The Christmas Cheshireman 30/11/2013

On a Steam Dreams trip where the driver were told not to stop at one Station( a new pick-up point for a Steam Dreams trip) by Network Rail (since there was a service train right behind), the contact escorted the passengers by service train to another pickup point after speaking to the Train Manager,as well as advising them why the train had not stopped.

 

If my memory is correct TPWS only works below a certain speed.

 

In more than 30 years on the Ops side of the "Travel Industry" (not specifically rail related but often involving holidays commencing with long and complicated coach pick up runs) a Tour Operator that does not give out an "emergency" contact number is a rare beast and a sign of lack of attention to customer care. I am not suggesting that such a number and duty officer would have solved all the problems on this occasion but it would surely have helped, and the fact that the other Tour Operators quoted on recent posts here do offer this facility surely speaks volumes - RT needs to learn this particular lesson or more will vote with their feet/wallet like 6029 and refrain from booking again which is bad for the whole movement.

 

Surely the problem lies with whoever told people to go to parkway. It is unreasonable to expect a tour company to have someone at each shack on the route

 

The problem lies with RTC making themselves deliberately uncontactable. If an RTC rep had been there we would not have got dragged off like a lot of sheep.
You say "it's unreasonable" to expect a tour rep at joining points but I don't agree, others do it. It's called customer service. The steam charters business is inherently disruption-prone and suppliers need to act accordingly.
Ralph says "it's difficult" - well yes it may be but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. I suspect RTC have to do many other things that are "difficult" in order to run their business. For the record, there were 4 pick ups scheduled, which seems fairly typical for an out and back charter.
They seem to use willing volunteers for many roles on the charters, this would easily fit with that. Meet/greet/sort out problems and queries, and get a trip on the train.

Unless and until they make this change, I'm 100% serious in saying they've lost me as a customer. We regularly do two to four trips a year, including multi-day like RTC's West Highlander. Not any more.

 

I've never experienced a rep being present at an intermediate stop. Why anyone would go to parkway escapes me as that's not the route one would expect the train to take.

 

Not all passengers are as route savvy as we enthusiasts.

 

True buti take it 6029 is someone who has more than a passing interest in the subject.

 

It was simple - we were told that we were all being taken to Parkway so we could connect with our train, and told that no trains would be able to come via Filton that morning. The lady telling us that even checked back on her phone (presumably to control) before confirming it and getting us all on the shuttle. Then once we got there no-one at Parkway knew why we'd been brought there. We had had no way to check with RTC what we should do, not before or after we'd seen the train go past.

 

It surely all depends on how the tour is organised that determines how contacts are arranged; that said it is a CRITICAL failure of customer service to omit contact details so that passengers can inform and be informed about tours.

I have been on some Vintage Trains tours within the UK and many railtours abroad where - as part of my package - a contact number is given for both the organiser and tour contacts on the day so that any problems can be identified and resolved. I have also acted as tour leader on a couple of occasions and have faced travel problems where I kept in touch with the organiser at home in the UK whilst keeping tour participants fully appraised of the situation(s) but was granted the flexibility to deal with the problem(s) of missed connections and consequent meal problems whilst keeping the organiser informed of events.

Where any tour is being run - whether in the UK or abroad - it is incumbent on the organiser to cover all potential problems and not only have contingency plans in hand to deal with them but also staff capable of keeping tour participants appraised of developing situations; IMHO it appears that RTC is failing to do this.

 

Well who this lady was is a bit of a mystery but as a bristolian, I assume, I'm amazed you didn't ask her how that could possibly be the route

 

They most certainly do work at any speed. They may not be effective at stopping a spad if the loops are passed over at higher speeds but they should stop a train before the point of any likely collision.

 

Quite right rule55.
TPWS turned out to be much better than many dinosaurs in the industry said it would be, it works at higher speeds than specified and it's no understatement to state that TPWS provided 95% of the protection provided by ATP; at an affordable price.

 

A mystery to whom? She was the conductor on the shuttle train that had been sent from Parkway. And you assume wrong, we had driven 100 miles to get the train and I am not particularly familiar with the network around Bristol, being from Berkshire.

However savvy and/or clever you may be, I doubt that you'd have stayed on a station after being told your train would not be coming there, with no way to contact the tour operator. The only destination on offer was Parkway.

But do please carry on being condescending, it's what this place is primarily for.

 

Thankyou for an informative post without any condescension.

Reading about that Filton incident and people quoting Steam Dreams have reps everywhere, whereas RTC seemingly don't, maybe there's a connection between that and SD's prices regularly being into three figures now ?, though I agreen an emergency contact number would be a bright idea.

 

PMR are another company that have stewards at each station from what I recall,was impressed that they even managed to put a steward on Normanton station for the Carlisle tour a few weeks ago.

 

I have only been on one trip with PMR from Milton Keynes to Carlisle and there was a steward at Milton Keynes for the 6:30am start ( Return was 23:00).

 

I've been requested to pass this on from an anonymous source

 

What is the relevance of (hot female) ? Kind of devalues the whole post frankly !