The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track Episode 1: King's Cross
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2013
- Documentary following the staff at London's King's Cross station, the gateway to Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh for the 47 million people who travel through the station every year.
The 1970s concourse at King's Cross is cramped and dark, doing nothing to help the spirits of the passengers - something that Alexis, who works on the passenger information point, knows all too well from her experience of dealing with frustrated travellers. Steve, who sells tickets in the travel centre, says he regularly relies on his conflict resolution training.
There is hope that a brand new concourse will lift everyone's spirits. East Coast manager Steve Newland wants the opening to coincide with customer service levels worthy of a five-star hotel, a vision that is frustrated when broken-down trains and fatalities on the line bring everything to a standstill.
Laxman has worked at the station for 35 years, during which time he has witnessed both an IRA bombing and the King's Cross fire. He is a much-loved staff member but will not be there to see the new concourse filled with passengers, as retirement beckons. His last day at work is a very sad one for everyone at the station.
That old guy in the meeting was absolutely on point.
ahh that would be experiance
@@billybogg3602 experience over middle management bullshit and corporate speak. She even came back at him with the same scripted bullshit
@@jacksdjfam I could not agree more. All these useless pep talks and management BS is only covering up the desparate state of all public services in Britain! Expensive, inefficient, dirty, outdated, rundown - simply a disgrace for the nation!
Hilarious loved the way he handled the mASSES near the end as well
Well, it's also nice to actually have seats, and seats that don't give you haemorrhoids. Cheap trains that run on time are nice, having seating on those on time trains is nicer.
You can see all the people trying to find places to sit in all sorts of places, or just relegating themselves to stand around feeling miserable.
"Ive not met a lot of bad people, just good people in very bad moods"
What a man. As someone who works in costumer service I applaud that behavior.
It’s a great line, one I’ll remember
The long lost, final episode of 'The Office'.
I know it's just an hour documentary, but the impression given is that company policy is to try to improve by shouting "customer service" at the employees over and over again, rather than asking them what needs to be changed to improve things.
TieDef My uncle spent his whole career with the railway. His famous saying was that a boss could be lead to knowledge, but couldn’t be made to think. It seems this manager fits that saying brilliantly.
At the point of Connex taking over the Brighton line I found one of their customer statements which seemed to suggest they paint everything blue and yellow it would work so much better.
You do know that these grunts don't matter to these bozos, right? They are just fodder, and the consultants and office based managers are the ones calling the shots.
Maybe costumers need to be more understanding
i feel i have to agree with the old bloke during the discussion about customer expectations. What a customer should expect is that a train will depart and arrive when it says it is supposed to and transport people from A to B for an affordable price within the constraints of running a railway. The modern management obsession with 'customer service' over actually fixing the issues with the system that causes people to become annoyed is the reason that good people are leaving the job.
I worked for a historic railway station turned museum for a couple of years and the number of people who would turn up expecting to catch a train to the city despite the fact that the station had not seen a regular passenger train since 1994 was unbelievable. And then instead of driving to the next station (15 minutes up the road where passenger services from the city stop) they would instead argue with me and demand that I have a train stop at our little museum station so that they could board and go to the city.........
Laxman is a legend. He has seen and dealt with things I wouldn't want to
Happy to see at the end of this film that he takes a pride in his garden. When you retire it is so important to have a hobby or something to keep you occupied and mind fired up , especially after doing the busy hands on job that this wonderful guy did.
That manager "Steve Newland" is insufferable. He is the real-life version of Ricky Gervais from The Office.
PandaBashable I agree lol , The David Brent School of Management.
Just as well hes out of a job!
Lol I was struggling to think of who it was he reminded me of and pandabashable you got it SPOT ON.
Lol I scrolled down from the video to make this comment but straight away saw you already made it 3 years ago. I'm glad so many people agreed. What a tool.
"A bronze medal, or a silver medal, is not good enough. You have to deliver gold, yeah?" Ahahaha tosser.
