Tag Archives: TFL

London does it best…!

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Yes we’re there.  London 2012 is here now and we’ve got another amazing week to go.  The last 7 years of planning, moaning about costs, getting the transport infrastructure sorted out, training for all the athletes, buying (or in most cases trying to buy) tickets and everything else Olympic related has finished and we’re now celebrating in great British style.

The opening ceremony was something else.  A great show, showcasing the amazingness that is this great island country and less of the spectacle that Beijing 2008 was.  Some parts maybe missed if you’re not British but they were genius!  The Mr. Bean bit had us in complete stitches.  Classic.

We had our own Olympic party to watch the ceremony and all got into the spirit of it in true British style…

And then the games began.  Unbelievable achievements everywhere for all countries.  Some stunning events – including gymnastics (what these guys can do with their bodies defies belief), weightlifting (how much can they lift?), athletics (my favourite) and much much more.  The training, focus and everything all the athletes put into it, is a real inspiration to us all.

We had tickets to see the rowing early in the week which was amazing.  Standing seats (?) only but a great atmosphere.  Seeing the boats going past along the 2km course is very cool, with the crowd cheering for them.  Living in Twickenham we were lucky enough to see the cycling time trials come through here – over and done with in 8 seconds (going past you) but again great to see.

      

Paralympic athletic and judo tickets also for us, so more amazingness to see in a few weeks time.

Mrs. Noble managed to see the Olympic torch coming through Richmond – exactly where I was working until the end of last year (typical) and then again going up the Thames to the Olympic Park for the opening ceremony.  Daddy was working so didn’t get to see them!

   

We headed up to Heathrow Airport the week before the Olympics to spot athletes coming in and we did.  We got to see the teams for Australia (rowing), Japan, India (table tennis), UAE, Mongolia, Estonia and a few others.  Very cool to see them arriving.

On the opening weekend we had to venture up into London – without event tickets (on the off chance that we could have bought some – fat chance, the whole ticketing system and process has been a complete and utter shambles; you couldn’t do it worse and whoever built – ha! – the actual online system needs a severe talking to; but that’s for a different post – to be titled something about why testing and planning is important).  And complete with friends up from the South coast.  Great fun, getting the buzz everywhere.  No tickets, not even close but good to be up in the middle of it all.  And seeing our great British armed forces on patrol – filling in brilliantly where G4S abysmally messed up – was the ultimate in re-assurance.

   

Our London 2012 mascots are everywhere in London and all very nicely themed.  Now I’m working in the city (near Bank) I’ve done some great great runs around the city at lunchtime and even better to Vauxhall – part of the way home – in the evenings.  The run across Tower Bridge, along the South Bank, across the Millennium Bridge (what was the wobbly bridge), past London Bridge, past Waterloo and the great London Eye is unbelievable.  What a run past some of the greatest sites in the world.

Amazingly the London transport system is doing very well under the immense pressure that this many more people brings.  There are signs at all the train stations pointing you in the right direction to the different Olympic venues, tube train maps have been updated showing you the right stops to get off at, Olympic volunteers are everywhere to help and daily updates are sent out (by e-mail) to let you know busiest stations that day.  It’s all working and well…

Go Team GB.  An awesome achievement so far and more to come.  14 gold medals (as of now) and 3rd in the medal tables behind the USA and China (both much much bigger countries in terms of land sizes and populations).

A great stat below from a friend on Facebook today…

London doesn’t get much better than this.

Should we put up with poor service?

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No!  It’s that simple.  There’s too much of it about and it’s got to stop.  Whether I pay for the service directly or through some strange indirect route, it shouldn’t be rubbish.

As consumers – where there’s no contract or service agreement in place – we often think we have to put up with poor service, because it doesn’t appear there is any other option.  Add outsourcing to this where suddenly the English (in my case) the other person is using can be a challenge, and this can get even worse.

There are many reasons why the service might be poor – even though for me (a true believer in nothing but great service – at home and at work) it goes against everything I’m about – and they include:

  1. Misunderstanding – for either or both parties
  2. Communication problems – related to above
  3. Someone’s had a bad day – it happens to us all but it has wide impacts
  4. Lack of accountability and responsibility – just reading from scripts
  5. Unable to think for themselves – those providing the service (unable = not allowed)

These all happen and we can understand how they can impact service.  And they can be changed and services improved.  But when there’s lack of thinking or planning into how the service will work, or even what service is all about and not having the people with the right attitude in place that’s not right.

Some examples this week of poor service – both from the same company but different people at different times – that I’ve experienced in preparation for starting a new working life up in London and on the lovely London commute are below…

South West Trains – who provide the train services for my commute into London – scored badly twice this week.  And it’s not just me who’s had bad service from them recently.

Having spotted a Twitter handle for South West Trains recently and seen them use it very well, I was impressed and their service looked to be headed in the right direction but no!

On Monday I needed to get a monthly ticket for my journey.  Easy or so I thought.  I headed to the local station at about 11:20am but hit my first hurdle there and was told you can’t put it on your Oyster pass there because they’re not Transport For London (TFL) – who run the London Underground.  Now for non-Londoners this gets complicated now.  Oyster cards are PAYG or stored value tickets for the tube within London but also London travel zones 1-6, which can include trains, if that train company takes part.  Oh the joys of privatisation of the national railways!

But you can use the Oyster card at the local station.  Ok so someone’s not really thought this through.  TFL tickets and South West Train tickets can be used there and provide the same service.  I’m just a customer and just want to travel into London.  I don’t care who owns the route.  That should be transparent to me when it comes to simply buying tickets.  Maybe it’s down to system integration at the back-end.  Poor service example number 1.

Ok – so we now need to go to a local TFL (tube) station.  The image below shows the complexity of London train and tube travel if you didn’t know already…

It’s a big map, there’s lots of stations and some of it is over 100 years old!  But the ticketing should work – the trains do, on the whole.

We now get to the tube station and Mrs. Noble pulls up in the car outside.  In I go now confident that this will work.  Monthly ticket please on my Oyster – “No you can’t get a new one until after 12pm” – Say what?  Why not? – “ATOC rules!” – Huh?  A tweet to South West Trains to see if they can help but no it’s the rules, that’s it.  No reason why.  No understanding, point blank no and no other help.  Example number 2.

Both examples of 4, 5 and 6 in my points above.  They could have dealt with either request very differently and provided the same end result but the customer happier.

  • Example 1 – sorry sir, we’re not able to sell that here and I’m afraid you can’t buy a new one of ours until after 12pm, as it’s new.
  • Example 2 – sorry sir, for new ones you need to wait until after 12pm.  Oh I see it’s nearly 12pm now, let me check and we’ll sort that out for you.

Now I’ve got started I’ve got more examples of bad service to come.  Do take a look at the @My6Percent site – it’s a bit harsh but fair and you can see how bad the service can be!  As a London commuter, I just accept most of it but then that goes back to my first point – I shouldn’t.

Do you put up with bad service?