On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:39:19 -0000, "Brimstone"
wrote:

James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:52:34 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message , Brimstone
writes

I used to be a guard on the Piccadilly Line. Passengers would ask
me "Where dos this train go to?" At forst I responded by asking
where it was they were trying to get to but some became quite
stroppy so I stopped doing that and simply answered the question.

Their blank faces when given the answer of "Cockfosters" (or which
ever north London station the train was terminating at) was a joy
to behold (if one was so minded). They would then ask the question
they should have asked in the first place, i.e. "How do I get to
...".

Yes indeed. Isolating what people "ask" from "what they want to
know" is a difficult task but one which is very important in a
customer-facing environment.

I guess the optimal response would be something like "we're going
through Central London to {Cockfosters|Arnos Grove|wherever}; where
are you trying to get to?" which covers most things AFAICS.

True, but much quicker to give a simple direct answer to an equally simple
direct question.

However, as you note, this often confuses people and (illogically) can
tend to annoy people (even though you've answered the question they
actually asked).

I must say, in my experience the question "where does this train go
to?" is much less commonly asked than "does this train go to X?".