INTERVIEWER: Anything good about this job?
TRAIN CLEANING LADY: No.
Trixtah That job must make anybody who works in it hate the world, and the human race eventually to the point they prefer animals to humans. I don't blame them.
it's not as bad as it looks trust me, still better job than serving ungrateful customers for minimum wage, at least you don't have to be polite and keep smiling and pretend everything is ok, you have time for thinking, sorting things out in your mind, etc.
Trixtah they why does she do it
Not so easy to find work mostly. duh
Oof
Laxman has certainly earned his retirement. I have worked with people like him.
Maintain the trains, the trains are a wreck it's disgusting an you charge stupid prices to travel by train. An you say its not about the money we'll it is. An PAY THEM CLEANERS MORE CLEANING TOUR SHIT UP
@@chinwe25it’s because Uk is privateded now so the companies do the proce
You can tell the staff who care and take pride in their jobs - Alexis, Laxman and one or two others. Then there's the 'Here because I have to be' ones who don't really look that interested and finally there's those who talk a great railway but don't actually do anything - the Managers (including not moving flower pots !)
Alexis & Laxman are beautiful people.
Here's a Business Pro Tip: If you're working at a company and a, "Steve Newland" shows up, it's time for you to leave. Give your notice and get out immediately, as it's all downhill after that. Trust me on this one. I earned these gray hairs the hard way. You don't have to.
I completely agree. Jump ship before it's downhill. Just joking. Just jump ship when "Steve" comes aboard.
I don’t think that he could effectively conduct a one man band.
😁
@@brianburns7211 vvbbbvvcsaa
I saw David Cameron in 1st Class. No Secret Service around him. How casual.
Secret service would have been there, though not easily noticed.
i hope there was no secret service, i thought they were meant to be in America protecting the president.
@@nblucas MI12, or whatever their clandestine code is. 😅
@@AndrooUK MI5/6
@@nblucas 😂😂😂😂😂😂
The bloke at 37:10. Now thats a model of society, puts his point across in such a way to indicate his frustration but in a polite way and shows great respect for the station staff as the problem is out of their hands. Why can't more of the public be like him. Manners doesn't cost anything.
I went to King's Cross station for a train to the NRM at York during my 2016 trip to England. The new station looks really nice!
-Dan from the USA.
"Deliver great customer experience"... I cannot stand such a nonsene blabla.. the only thing people expect from a railway are on time trains and a reliable service, nothing more. They should concentrate just on this.
+Bastian Mann I worked on the railways for nearly 50 years . We used to get a lot of what we called rhubarb . I used to switch off and think what I was going to have for my tea !
+welshpete12 Is "rhubarb" a term for pointless motivational meetings? :p
+Giradox , Yes quite !
Agree, I don't get on a train and think "Am I going to be offered a scone and a cup of tea"... all I ask is that it runs to time, I don't even expect a seat either.
Try traveling in Japan. Changed my whole perspective on passenger transportation. The priority for passenger railways should be punctual, comfort, and friendliness. Passengers are human being after all. But yes, on-time trains and reliable service is the very first step in making people satisfied, but not enough for people to truly enjoy.
He did his job well for 30+ years, but in that time he saw and experienced things no one should ever experience at work, and still smiles. You can't find employees like that
All the other episodes in this series are mostly positive and upbeat, this one is bloody depressing
Took them the first episode to hit their stride and find a workable style it seems.
Especially at the 38:00 minute mark.
Last scene with Laxman was fitting, "A Briton's home is his castle".
Cameron seems very unhappy to see the BBC there.
Hmm
Maybe he hasn't been paying his TV Licence? 😅
"It's not all about the money, gotta be happy with what you got!" says the guy on 60k a year.
Lol yea
I have fond memories of working as a train driver at Kings Cross 1991-2000. Great times at the Cock Tavern too! Nice to see Les and Kev still on the union committee
If Britain's railway had 100% Laxman style staff we'd be better than Germany! I don't hate ALL our rail staff, a large portion of those on EastMidlands Trains are lovely. At the same time my worst experience with a train staff member is through the same company! Laxman was there because of his love for trains, his dedication and ability to treat customers right. THAT IS THE KEY to running a railway.
