rail geography down that way very well. They are both in the south west. It is a reasonable question for someone unfamiliar with the area.

Is this train that blatantly has nowhere for passengers sit the train I need - that's a daft question.

Is this train going towards the buffers - daft question

What does that button do - how do you do train driver thing with a car diver lens... uninformed rather than daft.

Tannoy: "The next train from Platform 1 is the 09:20 Foo Trains service to Z... The train now approaching Platform 1 is the 09:20 Foo Trains service to Z, calling at X, Y, and Z". Passenger: "Does this train call at Z?". Inattentive, yes. Daft, possibly.

 

[Topological]

"Would you like another one?"

From any first-class host about any item a passenger has had before. Even under the law of diminishing returns there is still only one answer.

(Almost there with would you like anything free, but it is possible that someone might not actually gain a positive utility from any of the items on offer)

 

[AM9]

When you're stood on the blocks at a terminus or bay and they ask which direction it's going in you wonder if they're familiar with the basic laws of physics... they do want to know that as well so they'll be facing forwards, they're not checking the destination.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Aug 2024 ==

Given all the mentions of travelling facing forwards with the sun coming in througn the windows or wanting to arrive at either the front or rear for a train change or station exit, not a daft question if posed at Liskeard P3, - or Colchester P5, or Heysham P1, (and probably a few more).

 

[43066]

Pax: “Is this the train to Hinckley?”

Me: “No, this one is for London.”

Pax: “Awwww. Can’t you pull over in Hinckley?”

Me: “Erm, not really.”

To be fair I think (hope!) she was joking…

 

[D6130]

Is this train that blatantly has nowhere for passengers sit the train I need - that's a daft question.

That reminds me of the classic Scottish Region control log entry from the late 1970s which was framed and hung on the wall in the Train Planning Office at Buchanan House when I worked there. It went something like this:

Man walks up to Montrose ticket office and asks the clerk for a single to Arbroath. Clerk issues ticket and says 'The next train at platform 1 is yours'.

A short time later, a Southbound freight rolls to a stop in platform 1 awaiting clearance of the single line section from Usan by a Northbound train. After this has happened, the freight duly sets-off Southwards....and the signalman at Usan - while checking the passing train - is surprised to see a man sitting in the bottom of an empty 16 ton mineral wagon contentedly reading a newspaper.

Signalman at Usan sends 'Stop and Examine' to the next box at Lunan Bay, where the man is detrained and escorted into the brakevan. On arrival at Arbroath, the train is met by officers of the British Transport Police, who take him away for questioning. Apparently he was already known to them for past eccentricities.

 

[AM9]

I've learned while working in the railway that no question is "stupid", and sometimes you do have to assume its their first time travelling and its best to bring it back to the absolute basics to ensure people understand. So I'd never take the mick or make anyone feel stupid for asking questions. Not everyone is as knowledgeable on the railway and to be honest a lot of aspects are confusing for most.

That said, one of my favourite questions I've had multiple times is "which direction is the train going?". We're sat in a bay platform with buffer stops, so if it went that way I'd be concerned

Whilst some staff might dine out on such a seemingly stupid question, some might be asking where the train is going. Whilst I can be a bit of a stickler about using correct terms and words, anyone customer facing in any environment should recognise that (as has been said above), to someone unfamiliar with the railway or even just the location, they might actually be asking something in a way that the responder doesn't recognise in their role-centric world.

 

[Adam Williams]

3rd party apps like Trainline etc. Cause so much havoc.

Perhaps train operators should include some more time in their training of staff who have contact with customers on exactly where these third party apps get their data from. Then again, it wouldn't make them look very good.

 

[LYradial]

I think this thread just shows how two different people see the same six words in two different ways.

Which way is this train going? now if I was at liverpool lime st. I know they can go south to London, east to Manchester etc, or north to Preston onwards. So asking which way it is going seems to me a reasonable question.

the answer I’ll get will depend upon whether I am asking a liverpudlian or a guard from London.


(yes being one myself I know what reply I will get from the Liverpudlian, said with a broad grin it will not be polite, nor will my reply, said with an equally broad grin, that's the way it is)

 

[43066]

Pax (who got off the train when I was changing ends at a destination in the East Midlands where lots of people speak with Scottish accents): “When does this train get to Luton Airport”?

