Loudspeaker happiness

How many passengers travelling from Alton (by MHR or SWT) know which is the "wrong direction" or the "wrong end of the train"?!

This thread is beginning to highlight the problems of trying to run a customer-friendly service at a heritage railway when some of the volunteers maybe know a little too much about the subject.

 

Of course you are.

As for your other point, they should never make a customer/passenger feel inferior. Visiting a steam railway, or any other railway for that matter, is a whole new experience for some people and they are bound to ask questions that the seasoned volunteer may find strange but the reply should be polite and fully explanatory.

 

I'd have no problem with people asking questions provided they are answered correctly .

Several times I have met platform/train staff who actually know less than I do about what their railway is doing at that time. Still, more power for them actually doing it and we all have to learn.

Still hate those announcements.

 

I sometimes cringe at the enthusiasm shown for the amount of "clag" some locomotives produce. hardly likely to impress the general public.

 

I envy your vast geographical knowledge so you know exactly where you are and your compass bearing on every occasion. For your information, I usually know which train I'm on and where it's going - coming home from beer festivals excepted - but I do not feel at all insulted by announcements made for the benefit of others. Don't forget that some of the passengers may well be tourists from overseas who will not have an intimate knowledge of the railway that they are visiting.

 

When talking to non-enthusiast acquaintances, I am regularly stunned by how little they take in when on the railway - literally as though they stop looking at the point at which they see a train, and don't observe anything else about it.

More worryingly, and definitely off topic, many of the same people show a similar lack of observation on the roads - even when driving.

 

having negotiated a ticket clerk, a barrier ticket inspector, several platform staff and a TTI, not to mention sundry people selling raffle tickets and books, there is surely no need for an announcement that you can't ask questions of.

 

seeing as you mention roads, I'm reminded of Windsor Bus Depot where they had a stripped out bright yellow RF for towing with just two seats left, that didn't stop an old dear getting on and sitting down when it happened to pause by her stop

 

You're expecting every visitor to have the same level of knowledge as you. Why?

When I visit a historic building, I have no idea about the types of brickwork it has (maybe it's late 14th century Flemish bond? I have no idea). I would expect the staff and guides to know, or be able to find out, if I asked them. However, I'm having a nice day out, enjoying the company of friends, entertaining the kids, and helping something to be preserved.

If visitors need to pass a knowledge test before they visit a heritage railway, then you can look forward to a 95% drop in revenue.

 

Tying all this up, last Saturday at my favourite line, I overheard a lady voice her dissapoinment that the train had stopped in the middle of nowhere and did not go to Frome.
On the same train, good use was made of the Tannoy to advise passengers the reason why the train had stopped was because the crew were putting out a line side fire.

A little while later (in my opinion) the guard undid his good work by announcing the next intermediate station, advised about opening doors before train had stopped, warned about the platform edge and thanked everyone for travelling on the railway.

 

One reason for over use of tannoys could be fear of litigation from someone who hurts themselves by their own lack of common sence? after all, i am sure some "you have a claim" vultures would try it on, So you get risk adverse general managers insisting you have to announce everything , to ensure we don't get sued, liitle johnny because his parents are to busy texting Chazney or shouting at each other, to watch him, gets hurt, by running into an open door, or burns himself on a part of the engine, whats the next step? they say, you hurt my boy, i want compo, you didnt stop him etc etc,

 

would you be a bit irritated though if they were constantly making announcements such as that the bricks are 14th century Flemish bond?

 

In these situations I find its helpful to imagine that you're in a situation which you couldn't care less about. For example I have virtually no interest in aircraft; I have a general interest in old machinery of all sorts so I like seeing things like Spitfires but that's about as far as it goes. So if I went to catch a flight and say a Boeing 707 turned up at the stand I probably wouldn't notice.
Also on the big railway I have quite happily sat on a train on platform 3, as directed by signage and/or staff (I forget which now), only to watch the train pulling out of platform 2. So after experiences like that I think a mistrust of displayed information is perfectly reasonable.

 

But I would like a clear sign telling me which way to go to the cafe/shop/exit. This can't happen on a train, as the sign-posting needs to be made at different times. So maybe, you need to find some way of telling people at different points along the journey. Maybe some sort of audio device, which everyone can hear at the same time, so they know that it's their station, or which station is next. I wonder if there is a way of addressing the public in this way?

 

At first I thought this was a line I encountered recently where the station staff were not P.A. addicts but were made up for by the guard who made incessant pointless announcements, topped off by "don't forget to take your belongings with you". I half expected him to come out with "please adjust your dress before leaving"! However the various geographic clues in this posting don't quite add up. Gabby P.A. announcements are rather widespread alas.

PH

P.S. The announcement about the "fire stop" was a perfectly legitimate use of PA for an out of course happening

 

Quite the contrary, I was observing how little many people take in and how the questions that so frustrate @RalphW when he's stewarding are actually natural and to be expected. A great many people are fundamentally unobservant, especially of things that don't particularly interest them. I know that I can go for a walk in the country and have little or no idea which trees are growing there.

I quite agree - and IMHO preserved railways could do more on the educational front with their visitors. Car 3669 on the NYMR does it very simply by including a brief history in the picture frames in each compartment.

 

And here we see that the issue is not with technology, but people. PA announcements are made by people, information is provided by people, safety warnings are given people, welcomes (good and bad) are given by people. There is a place for the use of PAs, but it needs to be considered in terms of how that railway engages with people and makes them welcome.

I'd rather have a PA announcement to tell me that the train has will go from Platform 2 instead of Platform 3 than nothing, but would prefer that someone could actually check that people are in the right place - and would really rather that the information was right first time.

 

I think you've just explained your own comment. People visit heritage railways, the countryside, etc for all sorts of reasons. They may be there for the company of others, exercise, food, celebrating something. They don't want (or need) to know the details of everything around them. Unfortunately, a lot of heritage railway volunteers are there for very different reasons. Some would even prefer there to be no visitors at all ...

 

I think we also have to factor into this discussion that, by the nature of a forum such as this, there is a naturally greater proportion of people who do want to 'know stuff'. So there will inevitably be a degree of collective mild bafflement expressed here towards people who don't want to 'know stuff - therefore appearing 'unobservant'.

My interests are wide-ranging and I like to know lots of 'stuff' about lots of things. Including trees. There is an inherent joy for me in learning, and one which I hope I'll never lose, but I accept that many people don't get same the pleasure from knowing 'stuff'.

So, while multiple tannoy announcements on preserved lines might grate a bit, I don't feel the need to complain. I just concentrate on what interests me. It might be whether that paint really is Brunswick green, or if it's actually Middle Chrome green? Is that tree English oak or Sessile oak? Is that a 1959 or 1961 Stratocaster?

I'm on the autistic spectrum somewhere, I'm sure of it...