JD the Trainspotter East Midlands trains have the most friendly staff I once had to travel from Sheffield to St Pancras and I was in a rush and they upgraded me to first class for free
Every year in germany 37k Trains are travelling on 36k km rail you cant compare that to the tiny network in austria swiss its always harder and more expensive to maintain a big network with small amount of cities than maintaining a very small network fully packed with cities. Secondly Deutsche Bahn is only fully responsible in terms of long-distance traffic. For commuter trains local transport association are responsible like www.nvr.de/ for example they define specified "lines" in their area with cycle time of departing amount of passengers their stops and so on. The train operators like Deutsche Bahn , Eurobahn Keolis, National Express, Abelio and so on are just fullfilling their orders and have to pay heavy penalties when they cant fullfill their order. Eurobahn in the moment has heavy problems in NRW for example and is far worse than Deutsche Bahn in terms of reliability (Its a Subcompany by SCNF by the Way) They are operating the Thalys Service since a month or so with the same amount of staff than before, so obviously they have not enough Train Drivers and every second Train between Venlo and Mönchengladbach was cancelled some weeks. www.nvr.de/fileadmin/Dateien/PDF/NVR_SPNV_Nahverkehrsplan2016.pdf this is the document where everything is specified for the rhineland for exampple you can see which train company runs which line ans so on. Its a interesting piece. The next problem you have is politics, the longest line for 300 kmh line speed between Cologne and Franktfurt was built way longer and with more inclines so they can built it in a different county because of different taxes in different federal states and stuff like that.
the best railways in the world are in japan on time and efficient but expensive
My dream is to work on the railway, as I have a really big interest in trains, and helping people.
JD the Trainspotter a lot of Scotrail staff are jobsworths
Not enough people like Laxman any more unfortunately. Even some of his colleagues, like the guy he was giving all his locker stuff to, clearly not interested in what he had to say or that it was an emotional time for him. Can't understand why this miserable guy reading the paper at 20:00 does that job, clearly a glass half-empty type of guy and therefore woefully unsuited for customer service.
that young guy taking the locker stuff from Laxman was so rude :-O if nothing else, he was at least *honestly* not giving a fuck... but yeah he should be ashamed of himself! sadly though, i doubt he ever will be :-/
If he's new to the job, he might be stressed and too busy listening, or thinking about the job and stuff.
Don't assume that because people don't outwardly show emotion, sympathy, or empathy, that they don't experience that inside.
Some people may also have autism/Asperger's, and may not be able to express their thoughts and feelings visually or effectively.
He was probably glad to see the back of that laxman bloke!! He must of been a nightmare to work with!!
@@RWL2012 You seem to know a lot about him based on a single scene from a documentary. Perhaps try to be less judgemental in future.
I was watching these on my TV and literally went and found the video on my phone so I could leave this very comment.
The things that man had seen on the railway, clearly emotional and they tasked this kid on the job who had no idea or interest. Awful.
The locker clearout should have been done by someone from Laxmans calibre
So the guy at 52.30 is upset because he now has had 10 seconds added to his journey, 10 seconds which eases congestion and makes things run smoother, we really are a bunch of cry babies in this country. Frankly embarrassing.
Leo Bell. 10 seconds is 10 seconds out of your journey time but some people just can't stop complaining .
Leo Bell of your real name is Leo bell they means me and you have the same first name. Leo.
He sounds like an American (And I am an American!); "How DARE you inconvenience me!", or words to that general effect. I've seen plenty like him traveling around the States. :-/
52:30 ❤️
Great programme - compelling viewing - and very poignant in places. Thanks for uploading this.
Www bf
Bf wwwbsfcsm
That Steve Newland is a monumental bell end
Typical crap manager
@@vincitveritas3872 The first one to blame the staff when everything goes pear shaped.
