class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2017 12:47:38 GMT
Waiting at Euston for a H&C train yesterday afternoon and a Met train arrives. (Next train five minutes behind, so no backlog to clear.)
There is a CSA helping a blind person to entrain - this is the front set of doors - and a group of passengers, including a parent with a pushchair and child in arms, stand back to let the CSA and his charge on, and the CSA get off.
At which point the driver closes the doors, despite it being perfectly obvious that there are people still entraining.
The CSA rushes forward past the swing barrier and knocks on the driver's door. The driver opens the door and pokes a head (that looks like a spiv from a 60's amusement arcade) out and converses with the CSA. Then looks sneeringly at the passengers waiting to get on, closes his door and drives off.
Cue looks of astonishment and mutterings of disgust from all nearby passengers - both those wanting to get on and the mass waiting for an H&C service.
In 50 years of using the underground I've never seen such disgraceful behaviour by member of LU staff.
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rincew1nd
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Post by rincew1nd on Jun 30, 2017 13:12:02 GMT
Waiting at Euston for a H&C train yesterday afternoon and a Met train arrives. (Next train five minutes behind, so no backlog to clear.) There is a CSA helping a blind person to entrain - this is the front set of doors - and a group of passengers, including a parent with a pushchair and child in arms, stand back to let the CSA and his charge on, and the CSA get off. At which point the driver closes the doors, despite it being perfectly obvious that there are people still entraining. The CSA rushes forward past the swing barrier and knocks on the driver's door. The driver opens the door and pokes a head (that looks like a spiv from a 60's amusement arcade) out and converses with the CSA. Then looks sneeringly at the passengers waiting to get on, closes his door and drives off. Cue looks of astonishment and mutterings of disgust from all nearby passengers - both those wanting to get on and the mass waiting for an H&C service. In 50 years of using the underground I've never seen such disgraceful behaviour by member of LU staff. From your description of events this does not sound like the level of customer service LU aim to provide. Did you manage to note the train or unit number? Or perhaps even it's destination? I'm sure reporting these details direct to LU will allow them to fully investigate things and arrange any appropriate additional training that may be needed. Edit to add: perhaps the driver was disgruntled on account of driving a Met train through Euston Station. I presume you mean the NR platforms rather than the 'tube' ones considering the gauging issues.  😜😜 |
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2017 13:16:21 GMT
Waiting at Euston for a H&C train yesterday afternoon and a Met train arrives. (Next train five minutes behind, so no backlog to clear.) There is a CSA helping a blind person to entrain - this is the front set of doors - and a group of passengers, including a parent with a pushchair and child in arms, stand back to let the CSA and his charge on, and the CSA get off. At which point the driver closes the doors, despite it being perfectly obvious that there are people still entraining. The CSA rushes forward past the swing barrier and knocks on the driver's door. The driver opens the door and pokes a head (that looks like a spiv from a 60's amusement arcade) out and converses with the CSA. Then looks sneeringly at the passengers waiting to get on, closes his door and drives off. Cue looks of astonishment and mutterings of disgust from all nearby passengers - both those wanting to get on and the mass waiting for an H&C service. In 50 years of using the underground I've never seen such disgraceful behaviour by member of LU staff. From your description of events this does not sound like the level of customer service LU aim to provide. Did you manage to note the train or unit number? Or perhaps even it's destination? I'm sure reporting these details direct to LU will allow them to fully investigate things and arrange any appropriate additional training that may be needed. I'm rather ashamed to say that I didn't; I was so taken aback by the contrast between the careful, considerate, behaviour of the CSA and that of the driver. Everybody was saying they hoped the CSA would report it, but expecting him to effectively grass up a colleague seems a little unfair. |
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Post by trt on Jun 30, 2017 13:21:14 GMT
I read it as Euston Square rather than Euston.
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North End
Beneath Newington Causeway
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Post by North End on Jun 30, 2017 13:34:40 GMT
Waiting at Euston for a H&C train yesterday afternoon and a Met train arrives. (Next train five minutes behind, so no backlog to clear.) There is a CSA helping a blind person to entrain - this is the front set of doors - and a group of passengers, including a parent with a pushchair and child in arms, stand back to let the CSA and his charge on, and the CSA get off. At which point the driver closes the doors, despite it being perfectly obvious that there are people still entraining. The CSA rushes forward past the swing barrier and knocks on the driver's door. The driver opens the door and pokes a head (that looks like a spiv from a 60's amusement arcade) out and converses with the CSA. Then looks sneeringly at the passengers waiting to get on, closes his door and drives off. Cue looks of astonishment and mutterings of disgust from all nearby passengers - both those wanting to get on and the mass waiting for an H&C service. In 50 years of using the underground I've never seen such disgraceful behaviour by member of LU staff. Are you 100% sure the driver was aware the people still wished to board? Drivers on the Met will be used to people remaining on platforms waiting for trains to other destinations, so this in itself is not enough of an indicator to the driver. Remember that the driver's monitor view is more oriented towards the platform train interface rather than passenger behaviours, so he may not have seen the full sequence of events. As an aside, it is extremely frustrating when people wait to board via one set of doors whilst the rest of the doors are not being used, this happens often at places like King's Cross where the entrance is right at one end - certainly it is common for doors to be closed in this situation to keep dwell times down although generally only at busy times and it's best for the driver to make an announcement- certainly in this situation management would be on the side of the driver. |
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2017 13:48:20 GMT
Edit to add: perhaps the driver was disgruntled on account of driving a Met train through Euston Station. I presume you mean the NR platforms rather than the 'tube' ones considering the gauging issues. 😜😜 Sorry, I meant Euston Square - I'd just come from Euston NR. |
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2017 13:55:53 GMT
Are you 100% sure the driver was aware the people still wished to board? Yes. 1) Some of the passengers actually had to back out as the doors started to close. They had just stepped into the doorway as the CSA got off. 2) The CSA went and told the driver that there were people in the process of getting on. 3) The driver looked back at the people trying to board. There is no way he was unaware that he'd left passengers behind when he drove off. It was only the fact that the passengers had been so courteous in allowing free space for the CSA to get his charge boarded that meant they were not on board. |
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Post by Deep Level on Jun 30, 2017 14:11:27 GMT
If you were thinking to go down the reporting it route I'm sure LU can work with locations and times as long as you're specific.
