Southern Rail STRIKE details

Deadly Danson · May 24, 2016

clapham_gull said:
I've got to know a number is Southern up here. Ones that man the platform.The customer facing ones who take abuse in the morning. Great bunch. Take the time to know their passengers. On a few occasions I've actually been approached to tell me my train is going to be late because they remember where I am going.

That's quite something in London.

But I've come to know the crap they have to deal with. They very often genuinely don't know what it going on because the information they are given is often wrong or non existent.

You often get better information on your phone. As the company hasn't given them tablets - they rely on hoping someone is on the end of a walkie talkie or have to rush back to their office to check an email.

This leads them to being abused. Witnessed if tonight at Clapham Junction. Stepped in and corrected an irate commuter explaining that the bloke from Southern he had been rude to genuinely didn't know when the next train was coming in - he wasn't being difficult.

My experience of the staff is they are a credit to their company dealing daily with the complete disconnection of their industry - often as bemused as we are.

We treat them as if they are a single entity and should expect them sometimes to be a bit pissed off as I would be if someone came banging on my door to complain about my neighbour.

They are not the face of the railways - just the bit their badly run company carved off.

For 99% of the year they ensure millions of people get to work. A selfless often invisible task.

Southern I like your staff - I just wish you liked them a little bit more.

Great post. :thumbsup:

One Teddy Maybank · May 24, 2016

GT49er said:
Should never have been privatised - but that genie is out of the bottle now, and won't be put back, thanks to John Major's disastrous premiership. No real 'railwaymen' any more - the privatised franchises didn't want people like that, and got rid as soon as they could. Though to be fair, British Rail had done a fair bit towards getting rid of real railwaymen before that too.

The service was pretty poor pre-privatisation as well.

I travel up north now and again and the service there is much better.

I really do think it's a Southern problem.

Frutos · May 24, 2016

One Teddy Maybank said:
I travel up north now and again and the service there is much better.

I really do think it's a Southern problem.

I would definitely agree with this.

I've spent a fair bit of time in Newcastle over the last few years, travelling to/from there by train and also using local trains in the area and the reliability and general service is FAR better than the shite that SASTA see fit to provide.

ForestRowSeagull · May 24, 2016

Frutos said:
I would definitely agree with this.

I've spent a fair bit of time in Newcastle over the last few years, travelling to/from there by train and also using local trains in the area and the reliability and general service is FAR better than the shite that SASTA see fit to provide.

Very much agree, travel extensively on trains and Southern are by far the worst IMO. East Midlands and Virgin always seem to be best in my experiences.

Surf's Up · May 24, 2016

Leaving aside their disastrous employee relations problems Southern do seem to have inherited just about the worst bit of track in the country, requiring constant engineering works to patch it up.

Ernest · May 24, 2016

clapham_gull said:
I've got to know a number is Southern up here. Ones that man the platform.The customer facing ones who take abuse in the morning. Great bunch. Take the time to know their passengers. On a few occasions I've actually been approached to tell me my train is going to be late because they remember where I am going.

That's quite something in London.

But I've come to know the crap they have to deal with. They very often genuinely don't know what it going on because the information they are given is often wrong or non existent.

You often get better information on your phone. As the company hasn't given them tablets - they rely on hoping someone is on the end of a walkie talkie or have to rush back to their office to check an email.

This leads them to being abused. Witnessed if tonight at Clapham Junction. Stepped in and corrected an irate commuter explaining that the bloke from Southern he had been rude to genuinely didn't know when the next train was coming in - he wasn't being difficult.

My experience of the staff is they are a credit to their company dealing daily with the complete disconnection of their industry - often as bemused as we are.

We treat them as if they are a single entity and should expect them sometimes to be a bit pissed off as I would be if someone came banging on my door to complain about my neighbour.

They are not the face of the railways - just the bit their badly run company carved off.

For 99% of the year they ensure millions of people get to work. A selfless often invisible task.

Southern I like your staff - I just wish you liked them a little bit more.

And they're on the list to be sacked too

Pretty pink fairy · May 24, 2016

Ernest said:
And they're on the list to be sacked too

HAVE A WORD WITH YOUR BOSS !!!
regards
DR

Ernest · May 24, 2016

Pretty pink fairy said:
HAVE A WORD WITH YOUR BOSS !!!
regards
DR

Who is that ?