@@InquisitorMatthewAshcraft yep worked for those kind of managers.
An infantile pillock
A 1st class bawbag
As a train driver I pretty much agree with what those blokes said. Trust me there'll still be plenty of whinging, but we got it pretty good. For example in Gladstone Australia (heavy haul coal) where I work we're on $120,000/year + overtime at 175%, 40 hour week, two driver operations, 5 weeks' leave, 10 sickies and long service after 7 years. All that from just being a man off the street plus a year's training.
Is that USD or Dollaridoos?
You are a member of The Lucky Bastards Club. I was a member of it in the USA - it was called the Phone Company. When I left, I was making $107,000 a year US, Overtime started at 150% and maxed out at 250%, pension, health care, 36 days leave (after 25 years), sickies, 40-hour week, Union, you name it. They had to drag me out of there, literally. I did not want to go, but after my third stroke, they made me retire after 28 years. I still miss it, I was a Lucky Bastard.
@@bobwalsh3751 Dollarydoos - these days with no overtime you're getting 140k including penalties and if you work overtime it's not unheard of to get over 200k.
Fooken hell. I work in the emergency services. After 6 years in the job I'm on just under £50k (GBP), no limit as such to sick days but if you are continually sick it's a disciplinary and can lead to dismissal after continued sickness periods. Annual leave is not great, about 21-22 days a year, our leave is counted in hours rather than days, i.e we get 200 hours leave per year, and work a 9 hour shift, so it equates to 22 days per year with 2 hours remaining. Overtime is usually 1.33x rate unless it's pre-planned (say for a central operation or big ceremonial event) then it would be 1.5x rate, amazingly despite being in the emergency services we are not technically required to work bank holidays, so if we do work them we get 2x rate (double pay) for that whole day.
On my salary, working one single bank holiday means I can earn £500 in one single day, pre deductions, so take home is around £370 per bank holiday.
Solution to the railway problem is make all the execs use it for 3 months at peak time in standard class
James Brindle oh yeah
The best solution would be to work the jobs which they manage instead of straight University-> Management.
I LOVE that cleaning lady !!!!!
me too and her animals but not her snakes snakes eat animals where i live
AYE! anyone who has compassion for a rat
has her heart in the right place
I love how they call their rescue locomotives Thunderbirds, it's great
Thats the nickname for the 57s, its pretty cool
@@KaiDiesAgain if i remember that was the name given when they were in service towing broken pendolinos
Bodysnatchers isn't exactly a nice thought is it😂
@@firestarteronyoutube5542 yeah, bodysnatcher doesnt really sound like the friendliest of nicknames
7 years later and I am still watching this. Thanks for the upload, gives a really good insight to the old Kings Cross , the new concourse has Harry Potter platform 9 and a 3 quarters now !
This is the best EVER episode of the office I've seen. Lets have more.
How the hell has a documentary on trains made me cry god dammit.....
Fake Name what part
Fake Name . Why did it make you cry
Not in Wyoming
Because it’s not about trains.
My last journey out of Kings Cross was to Harrogate in 2000. Had no problems and arrived on time. What you see here is about what to what we experience with AMTRAK in the states, and some of our long distance trains can be days late.
Ken Bird Problem is, Amtrak doesn't own their own track. In Britain, Network Rail controls all lines, while in the US, each railroad controls their own track. This in turn means each railroad's trains have priority on their own track. Meaning, Amtrak is late, because they are delayed by another railroad. If you want to spend 3 to 5 times your money, on Amtrak and have them maintain their own track, they would be in time.
The haulmark of customer service on the British railway network - "Conflict Avoidance" rather than "Problem Resolution".
10 minutes in, and from what I can see there's nobody there with any actual customer service skills. Because it always has to begin with compassion, and you can tell by their body language that they just don't give a shit.
What an excellent series this is. Thanks for uploading.
I just left a job in customer service. That Travel Center scene made me cringe.
