Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Communicate, guys!

Living in London and spending a large proportion of my life commuting (and even for a train nerd like me it gets kind of wearing sometimes) there's one thing that helps more than anything else to keep people happy when things aren't going completely according to plan. If the train's running a bit late, if it's stopped between stations for a couple of minutes, if it's going to sit at a station for a couple of minutes without going anywhere, the one thing that keeps people happy - or at least as happy as is possible under the circumstances - is communication.

I don't know of any trains currently in service which aren't fitted with PA systems, and once the passenger's on the train that PA system is the link between the railway (South West Trains or London Underground or whoever) and the passenger. When anything goes wrong between stations (and "anything" in this context includes things like being held at a signal for more than a minute or two) it's possible to feel the tension and stress rising among the passengers. A PA announcement about what's going on and why we've stopped, especially one that is given by a human rather than what sounds like someone reading a random excuse from a list, makes people instantly happier and more sympathetic.

A fine example of how a little thought on the part of drivers and guards about the unwashed masses can change a lot of angry people into reasonably sympathetic people is something that happened to me on the Northern Line a couple of months back during some major signalling problems. It was pretty awful, with long waits at stations and packed, stuffy trains, but the driver skilfully kept tempers from fraying too much with a fairly good-natured (but not flippant) series of announcements updating us on conditions ahead and reminding us to open the end windows and air vents to maximise airflow and keep people cool. They weren't obsequious (as people are used to being apologised to for even the faintest inconvenience these days, apologies only go so far) but they were useful and informative and, above all, gave the passengers on that stuffy and mostly stationary train reassurance that someone actually cared about what was happening. In the end it took a lot longer than normal, but a trainload of tired commuters finally got to Morden and I saw something you rarely see - people on their way to the exit actually thanking the driver as she walked down the train to change ends.

It is of course true that even while waiting at red signals drivers and guards have tasks to take care of, but when there's an idle moment and it's safe to do so it makes an enormous amount of difference to simply take a few seconds to turn on the PA and make a quick announcement updating the hundreds of people on board with what's up and - most importantly - a rough estimate of when things will hopefully get moving again. I'd personally guess that once a train's been held at a station or at a signal for more than about 90 seconds it's time to think about doing a PA.

It doesn't have to be a fancy scripted announcement, and in my experience off-the-cuff unscripted announcements generally work better as they actually sound personal rather than just repeating the same bland "we apologise for any inconvenience caused" platitudes, which for most people will just go in one ear and out the other as we've heard them so many times already! Be human, and don't forget that there are a lot of other humans back there, and driver, you have it in your power to make a lot of people much happier.

I really don't understand why train operating companies don't emphasise this more in training. It seems depressingly likely that they're so concerned about Corporate Identity Management that they frown heavily on any announcements which aren't pre-scripted and made in accordance with the Announcing Manual, and prefer people to say nothing at all rather than saying something for which there isn't an officially scripted announcement.

Posted by mpk at April 29, 2004 5:15 PM | TrackBack