Tom Hark Preston Park · May 24, 2016

Southern can just about get away with spinning a conductor strike. No way will they get away with spinning a driver strike. Southern LOSE. :wave:

Guinness Boy · May 24, 2016

Frutos said:
I would definitely agree with this.

I've spent a fair bit of time in Newcastle over the last few years, travelling to/from there by train and also using local trains in the area and the reliability and general service is FAR better than the shite that SASTA see fit to provide.

I use Virgin East Coast to get to clients in Peterborough fairly regularly. They are EXCELLENT. The Great Northern slow one never seems to be delayed either.

Tom Hark Preston Park · May 24, 2016

Guinness Boy said:
I use Virgin East Coast to get to clients in Peterborough fairly regularly. They are EXCELLENT. The Great Northern slow one never seems to be delayed either.

It's not comparing like with like tho. The volume of trains in the non-South is comparatively low and the track is comparatively new. On the Brighton-London line the sheer volume of trains and passengers means it is bound to fail for a myriad of reasons. And even if the trains are having a rare good day and a single tivial fail doesn't scupper the entire region, that ever-shitty hodge-podge of antiquated points and signals in the Croydon area will always scupper the trains. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever will be.

Guinness Boy · May 24, 2016

Tom Hark said:
It's not comparing like with like tho. The volume of trains in the non-South is comparatively low and the track is comparatively new. On the Brighton-London line the sheer volume of trains and passengers means it is bound to fail for a myriad of reasons. And even if the trains are having a rare good day and a single tivial fail doesn't scupper the entire region, that ever-shitty hodge-podge of antiquated points and signals in the Croydon area will always scupper the trains. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever will be.

True, The infrastructure is shithouse. All the more reason for the train operating company to be run by competent transport professionals who don't spend their lives pissing off the staff and customers then eh?

Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo! · May 24, 2016

Tom Hark said:
It's not comparing like with like tho. The volume of trains in the non-South is comparatively low and the track is comparatively new. On the Brighton-London line the sheer volume of trains and passengers means it is bound to fail for a myriad of reasons. And even if the trains are having a rare good day and a single tivial fail doesn't scupper the entire region, that ever-shitty hodge-podge of antiquated points and signals in the Croydon area will always scupper the trains. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever will be.

A comparison with SWT services from Waterloo then? They too have ongoing issues with the infrastructure (eg Clapham Jn, Wimbledon, Surbiton, Haslemere) but there's not the regular nonsense that Southern seem to cough up. Getting on with the job and making the best of it on an overloaded system that's not really fit for purpose; don't antagonise your workforce as a point of principle, better briefed staff, a company that tries with its customers instead of patronising them, have a website that works.
Billingshurst (Southern) is our closest station, and approx half the distance compared to the nearest SWT service at Farncombe, but give me SWT every time (despite the headache inducing colour scheme of their suburban rolling stock). It's also quicker to London, cheaper and the trains run later in the evening.
Waterloo is 15-20% busier annually than Victoria btw.

albionite · May 24, 2016

http://www.brightonandhovenews.org/...l-strike-action-over-bullying-and-harassment/

And guess which company runs these.

Hotchilidog · May 24, 2016

albionite said:
http://www.brightonandhovenews.org/...l-strike-action-over-bullying-and-harassment/

And guess which company runs these.

Seems to be a consistant business model. Overcharge passengers, underpay and p*ss off staff. Utter shysters.

Gwylan · May 24, 2016

See SASTA have got a brand new excuse to cancel a train today

http://www.brightonandhovenews.org/...-other/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

What's it going to be tomorrow? An earwig in the driver's cab? The wrong kind of sun? An exploding beer can on the trolley?

whitelion · May 24, 2016

Can someone enlighten me with meaning of SASTA? Google gives a variety of organisations etc but can't link to Southern Railways.

Springal · May 24, 2016

whitelion said:
Can someone enlighten me with meaning of SASTA? Google gives a variety of organisations etc but can't link to Southern Railways.

SOUTHERN ARE SORRY TO ANNOUNCE...

You'll hear this if you have ever used a Southern service in the last 2 years

Ernest · May 24, 2016

whitelion said:
Can someone enlighten me with meaning of SASTA? Google gives a variety of organisations etc but can't link to Southern Railways.

Southern
Are
Sorry
To
Announce

But they aren't really as long as all you mugs keep filling their pockets and put up with a shite service

whitelion · May 24, 2016

Thanks guys am now ITK. Feel a bit daft for asking now...

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Southern Rail STRIKE details

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