Seems like it's the drivers and guards that always love their jobs, everyone else on the railroad hates their job lol.
Cos the drivers get paid well and have a strong union. Everyone else is on shit terms and shit pay.
honest and hard working employee like should never be retire. all the best for his future.
34.55 BOOM he is bang on the money lol. Customer service is such a non profession. People just want a train that runs safely to time and that they don't have to remortgage their house to get on
+Andrew Young However, people like him will observe their career flatlining. He will never get promoted or rise anywhere. Use the buzzwords or lingo that managers want to hear, and you will go places. Don't try to be a smartass. And NEVER be honest with your answers. Toe the line.
He must be near retirement age, that's why he's speaking the truth to the idiots.
I wonder who else has noticed that ALEXIS BAILEY (Customer Service) also appears in a similar job role in the 2016 BBC documentary 'The Tube: Going Underground'? She's even a model for the new uniforms and is a face in front of the camera quite often in that episode.
These programs always dwell on the drama of delays and upset customers to the point that one might assume this was the usual state of affairs, where in reality the worst case situations they portray are the exception, not the norm. I have great respect and empathy for people in front line service positions.
It actually happens more often than you think
"People are going to travel from afar to see this"
No they won't. It seems East Coast management concentrate too much time on their customer services skills. People won't care about customer service if their trains are on time, nor will they travel to see the station.
I think they're on about trainspotter, like me for example.
The whole clip is interesting to watch for sure.Very well done.Enjoy watching it. A ture drama in life.Well done legends.
I don't know why I love this documentary series... I binge watch all 6 episodes of it once a year and still love it every time that I do and I live in the USA, never been to the UK.
Theres loads of good series like this from the uk, just search uk documentaries bbc , itv or channel 4.
this is one of the most touching doccos I have seen. Superb.
Great programme, thanks for sharing.
Watching this in Covid 2020 while "working from home". Haha, thx for the upload!
The phrase "Confusion & Delay" comes to mind.
An interesting program about railways but a completely FASCINATING portrait of peoples' lives.……Hᴜɢʜ….Lɪᴋᴇᴅ…..ツ
Really interesting documentary, thanks a lot for uploading! :D
20:00 bloke just wants to read his paper.
thats is former prime minster David cameron
kate breislin no at 20:00 lmao thats not cameron
Tough break Terry! If ya see this, know I'm with you in spirit!
Nice Documentary and Effort :) Well Done Keep it up
Excellent program…..at time touching.
That staff lady singing is funny and lovely! ❤️
What Rob Swales seems to forget is that the bulk majority of ticket prices go to the privately owned TOC's and maintenance comes from Government subsidy. As long as it makes his job easier though, eh?
Seeing this documentary 10 years on when it was filmed during the height of privatised railways in the UK, gives you a feel that things are now maybe going in the right direction
"train travel set to double in the next 20 years,"
Covid-19: hold my coffee
I honestly can kind of relate to the cleaning lady. Cleaning a department store and I get nothing to show for it. Specially in the restrooms. Once people leave their homes, there manners go away.
Nice! Seniors are train experts!
Fascinating . Have a Happy Retirement .
I was born in Japan, growing up in New Zealand and I appreciate the history of railway in UK coz Japan learned a lot from UK rail. But I think UK really needs to upgrade their railway. Shinkansen runs in tolerance of few seconds. Same as other commuter trains. UK, you can do better than this.
Japan learnt and built on a system via long term investment where the Uk rested on their laurels and stagnated assuming it will be tolerated
@@sutherlandA1 Not to mention money given to Japan by the Allies to rebuild after the war.
Laxman more like bloody TOPMAN
One does hope Mr Cameron paid for his own first class ticket! 🤔🙈😂
Laxman shall live as the best worker... ever.
I'm a driver.if everyone was as disciplined & as professional as us the world would be a better place.some polititians included!
