After a link to this series of videos was posted on the CBT forums, I’ve spent much of the last few days enjoying this detailed insight into the operation and improvements being made to the London Underground. The series is from 2012, so right up to date too:
9 comments
Leave a Reply
Processing...
One thing I really like about what I saw on here and personally experienced when visiting London was the Tube has systems in place and ready to go to handle and clearly communicate disruptions.
That and the day-to-day information is always communicated clearly and concisely with just the right amount of information.
Starting ALL service announcements with “This is a service announcement for…” is one good example.
“Special timetables”, communicated to the public as “special service” for recovering from disruptions is good too, as is announcing “service is suspended on the n line between x and y due to…”, again just the right amount of information.
The fact that all these systems actually are followed by staff and work is the best bit.
The other theme that comes through is people will always complain 😛
I’ve only watched the first so far, but it’s clear that things are much better run in London (as they must, or the city would fall apart) than Auckland. Nevertheless, even there clearer communication with customers would help – when they shut down a station as a result of a crime or maintenance, the passengers are rather upset at losing their transport, but rather more accommodating when they’re told why. Explaining the value of track-work properly (’40 years since last major track-work’), or emphasising the seriousness of a crime or safety-related incident would help everyone involved.
They are very interesting – what I found was so foreign was the number of people employed at stations, and how narrow the tube platforms are and what a limitation it is in the flow of traffic — hopefully something we can learn from.
Does anyone know of similar videos for any other network?
I refer you to the recommendations following the KIngs Cross fire back in 1987.
Yeah you can start to see why it’s so expensive to ride the tube with that many staff employed. I’m not quite sure how necessary it is to have so many people on the platforms saying “this way”. I wonder if platform screen doors could achieve the same safety benefits with some capital cost, but huge operational cost savings.
It all depends on the station- on the big inner city stations, you definitely need it- you are moving about 500 people every 3 minutes on and off the train. On the weekends it can be much worse- you have a mix of slow moving tourists, and fast moving locals which can be quite dangerous. In the smaller suburban stations, you won’t see staff on the platform except in the rush hour. There is quite a lot of controversy at the moment to reduce staffing in stations at non peak times, which is risky. A lot of things happen- fights, people faint, and a fair number of people commit suicide every week by jumping in front of trains.
And the ‘slow moving tourists’ stand on the wrong side of the escalators!
Just dreading London 2012 – can’t they move it to Auckland instead!
In episode 2 the finance guy says the payroll is £4m a day; number of users is 4m a day. Would be interesting to do a similar comparison in Auckland.
Note that a lot of staff time is spent helping tourists, but that is all part of the service.
Also can’t believe that there is one maintenance guy working on the same section of track for 10 years!
Watch out for the Jubilee Line delays!