Me: “It was the first station after we left London, didn’t you notice?”

Pax: “No, I thought it was the last station”.

Me: “Well we’re going back there now so you’d better get back on. We will be there in an hour.”

Pax: “I’m going to miss my flight now”.

I didn’t really know how to respond to that!

 

[voyagerdude220]

It’s not that stupid. A lot of hearing requires tuning in to the tone and accent of the person you are listening to.

So a bit of pre conversation before important question is useful.

Especially if you are a long way from home and the accent isn’t what you are used to.

(as an aside, you can really help people understand by making sure you say all the words and avoid spoken abbreviations. My experience comes from running a team who were always on the phone to people of all kinds of backgrounds. Accents are cool but if you skip half the words, nobody understands)

I disagree as it makes my job in the Ticket Office much harder-

Why can't some people simply ask "when's the next train to (their destination)?"

Asking for the next train to x and y is needless in my opinion.

Also it can lead me to giving incorrect information- e.g. Pax asking for what they think is the destination of their needed train- not knowing their may be other trains taking different routes to that place- then come back saying it doesn't stop at (their destination).

Or of course during disruption said train might run fast, no longer calling at several intermediate stations- but if they ask for [destination station] and not their intended station I wouldn't know.

 

[BeijingDave]

Pax: Can I have a return please

Booking Office Clerk: Where to sir ?

Pax: Here of course !

LOL

 

[Narrowgauge725]

Whilst driving my Fire Service car using blue lights a police officer pulled me over and asked “where’s the fire then?” I just pointed to the rather large pall of thick black smoke visible for miles around and drove on to the fire.

 

[Whisky Papa]

I've declined so far to offer any of the dozens of on-the-job examples I could recall of from my years on the railways and buses prior to that - I'm sympathetic to the feelings of passengers and agree that the railway isn't always great at making information as easy to understand as it should be. If I had time, I sometimes asked 'what makes you think that?' when somebody had the wrong end of the stick.

But just to give support to the argument that 'we've all done it' I will nominate myself for two retail clangers, if you will indulge me:

I purchased a tower PC and monitor from a well-known retailer on a trading estate in Chadderton, having driven over one weekend with my wife and son. Got it home, our son got it working, but we suddenly realised it had only two USB ports instead of the promised four. Very odd...

As the trading estate was just off my route home from work, I called as soon as I had finished a suitable early turn. There it was still on display, with the two USB ports on the front which mine lacked, as well as two on the rear we did have. By chance the same salesman was present and remembered us, so I explained the problem.

'Ah' he said 'so yours looks like this?' and pulled up a small flap on the front of the tower which neatly covered the two ports. We both collapsed laughing and indeed I said that he would be telling this in the canteen later.

Fast forward a few years and the next purchase was two laptops (on a very good offer) which I had ordered online to collect from Comet in Burnley. After waiting for some time in at the customer services desk with my printed confirmations in hand, a helpful young assistant came over to us. I told him I had come to pick these items up and handed him the printouts.

'Sir, I take it you haven't realised you are actually in Currys, not Comet?'

 

[LYradial]

I've declined so far to offer any of the dozens of on-the-job examples I could recall of from my years on the railways and buses prior to that - I'm sympathetic to the feelings of passengers and agree that the railway isn't always great at making information as easy to understand as it should be. If I had time, I sometimes asked 'what makes you think that?' when somebody had the wrong end of the stick.

But just to give support to the argument that 'we've all done it' I will nominate myself for two retail clangers, if you will indulge me:

I purchased a tower PC and monitor from a well-known retailer on a trading estate in Chadderton, having driven over one weekend with my wife and son. Got it home, our son got it working, but we suddenly realised it had only two USB ports instead of the promised four. Very odd...

As the trading estate was just off my route home from work, I called as soon as I had finished a suitable early turn. There it was still on display, with the two USB ports on the front which mine lacked, as well as two on the rear we did have. By chance the same salesman was present and remembered us, so I explained the problem.