The drivers (locomotive engineers in North America) and conductors are always held to a higher standard. Then again, one mistake is catastrophic in our field.
is it me or does brittain need some double decker trains...?
Seriously, so many complaints about how many space more is needed per train, but double decker trains can hold up to 60% more passangers. Theres not really a reason why not. Netherlands did it, germany did it, france did it, heck even italy has double decker trains, where are you brittain?
+AutoGamerz I think the problem is that they would need to make all overhead wire cables higher as they were not designed for double decker trains.
I checked stuff, they seem to be the same height as in the netherlands. so even though they keep saying it's an issue it's actually not.
+FunsterProductions I think the issue with double decker trains in Britain is the loading gauge, which is the maximum size of carriages that can go through tunnels and any other sort of obstructions. It is probably smaller than most places on the continent. I believe that was one of the considerations of the Eurostar when it first started. The maximum height above rails in the UK is 2.9 m. In the Netherlands, it's 4.7 m.
Most places in North America allow for double stacked container cars, which is why we see a lot of double decker trains here. It's a special case in Montréal though with the 100-year old Mount Royal Tunnel, and the only place in Canada with an electrified rail line. The new double decker rail cars that use that tunnel had to be specially designed to fit through there. By comparison, the loading gauge in that tunnel is 4.4 m. It was a joint order with New Jersey Transit, because they have trains using tunnels in New York City as well.
I would like to try those new double decker cars eventually. But AMT's service is really inconvenient for me, especially since I live in Ottawa and only visit Montréal on weekends.
+FunsterProductions The current High Speed 1 route going to St. Pancras International in England was built for it, but that opened in 2007. But before then, the Eurostar used the old conventional lines going to Waterloo International.
+AutoGamerz its been considered many times but the problem is, britain has the oldest railway in the world and a lot of the track has low down tunnels. to make larger trains, many tunnels would have to be rebuilt and thats very expensive. its cheaper just to add extra cars.
finally a HD recording of this. thanks. but why only 2 episodes :(
*_THERE ARE LEGENDS ON THIS RAILWAY AND THERE ARE LEG ENDS_*
- Steve Brent, 2012
Laxman, well done, sir!
My idea for a show: Get a bunch of people from the German Railway in a room and make them watch this, then televise their live reactions.
Count your blessings England. I live in Vancouver Canada and we have one train every two days and they're usually late.
Laxman is a gem ❤️
00:16 "Surely its illegal to be packed in like this!" eh...no. It's actually not.
I reacted as laughing
Bradley Caslin she was one daft old fart
If you see the episode (e4) she has 9 kids with her and demanded to be in a carriage together
Brad Lee Caslin I think that is a good replacement for lol
It's funny because the guy in the opening titles who says to infinity and beyond actually looks like what buzzlightyear would look like if he was real
Even in Scotland where our government is pushing around £10,000 a year into our railway in Scotland, a peak ticket is £26 from Glasgow to Edinburgh express service
That man playing that guitar is very very good .
wow it made me cry
In Chicago the Metra rail system has an online app that will alert you if your train is late and revises arrival times.
wow this is a really bleak look at English culture.
***** I think it is a bleak look at humanity in general, not just English culture. Obnoxious customers, frazzled staff, human mess and short tempers are found everywhere in the world.
Totally agree.
Don't worry it isn't just you guys that have these kind of problems, Ireland is similar but the chaos and rude customers is usually on a smaller scale.
Seán Ó Laochdha It's because Ireland is a smaller country.
I used to work passenger trains in Chicago. People are the same everywhere, not just Britain.
The cleaning lady is my type of person shes brilliant love her
That Steve Newland whom was making the presentation you could tell he was loving the eyes on him.. 😂 alright dude don't go full meglamaniac on us 😂😂😂
i wish trains could only be accessible by people who actually like trains
East Coast tries to make a decent journey. If you saw any of the first (worst) capital connect trains, they looked as crowded as the trains in japan and india.
