Neil Williams wrote:

On Apr 5, 11:12*am, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:

Until those investigating at the scene have actually said, "okay, we've
finished now" all rail staff can do is offer guesses, though.

What they can do is offer the ability to say "we were told to do
that". Which can be very useful when someone gets stuck further down
the line.

They can also reassure people that they aren't being ignored. The LUL
requirement for a "we are being held at a red signal" announcement
after N minutes (N=2?) is a good example. It does not provide useful
information, but it does provide reassurance that someone gives a
monkeys about the passengers and they are not just an operational
inconvenience.

Well, I'd certainly agree that an announcement every so often saying
"Unfortunately we do not have any firm information about when trains
will be able to leave" would convey the idea that somebody was
interested in the passengers, but I can't see what else could be said
when there is no information to convey. Some of the more strident
comments in this thread seem to assume that managers on the scene would
somehow be able to convey information that was not otherwise being
conveyed.

It's very hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all answer in these
circumstances, apart from "keep calm and carry on".

And reassurance. The human factor is very important, but often
neglected.

That may be a by-product of compensation culture. In the past, I reckon
there was much more of a "we're all in this together" attitude, whereas
nowadays, there's a prevalent, "whose fault is this and how much can I
screw them for?"

Oddly, said human factor can sometimes be provided via technology. I
find LM's Twitter feed very good for this.

So I gather from your previous postings. The only time I've bothered
with Twitter (not railway related) I haven't found anything sufficiently
interesting to persevere with it.

--
..sig down for maintenance