'Ah' he said 'so yours looks like this?' and pulled up a small flap on the front of the tower which neatly covered the two ports. We both collapsed laughing and indeed I said that he would be telling this in the canteen later.

Fast forward a few years and the next purchase was two laptops (on a very good offer) which I had ordered online to collect from Comet in Burnley. After waiting for some time in at the customer services desk with my printed confirmations in hand, a helpful young assistant came over to us. I told him I had come to pick these items up and handed him the printouts.

'Sir, I take it you haven't realised you are actually in Currys, not Comet?'

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2024 ==

Another example, not railway, roofer climbs down ladder, says cash will be ok, er how do I get home from here?

what he really means is. Where can I turn my wagon round, it wont fit down this narrow lane if I go straight on.

 

[Segedunum]

Pax (who got off the train when I was changing ends at a destination in the East Midlands where lots of people speak with Scottish accents): “When does this train get to Luton Airport”?

Me: “It was the first station after we left London, didn’t you notice?”

Pax: “No, I thought it was the last station”.

Me: “Well we’re going back there now so you’d better get back on. We will be there in an hour.”

Pax: “I’m going to miss my flight now”.

I didn’t really know how to respond to that!

It's a stretch (as I don't know how long ago this was) but the 360s do announce themselves as the "Luton Airport Express to Luton Airport Parkway" (followed by saying they're a service to Corby). So, if they'd heard the first part then proceeded to zone out...

However, you'd have thought that stopping at not one station but two with Luton in the name would have been a hint...

 

[Spartacus]

Given all the mentions of travelling facing forwards with the sun coming in througn the windows or wanting to arrive at either the front or rear for a train change or station exit, not a daft question if posed at Liskeard P3, - or Colchester P5, or Heysham P1, (and probably a few more).

Are you thinking Colchester 4 and Morecambe 2 (could be a football match!)? I wouldn't count Colchester as one as even though there are buffers, it's still a through platform. Maybe 5 or similar platforms if they've arrived off another service and not realised the train they're boarding is in a bay. Morecambe maybe, given the reasonably long headhunt, but then you're not directly looking at buffers, so question would maybe be reasonable, though you can see them coming into the station on foot. Liskeard 3? No. Daft question. Buffers are right there.

I've not encountered anyone who seems to be anything but interesting in which way the train's going to go straight away. 9/10 times you're even stood close to the buffers, or the passenger has had to walk past them.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2024 ==

Pax (who got off the train when I was changing ends at a destination in the East Midlands where lots of people speak with Scottish accents): “When does this train get to Luton Airport”?

Me: “It was the first station after we left London, didn’t you notice?”

Pax: “No, I thought it was the last station”.

Me: “Well we’re going back there now so you’d better get back on. We will be there in an hour.”

Pax: “I’m going to miss my flight now”.

I didn’t really know how to respond to that!

I've known someone arrive at Luton wanting Gatwick They'd have had to have been creative and quick with their connections too to get there by any time that night, it was getting late on a Saturday.

 

[43066]

It's a stretch (as I don't know how long ago this was) but the 360s do announce themselves as the "Luton Airport Express to Luton Airport Parkway" (followed by saying they're a service to Corby). So, if they'd heard the first part then proceeded to zone out...

However, you'd have thought that stopping at not one station but two with Luton in the name would have been a hint...

This was less than a year ago - and yes I did wonder about that - the announcement northbound is a little clumsy (it works fine heading south with London being both the next and final stop).

It was late morning, she was totally sober and confirmed she hadn’t fallen asleep on the train. You’d think someone expecting a journey of twenty minutes, and with a flight to catch, would realise something was amiss a little sooner than arriving at a destination an hour further down the line!

I've known someone arrive at Luton wanting Gatwick They'd have had to have been creative and quick with their connections too to get there by any time that night, it was getting late on a Saturday.

Oops!

 

[AF91]

L

Perhaps train operators should include some more time in their training of staff who have contact with customers on exactly where these third party apps get their data from. Then again, it wouldn't make them look very good.

Why is it the operators responsibility? Third party providers have been requested to fix their data and haven't.

 

[Spartacus]

Oops!

