Public Transport and Private Grief

So how was your day set up today? Mine? well at 7.30 this morning I was invited to hear all about the circumstances surrounding a suicide. The subject and his family were known both 'clinically' and socially to the people 'sharing' this tragedy with their fellow travellers.

Quite frankly I didn't need to know, the dramatic hand wringing tale of previous failed attempts and then the discovery by a walker in the woods who bumped into the subjects father as he ran away in shock was not a great way to start the day.

What really got under my skin was the 'professionalising' of the conversation, so that we all just had to 'know' that the discussants had the experience and techniques to explain what had happened in ways they presumed those around them couldn't...Mistake...I knew for sure that two colleagues both highly qualified clinical psychologists were in the same carriage.

The thinly disguised arrogance and the lack of concern for other people on the journey was in my view deplorable. Did we really need to understand that the subjects previous failed attempts just reinforced his low self esteem? 'He couldn't even kill himself properly' we were told. Did we have to be exposed to anguish and retrospective sense-making of the subjects parents? 'its part of the natural grieving process' as if we didn't know, did we need to here what 'should have, ought to have been done if I'd been in charge' Nice one clever dick!

To think that we would never have had to listen to this 'morning in my office' if the subject had been sectioned after he had been found with his hanging feet through the bedroom ceiling after a bodged attempt following advice from a suicide web-site that recommended doing it in the attic to avoid early discovery and swallowing pills and gaffa taping your mouth so you didn't throw them back up as you dropped!

People join these professions for good reason and cause. Their work is demanding, harrowing and challenging. They are professionally trained. Their fellow commuters are not...cases like these should be kept to the office.

One End of The Line

This is a great link for all you commuterphiles out there London Underground Blog

How about doing Norwich too?

Sorry About That We've just Gone Through Some Turbulence

OK everyone get prepared for variants on the tried and tested mobile/cell phone cliches now that phones can be used on planes 'We've just gone through a tunnel is SO yesterday'

The good news is that apart from the standard 'cattle class' conversations about personal matters deemed to be so important and unique that everyone else has to listen, the quality of business information that is going to be shared will rise exponentially.

CEOS, Marketing Directors in business class will be delighting us with mega-deal information, political wranglings, and chats with 'the secretary'

I can't wait...

Atomic Watches!? someone needs an Atomic Bomb!

Any Marketing 101 student will tell you that you need to understand your customers critical choice factors. Now, as we know, if you are a train customer you obviously don't have a choice, so maybe that's the reason why the technocratic rail providers such as
East Midlands Trains are so excited about their new atomic gizzmos rather than putting enough carriages on their routes so that their PAYING customers can travel in comfort and safety.

So Its Not Just Me

Discovered via Twitterer Live From The Bus

Commuting Suicide

Train Pain

14 Million minutes lost In a typical 'efficiency' minded report we are told that a huge amount of money is lost due to delay. BUT...what about the effectiveness burden too? Increase in stress, irritability, delays creating re-schedules, possibly lost business or dissatisfaction.

A train delay is merely the 'node' of the problem the ripples reach far and wide.

The Cattle Truck Due to Arrive at Platform 4A

The staggering levels of management incompetence in the organisations that are meant to be providing a transport service (sic) never ceases to amaze me.

Last night a rush hour commuter train only had two carriages. The attitude of the train staff was deplorable. Already crammed in and standing the 'official' yelled down the train "move down the train or else this train is going now where" what sort of mornonic imbecile allows their staff to treat paying customers in that way!!??

I have a new approach however and I recommend that all commuters take this on board try it. When the ticket fascist, sorry collecter comes along you simply apologise profusley and say...

"I'm sorry but due to a technical problem there is a delay in taking my ticket from my wallet. Please come back in 20 minutes. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause"

Until the train operators start treating customers with excellent service they need to get the message. These companies are badly run, employ hapless staff at all levels and are a national disgrace.

A Timetable Is a Promise

To say that I went ballistic today is an understatement. The dissonance created between 'doing the right thing' by using public transport, and placing trust in the reliability of service is proving too much.

Trusting the local bus service caused me to be 1/2 and hour late today, along with a load of hassle.

Today I turned up 5 mins early for Barton Bus service in Nottingham. The advertised time slipped by by 5, then 10 , then 15, the 20 minutes, even though I'd seen 3 buses of that route go the 5 mins up the road to the turning terminus.

Catching an alternative service (by walking a further 3/4 of a mile) I then had to catch a late train that involved a change and then got me to a Lecture I was running so late it had to be cancelled, affecting 75 people.

The Barton Bus Customer service manager got an ear bashing...however she seemed to interpret my statement that I will be using her service as an example of dire service in my future lectures as a 'threat' and that she wouldn't speak to me any further. Not only that, her complete lack of empathy at my frustration and anger was only made worse when she felt 'empowered' to infer that I should realise that an accident might have happened preventing the service...THIS IS THE ONLY ROAD THE EMERGENCY SERVICES CAN USE TO GET TO THE TERMINUS...AND NO BLUE LIGHTS WENT BY IN 20 MINUTES!!! Having explained this, I asked to speak to the MD , who was ON HOLIDAY, so I asked for his mobile (this being standard policy to have with me when I was a main Board Director)..she said 'that's not our policy round here'..to which I replied...'clearly the lack of concern for service emanates from the top' - As Bob Garret says in his book The Fish Rots From the Head.

What these people need to realise is that when more people, who run their own businesses, hold senior positions, etc start to use their service they need to perform because people with senior commercial experience, brains, and ability to influence others will demand customer service of a much higher standard.

On the other hand ..stuff it...I'll use a car and hope that global warming causes their depot to be flooded.

Barton Buses should check out Finding The WOW factor in business

Family Crisis

Before I even got on the train today I was 'privelaged' to be within 1/2 a metre of a public/private domestic.

Mother was calling Anya to tell her to get her 'idiot of husband' on the phone. Apparently Mother and Father were on the way to the station when Father nearly had a head on crash. In the ensuing row (Mother berating Father for not seeing something that 'even a blind man could see') Father simply got out the car and left Mother fuming in the passenger seat!

Mother then explained to Daughter that she had driven the car to the station, parked in a disabled spot, and left it with doors unlocked. Therefore Father had better get his act together, apologise and pick up the car.

Can somebody tell me what has happened to the 'humility' and 'self-respect'genes? How come people seem more able to take on the role of 'pornstars', publically revealling their bits and pieces to anyone who cares to be around?

Time to get some S.T.F.U. post it notes to slap on their foreheads

Poacher Turned Gamekeeper

OK, I've sucummbed. I got and i-Pod for Xmas, and a great thing it is too. I keep taking the ear phones out though and checking to ensure that I' not 'tsch tsch tshcing' people.

Just need some better phone to block out ambient noise entirely.