Virgin West Coast Bad managment

[najaB]

Why am I bothering. I like the forums but it often appears to close ranks and be railway v the rest. No criticism here please Move along.

I know you've scored it out, but I hope you don't mind if I comment on your last statement.

I agree that there is a tendency for rail staff appear to close ranks against passengers, and to some degree they do. But it's hardly surprising given the amount of negative press and in-person abuse they get since they are seen as easy targets. They are the public face of organisations that don't always make the smartest decisions, and in many cases have to enforce rules and policies that they don't necessarily agree with themselves and get call jobsworths (and worse) in return.

In your case, I think you have a valid reason to complain - mainly because it doesn't sound like the TM or any other member of staff made a sweep of the train. But my guess - and it's just a guess - is that everyone thought someone else had done it. Maybe the TM was supposed to do it but got caught up in helping another passenger and he never got the chance.

I say that you should write to Virgin (assuming you haven't already) and let them know that you feel let down by what happened. I'm sure they would genuinely value your feedback and will probably put a briefing out to staff to try and make sure that it doesn't happen again.

And don't take the comments of the rail staff too much to heart - when you deal with the great British public all day I'm sure it's not easy for our rail staff members to see reasonable complaints as anything other than yet another attack.

 

[DarloRich]

najab above and this story below makes the point better than i am prepared to do:


This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Surely it is incumbent on the individual to make the effort to inform the train staff is they think there is a problem. They might be the 78th person to tell them, but you might be the first.

 

[sheff1]

- when you deal with the great British public all day I'm sure it's not easy for our rail staff members to see reasonable complaints as anything other than yet another attack.

Whether you deal with people all day or not, I do not see how it can be seriously suggested that someone making a five hour end to end journey should not make themselves comfortable and should be checking where they are at every stop, hours before their destination. In this case, knowing that they were at Preston would provide the OP with no useful information at all as they were travelling to Euston on a supposedly though train.

 

[IanD]

I'm not rail staff. Nor is my wife.

 

[D1009]

Surely in a situation where a train is being terminated short of its destination and its passengers to transfer to another train, any train manager who relies solely on the public address system to advise the passengers to leave the train is asking for trouble.
Having said that, surely anyone affected in the way described by the OP should make an official complaint to the TOC's customer services department rather than have a rant on an internet forum.

 

[najaB]

Whether you deal with people all day or not, I do not see how it can be seriously suggested that someone making a five hour end to end journey should not make themselves comfortable and should be checking where they are at every stop, hours before their destination. In this case, knowing that they were at Preston would provide the OP with no useful information at all as they were travelling to Euston on a supposedly though train.

I haven't made such a suggestion, and I agree that someone making the through journey would expect to be able to relax. I may be a little strange ('may be', yeah right) but I still keep an ear out for announcements, just in case.

I'm not blaming the OP, however, as everyone is different and I've said several times that, regardless of the state of the PA system, Virgin fell down by not arranging a sweep of the train at or on the approach to Preston.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

(slight aside...)
A couple of posters have mentioned that, being deaf, they can't hear announcements. Whilst they do have the bliss of not hearing the repetitive announcements every few minutes (or so it seems), there is a rather more serious matter that staff and/or operational practice don't take their needs into account.

I have a few thoughts about this, and I'd welcome the deaf & hard-of-hearing forum members' comments.

So, would the deaf & HoH forum members see a benefit if [properly working] Hearing Loops were installed on UK trains?
What would the benefits/issues be for you?
Be interesting to find out!

Much of this debate would probably be best on a dedicated thread, but in the context of this thread:

1) I am deaf, I have a cochlear implant in my left ear and a hearing aid in the right ear. The latter is virtually useless and I only persist with it because the hospital pointed out that just using it keeps the auditory nerve in my right side active and in the highly unlikely event of my implant totally failing and re-implantation not working it keeps the other side available as a back up to be implanted.

So effectively I am only hearing on my left side. Now, the implant is very good, but it does not turn me from a deaf person into a hearing one. Every implantee is different, just as every hearing aid user is different. I can hear a heck of a lot more than I could before but that does not mean all of it is clear enough to understand. Some implantees can use telephones normally. Others can't. I'm one of those who can't. It's not how loud it is, but how clear it is.

Remember, listen through an implant means you are effectively hearing only electronically processed sound. Fine when it's normal raw sound for the input, but when it comes to sound that is already electronic, such as a PA announcement, you are effectively turning electronic sound into more electronic sound. And that is obviously relevant here.

2) Yes I can generally hear the announcements if the system is clear and there isn't a lot of background noise.

BUT...

3) It is very true that because of the highly repetitive drone being repeated every few minutes I simply don't even bother to try to listen to the announcements at least 99% of the time.

4) On the other hand, if everyone else is getting up to leave at a station and it's not the terminal then that's a pretty good indication that the service has been terminated. Ditto if the train hasn't departed and a large number of people suddenly get up to leave, it's obvious that a delay has been announced. Or again if everyone gets up then you know the train isn't going anywhere, especially if it's already a few minutes past the departure time...

5) Induction loops - they're not as good as you might think. I never use them. Even the one wired round in my own front room no longer has the control "box" fitted to it. Induction loops, unless wired around every corner of a room, tend to be highly directional and will often only work with the head held at an awkward angle. Or, particularly at ticket windows, the microphones will pick up the electronic buzz from the computers etc and that's all you'll hear on the T setting... BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ HUMMMMMMMMM BUZZZZZZZZ. Get the idea?

 

[Clip]

Whether you deal with people all day or not, I do not see how it can be seriously suggested that someone making a five hour end to end journey should not make themselves comfortable and should be checking where they are at every stop, hours before their destination. In this case, knowing that they were at Preston would provide the OP with no useful information at all as they were travelling to Euston on a supposedly though train.

Im all for making yourself comfy but taking your shoes off on a train? Christ that's grim.

 

[sheff1]

Im all for making yourself comfy but taking your shoes off on a train? Christ that's grim.

I would certainly do the same as the OP and take off hiking boots and replace them with casual footwear if I was on a 5 hour journey.

 

[Clip]

Ive only just seen that they put flip flops on in a separate post- the OP indicates they were just in (no)socks

 

[Darandio]

Ive only just seen that they put flip flops on in a separate post- the OP indicates they were just in (no)socks

But was it flip flops with socks, or without socks. There would be a big difference for me there.

 

[talltim]

But was it flip flops with socks, or without socks. There would be a big difference for me there.

so it's just down to fashion?

 

[gray1404]

Any update from the OP..... have you contacted VT yet?

 

[bb21]

Im all for making yourself comfy but taking your shoes off on a train? Christ that's grim.

I do the same if I am on a 5-hour journey, as long as my feet aren't smelly that day.

We won't be the only ones either.

If I understood the OP fully, hiking boots can be messy depending on what he was doing beforehand so it makes sense to me to take them off out of consideration.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

exactly! The average frequency must be something like 4.7 milliseconds between announcements

This thread demonstrates exactly why excessive, patronising "elf'n'safety" announcements are a pain in the proverbial, as they mean passengers mentally switch off so that when an important announcement is made, no-one is listening.

I know I wouldn't have complained about the announcements being inaudible in my coach, I'd have found it a blessed relief!

 

[Clip]

I do the same if I am on a 5-hour journey, as long as my feet aren't smelly that day.

.

That's only because you are used to the smell of your own feet the rest of us aren't