Veolia staff have really shone during the difficult week of coping with heavier train loads during the six-day long bus disruption. Passengers numbers were up around 50%.
Long lines of people trying to get a Southern train last night
Big ups to the company and staff.
They managed to keep the service chugging along with minimum delays and interruptions and excelled at communicating with passengers both over the platform speakers and through announcements at Britomart and from the helpful red coated ambassadors.
Announcements apologised for the problems but they were nothing to do with the company so there was nothing to apologise for- quite the opposite.
Train guards or managers did such an amazing job, they deserve a round of applause from commuters. Somehow they kept smiling even when it became impossible to collect revenue because of the crowded carriages and went out of their way to help and give information to those travelling on trains for the first time, such as announcing the various stops. Just as well as the crowded carriages made it impossible to see the electronic GPS in-carriage signs or even gaze out windows to see which stop you were at.
Veolia, you won lots of new converts and regulars were impressed. Well done.
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6 Responses to “Good on you, Veolia!”
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
They did handle it quite well. It makes a good impression on new rail commuters and gives ARTA, ARC and MOT something to think about when projecting future patronage figures and procurement of new rolling stock. Keep flocking to the rail people!
Well done Veolia, train travel will be my preferred way to travel to work from now on, the buses have burnt their bridges with this commuter !
The trains and staff were clearly stretched to the maxx, as it were (fnarr fnarr).
They all did a great job, and at least we didn’t get any major breakdowns during the bus lockout – there was one this morning as I noted on the other blog post, but that’s perhaps to be expected after such a heavy week of patronage.
Good point William. There were definitely some new converts back on the trips today.
Yesterday I caught a train into town from Kingsland and they were selling tickets on the platform. Pretty damn smart if you ask me – maybe it should be done at Britomart during the evening peak for people paying with cash, and at a few of the busier stations during the morning peak.
Josh, the platform ticketing thing is a fairly new arrival and I think they’re still working out the logistics of it. I’ve only encountered it once at Remuera, which is my “home” station.
A good plan would be to put some ticket sellers at the eastern end, for those of us who’re coming in from Galway St. That extra few minutes required to go right down to the main entrance (never mind the queues!) can be the difference between catching or missing a train.