29.6.05

Fire on 'one' railway: Their response

Recieved the following response from allegedly the worst rail company in Britain recently in response to the fire in the train carriage I experienced a few weeks ago. Bit delayed in response ... comments at the end:


Dear Mr Gibbard,
Thank you for your email concerning your journey on the 14th June. I was sorry to read that you were travelling in the carriage which had to be evacuated that morning. I appreciate your concern and assure you that on arrival at Norwich, this set was removed to the depot and the carriage concerned was taking out of service.
[JG: That's good - so you didn't let it burn in the sidings like I suggested. Good corporate responsibility. Probably best not to operate rolling stock whilst on fire.]

We are replacing the old stock gradually with refurbished Mark 3 sets. [JG: This means nothing to the customer. What is a Mark 3 set, what does it look like, why does this make a difference?] Unfortunately, we have been unable to refurbish these all at the same time so it is impossible for us to remove all of the old style carriages just at the moment. [JG: Talk about stating the obvious. You can't take all your trains of the tracks to replace them presumably because you still need to run a service? Thanks for that, glad that's cleared up that query. My question was actually why is it taking so long for any of the new rolling stock to appear? Especially as these were 'promised' back at the start of the year...]

I have sent a copy of your comments to the Conductor Manger too so he can investigate why the conductor was not performing his ticket check duties, which resulted in you having to actually go and find him. I apologise for this. [JG: which might explain why 'one' haven't got any new trains and have taken up old Virgin stock ... no-one needs to buy a ticket because the conductors don't check and there are no ticket barriers at stations North of Colchester ... protect your ticket revenue and you might make more money. Revolutionary stuff. Having a mobile and alert conductor might also mean fires get spotted sooner.]

Please accept my assurances that we do not take incidents such as this lightly and the carriage will not be put into service again until it is fully repaired and has undergone vigorous safety checks. Thanks again for contacting me.
Yours sincerely,

XXXXXX
Customer Relations Supervisor

[JG: XXXXXX fails to actually apologise for the event. She's sorry I was in the carriage but presumably not sorry that anyone else was or that the fire occurred in the first place. This response was simplistic, lacking in any sort of detail or true customer focus and wasn't even timely. Allegedly The worst rail company in Britain.]

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