Tower Hill reversers - announcement at Monument?

In the interests of best customer service they really should do!
The same at Blackfriars for Mansion House and Barbican for Moorgate. Especially is isnt just a straight walk across the platform.

To Dist T/Ops - Is this something that your DMTs monitor you on? And is it automically played out on the DVA?

PMNorthern, Youd be suprised at how many people do actually get off!

There is not an automated announcement on the CIS - all you get is the normal interchange information for Monument and the ultimate destination (i.e. Tower Hill).

We are trained (and those of us who are trainers, train!) that an announcement must be made at Monument (and - as JTD says - the same at Blackfriars if the train's to reverse at Mansion House - a reason we like to know we are to reverse at Mansion House before we reach the signals approaching Mansion House and find ourselves routed for the bay road - please note JTD advising customers that it is in their interests to change at Monument if travelling beyond Tower Hill.

I've never known the procedure to be monitored .

And as JTD says the number that do alight is surprising, so it's definitely the correct thing to do.

We do still end up with quite a few bemused expressions at Tower Hill as we change ends though, but normally they are people whose first language is not English. The others who miss it usually have MP3 players stuck in their ears..............

TBH it sounds like the T/Op in question yeasterday just couldn't be bothered to do it...........

Road testing doesn't generally involve Monument eastbound - main reason being the number of runs that have to be done through Earls Court.

That said, the other six monthly check (TD4) and the new driver checks (TD3's) may involve such stations - so in that instance, yes, the competence assurance DMT will be looking for appropriate announcements.

Like Dave says though, it's not something thats actively monitored.

I fail to see how any passengers can fail to see "Tower Hill" on the front of the train, fail to hear "This train terminates at Tower Hill" at every station, and see the same thing on the on-board dot-matrix screens. Also if they boarded at a station with dot-matrix/light box screens they would have noticed the Tower Hill description given... of course if any of these things are not in place (IE CIS failure, announcements not working) then indeed the T'Op should announce manually... however with all these measures in place and working, any passenger who ends up in the bay road and not realising they were going there only has one person to blame.

To be fair, it should be apparent that the train is going no further than Tower Hill. You cannot expect tourists to know that they can't just get out of the train and wait on the same platform for the next train.
I remember one Circle T/op going into detail about why he recommended people change at Barbican instead of Moorgate where the train was terminating. "At Barbican, you can get out the train and wait on the same platform. At Moorgate, you have to get out of the train, walk all the way to the front, down some stairs, through a subway, up another set of stairs, and then walk back towards the direction you were coming to get the next train." (or something to that effect)

I've only once been on a train that's terminated at NOG, but I don't remember hearing that announcement.

So why not describe the trains as terminating at Monument, Blackfriars, Barbican etc and run them empty stock to the next station?

The benefit of changing at the station prior to terminating at Tower or Mansion only applies if your are progressing further east than the termination point. If you want to alight at Tower Hill (as many do to reach Fenchurch Street) or Mansion House then you want to remain aboard to the terminating point as you don't care what platform it terminates upon.

With unrefurbished stock I make copious announcements about all sorts of things including this subject matter, I've even had awards for them too. With refurbished stock I take the view if a standard announcement is required it will have been programmed into the CIS system either to play automatically or as a selected by key pad announcement. Changing at the previous station to terminating is not so incorporated and in consequence I form the view that officialdom does not require it so I do not make that announcement on CIS fitted stock. I only make announcements about exceptional events not suitable for pre-programming into CIS !
That said I think the whole CIS on D stock should be reprogrammed and I'd be delighted to advise relevant powers with more suitable announcements and program options !

I can't say I have seen a written requirment about making announcements to change at the station prior to a terminus, so I doubt it can be subject to "checking" though they may exist outside of my knowledge !

Sorry but I've gotta pick up on this too - if you had worked as an SA at Earls Court, you would appreciate that showing the final destination often means nothing to many punters.


You can actually experience my point for yourself while you are waiting to pick up at Earls Court eastbound - it goes like this:

• Wait until you have a Tower Hill, Barking, Dagenham or Upminster train in platform 1 and an Edgware Road train in platform 2
  
• Spot punters still standing on platform, most likely consulting their map & looking confused
  
• Approach & helpfully ask where they're heading to
  
• When told the destination is something like Victoria, and that they haven't seen a train going there yet.........
  
• Point them in the direction of their waiting train
  
• If there's time (ie, train is still held on red signal - 99% likely ;D ;D), explain that Victoria will never appear on the front of a train then helpfully draw a 'circle' around Tower Hill, Barking, Dagenham & Upminster on their map
  

I guarantee it will happen the first time you try this out!

Quite!

Perhaps I should have added:

Only do this when you see one punter all on their own ;D ;D ;D ;D

Anything "can be" if officialdom wants it there. It just isn't so they didn't want it or didn't think of it !

It will however, readilly advise you that you can change for "tower pier" "embankment pier" "somerset house" "westminster abbey" and assorted other rubbish ! I can trigger it to tell you "chalfont and latimer is closed" or to "expect disruption beacuse of the boat race" or to "change for a special event in gunnersbury park" ..... so they must be more important ;D

Wouldn't you like to know if that was your destination? I'm sure I'd appreciate the advance warning - not that I have any desire to go there ;D ;D ;D

Trouble is, we're never told such information by the line controller - and even if we were, I can't say I've memorised all the codes for every single station on the network ;D ;D

Point is, the D stock CIS (customer information system) can do do a lot of useful things - it's just a pity that what it does isn't actually relevant

It boils down to a simple fact (IMHO) - whoever designed the system obviously knows how to design such equipment, but don't how to make it relevant and useful in the environment it's being used in.............................hopefully that failing will be addressed with 09ts & S stock (in fact I know it will be cos I've been lucky enough to have some input as far as S stock goes ).

"Led to believe" = that's a fantastically overused phrase by LUL staff isn't it ;D

I take your point Dave - perhaps I've worded what I meant in the wrong way?

Having had a chat (& demonstrated some stuff) with those involved in the S stock CIS, it is frustrating when you consider some of the specifications that have to worked to; LUL's "standard", RVAR (Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations), DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) and the like do make things incredibly complicated.

I just feel that perhaps there wasn't enough input sought from those that actually work with the system day in day out - if I'm wrong on that, I humbly apologise!