Even if they had made it, they'd have been just in time to see their flight take off, but as it turned out they'd have had to about turn at Luton Airport pretty well as soon as they arrived, which wasn't happening. I can't remember where their flight was but it wasn't a short haul! They'd somehow ended up on the wrong platform somewhere in the core and only realised when they arrived at Luton Airport.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

On train announcement by Train Manager on Euston via Brum service: We will shortly be arriving into Crewe, passengers for London Euston who hold a flexible ticket can change here to a faster service.

Person just along carriage from me starts flexing his ticket.

 

[43066]

Even if they had made it, they'd have been just in time to see their flight take off, but as it turned out they'd have had to about turn at Luton Airport pretty well as soon as they arrived, which wasn't happening. I can't remember where their flight was but it wasn't a short haul! They'd somehow ended up on the wrong platform somewhere in the core and only realised when they arrived at Luton Airport.

A colleague used to work for Gat Ex on the platforms at Gatwick Airport (this was in the days when Gatwick had lots of transatlantic flights).

He has stories of how when people (often Americans) arrived off terminating trains, rudely ordered him to help with their cases, and demanded to know where the shuttle train to the other terminal was. He would point to the Gatex on the adjacent platform, and off they’d go, straight back to London!

 

[Topological]

On train announcement by Train Manager on Euston via Brum service: We will shortly be arriving into Crewe, passengers for London Euston who hold a flexible ticket can change here to a faster service.

Person just along carriage from me starts flexing his ticket.

That is my defence next time I am on a fixed train ticket and I fancy a faster journey. Will require the announcement to say "flexible" and nothing about tickets for specific trains etc.

The railway is not always perfect in its' expression.

 

[Bluejays]

On train announcement by Train Manager on Euston via Brum service: We will shortly be arriving into Crewe, passengers for London Euston who hold a flexible ticket can change here to a faster service.

Person just along carriage from me starts flexing his ticket.

That's fantastic!

 

[7Sonofa7Son]

At a motorway service area everything is normally run by a single operator despite the franchise brands. Why wouldn't a member of the public expect a station to be the same?

I would bet money that the average person doesn't know that multiple franchises are managed by one operator. And even if they did know that, they'd also likely know that TOCs don't run *any* of the concessions.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2024 ==

I do have one more that I like to chuckle at every now and then.

Customer comes up to me one day and in quite an annoyed tone asks why there isn't a train to Wimbledon.

Me - "There is sir, it's the Luton Service in 10 minutes time."

Customer - "Well why doesn't it say Wimbledon? I'm going to Wimbledon!"

Me - "Because Luton is the end destination and Wimbledon is one of many stops."

Customer - "But I'm going to Wimbledon!"

Me - "And you will, but the train is for other people, not just for you exclusively."

The customer just blinked in realisation and mumbled an apology. It did make me laugh bless him.

 

[87electric]

I don't work for the railways, and don't behave (I think) or dress in any way that suggests "staff". However, I am surprised how often, when waiting for a train, I am approached by a passenger asking "is this the platform for...?" or "is this the train to...?"

Perhaps it's just the grey hair....

I get this a lot as well. Even just walking down a street. I put it down that I look confidant and wise in appearance. 99% I have the right answers as well.

 

[43066]

I get this a lot as well. Even just walking down a street. I put it down that I look confidant and wise in appearance. 99% I have the right answers as well.

Whereas I do work for the railway, but rarely get asked questions. I put it down to “resting bitch face”, and not looking particularly approachable.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Pax: Can I have a return please
Booking Office Clerk: Where to sir ?
Pax: Here of course !

I burst out laughing at this one. I am really enjoying this thread.

 

[Cach17]

Almost certainly at the bottom end of silly questions, but a few years ago, my dad and I were at Faversham (late on Christmas Eve) picking up my sister off the last train. Two (or three?) other guys in the ticket hall were wondering when the next train to London would be, and I had to explain to them that there wouldn't be one until the 27th.

I suppose you could be easily forgiven for thinking the trains still run at Christmas/Boxing Day.

 

[Spartacus]

I burst out laughing at this one. I am really enjoying this thread.

The other ones are 'none of your business!' or 'the hospital' or other some such destination!