But dose Virgin Trains (East Coast)
But they don't charge a arm and a leg to ride on them trains like London do its just a massive money making thing for them. They don't give to shits about the customers along as they keep paying
Have you seen the trains in Japan and how disciplined people are? Also how good customer service is?
Laxman! Legend!
There are too many damn ads on UA-cam these days... hoping another video service comes along.
I worked on tracks in Australia and all I can say is - what a bloody circus! Management with no clue, staff with the motivation of depressed lemmings, unions causing delays and track workers who won't get their hands dirty!
No wonder the train tracks are an abomination in australia mr coight, everything you touch goes to shit!
19:33 the nerve to tell them that right after he said that he understands there are days where his employees might feel a bit tired or stressed, but really wants them to enjoy working at King's Cross? Give me strength 💀
I really thought they would have had him a retiring party either on the train or the platform . All those years & all it meant to them was a thank you wow that aint even rite .How the rest of ya life goes better than that part did Lax .
Good!! He was a typical jobsworth! Nightmare to work with I bet!
Whining passengers are incredibly annoying.
It's always Foreigners whining. If they don't like it. Why don't they sod off back to where they came from!
Yeah, so much whining about having to pay over £329 (I just checked) for the "cheapest" return trip of of 2.5 hours each way*.
Paris to Lyon on fast TGV - same-ish distance as London to Newcastle, half an hour faster - at peak, £125.50 RETURN. So this is what the punters are "whining" about.
* OK, you can get an off-peak return to Newcastle for £200. What the "customer service" guy didn't tell the bloke is that he could buy the expensive ticket one way now, and then save if he was travelling off-peak for the return journey by buying a single ticket back at Newcastle.
mcsquare77 how interesting that you only saw the "foreigners" complaining. I saw a lot of "foreigners" cleaning up the crap that the travelling public left behind, and plenty of lily-white English moaning at the counter.
Yet that was the problems with the idea of Privatisation because problem is the different TOC's drivers can't just take a rival company train at last minute
Customer service staff are limited by the processes that run the place.
Forgot your tickets? A decent system would allow you to prove it and simply replace them. They can't. So what can the service person do? They can't 'fix' the problem, just give an answer nobody wants to hear when modern technology ought to solve it in seconds.
In fact why on earth are so many people using physical tickets at all? Why not some sort of electronic travel card integrated with buses etc?
Simply underinvestment in processes and technology. Find and fix the root causes of problems; you can't forget a physical ticket if you don't have one in the first place.
Pretty pathetic compared with so many other rail systems around the world.
Feel sorry for the staff; they're even more helpless than the passengers.
Yes i thought that. How difficult can it be to track down a visa/credit payment, cancel those tickets and issue new ones. Do what the airlines do and treat it as a change rather than a no can do situation.
Fun fact for all who are still watching - East Coast was taken over by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 2018 and similarly I believe for Virgin who became Avanti WestCoast
Oh yeah! Alexis. Well Done.
the world is overcrowded, damn. I'm not adding any more
Khadene is so cute, I love her 😂💖
If Nathan Fillion played David Brent in ‘The Office’, Steve Newland is what you’d end up with...
I can’t unsee this now 😂
Some of the scenes with complaining customers made me feel like in a Monty Python sketch.
13:23 that train driver is awesome
Amtrak owns the corridor between Boston and Washington, DC and about 100 miles in the state of Michigan. The rest of our 180,000 miles is owned by stockholders on both large lines and short lines. Taxpayers do not have to support the private lines.
Britain has about the same number of square miles as the state of Wisconsin and in spite of the Beeching cuts in the 60s, you still have 3000 station and 20,000 miles of track. Amtrak serves only 525 stations, most of those with only one train per day. Out side of the corridors, Its trains are mostly political and really don't provide any
meaningful transportation. American will never give up their cars for trains and the private railroads will never give up their lucrative freight trains over a passenger train. You are lucky to be so rich in rail transportation.
We fly. No train can compete with the speed of an airliner.
1h 10m min late! Now that's gold!