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2017 18:15:34 GMT
If you were thinking to go down the reporting it route I'm sure LU can work with locations and times as long as you're specific. OK, I've made my first ever complaint to LU (tfl). I was able to give them the approximate time, a sequence of four arrivals at that platform, and a brief description of the CSA who tried to help. It will be interesting to read their response. |
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Post by aslefshrugged on Jun 30, 2017 18:36:58 GMT
When the CSA knocked on the cab door it would have been to alert the driver that he had a visually impaired person on the train, which car the VIP was on, which station the VIP was travelling to and confirming the train number/destination.
I agree with North End, when we see passengers not moving towards the train when the doors are open the assumption is that they're waiting for another train. The last time I looked S Stock had three sets of double doors per car, there was no reason why they couldn't have boarded the train by the other doors rather than waiting for the CSA to get on and off, indeed there would have been enough room for them to board while the CSA was assisting the VIP.
We only get 30 seconds dwell time during the off peak and 20 seconds in the peak so if people want to board the train they shouldn't dawdle.
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2017 21:07:51 GMT
When the CSA knocked on the cab door it would have been to alert the driver that he had a visually impaired person on the train, which car the VIP was on, which station the VIP was travelling to and confirming the train number/destination. Interesting. That certainly wasn't the impression of the passengers on the platform. Actually, that explanation doesn't even make sense, because if the person was in any carriage other than the first, the CSA would not have had time to get to the driver. And, if the passengers had not been so polite and waited, there's a good chance that the doors would have closed before the CSA could extricate himself. A pretty stupid assumption if they are actually trying to get on. If what you say was literally true, and train drivers were really that dim, no one would be able to get on a train in the rush hour because the driver would assume that people waiting for others to get off were waiting for another train. Sorry, but that is not the way it happens (generally speaking). Apart from anything else, passengers waiting for the next train are generally behind the yellow line, whereas those wanting to get on (as these people were), are right up to, and in a couple of cases actually inside, the door aperture. Were you expecting that to change? It hasn't. That's asinine. Do you seriously expect that all the passengers waiting at a door would suddenly rush back down the carriage when they noticed the CSA getting on. In fact, if they had, I doubt they would have made it anyway the way Speedy Gonzales up front was operating. These people were NOT 'dawdling'. They were behaving in a polite and courteous manner when they saw a member of LU staff helping a disable customer. Quite honestly I find you apologist attitude quite sickening. You may think the driver behaved admirably but I can promise you those on the platform who witnessed the incident thought he was a complete a****ole. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2017 21:23:04 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2017 21:49:40 GMT
Alright that's enough, I think we've got the best out of this discussion now, class411 has contacted TfL and they'll deal with it in whatever way they see fit.
class411 , I'm sorry you and your fellow passengers didn't get the level of customer service you expect. Certainly the way you tell the story - and I've no reason to doubt things happened exactly as you describe - this looks like a pretty poor job on that occasion and that must be very annoying for those who were left behind by the Met service especially as they may have had a long wait for another train to their ultimate destination. And, if I may say so, I personally felt that aslefshrugged 's response didn't quite tackle some of the points that you raised. However, here you have a member of train crew trying his best to politely give some of the possible factors that can be at play in events like these and there was no need for you to take such an ungenerous interpretation of his contribution, or to use words like 'sickening' and oodles of sarcasm. You don't know what the driver was focusing on in his monitors, he's got 8 cars and 24 sets of doors to look after so he may not have clocked people making way for the CSA, however obvious to you that was for example, nor do you know what was said between the two members of staff when the CSA knocked on the cab door. Your post is laden with interpretation, such as that he looked sneeringly at the passengers. And for all I know your interpretation is exactly fair and hopefully TfL will respond positively to your complaint. But now the complaint is made there's not a lot more we can get out of it here and emotions are clearly running high.
This is an entirely unnecessary and ridiculous insinuation and there is no need to suggest that the driver in question may have been breaking the law in such a poor way.
This thread has now degraded and is locked.
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😜😜
