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Random Irritations

"Twitter has gone into a frenzy"

No it hasn't. Someone disagreed with something someone allegedly important said and the Daily Mail turned it into a "story"
 
Can you do me (us) a favour. We are often left standing on platforms with announcements saying a train has broken down and in this case of it "dying" what happens to cause it and how does it get moved so services can continue etc. Whenever I ask station staff what's going on they never seem to have a clue what to do, when things are going to happen and what choices we have as to whether it is best to wait, find another route or use buses etc.

It’s too hard for that to be done tbh, all incidents happen and grow second by second

This one started say 22:00 with a train who couldn’t get his doors to close on his last 3 cars.. went back to investigate.. that’s 3 mins gone already.. while he looks into it

We then try little checks, power cycle, switching circuits etc etc .. all this time we holding behind hoping it’s going to move.. because normally they move within a few mins.. this kind of incident hasn’t been seen for 5 years on our line at least . After 20 mins our priority changes.. we no longer thinking fix the train we think right get the train behind detrained through the rear of this one as those customer are now the worry.. their in a tunnel and all resets are failed so get those people clear then back to trying to move it.. all this time behind the trains are being held in platforms turning at the various reversing points to get them out the way and provide some service.

We have someone in the room who relays everything to the station control Rooms who instruct their staff how to best help customers.

To be fair to the staff they can’t know what’s happening because it hasn’t been decided yet

If any of the power cycle
Circuit switching
Soft reset
Hard reset
Detraining and closing the doors via the buttons outside

Had worked it would then have moved and service resumed.

You never know what will work and what won’t its trail and error. Everything last night didn’t work because it couldn’t.. it was proper broken.after the one behind was clear the doors had to be pushed closed manually and then driven at reduced speed and dumped until close of traffic for us to then move to the nearest depot.

Normal incident like a passenger alarm you can try and predict what will happen but what could start off as someone unwell in the last car turns into someone having a seizure on the train and an off duty dr (we get a lot of them) saying that must not be moved.

An alarm for lost property can turn into a suspicious package

Or like last night a unable to get door closed visuals turns into the train is actually broken

I must say further to all this drivel I’ve written that last night the staff were outstanding

Stations did their bit to help on site and the trains behind to get them reversed ASAP

And the drivers wow. In all my years on the job I’ve never had so little complaints by them. Some finished 1 hour late. Think I had 2 (out of 70 I think in service that time of night) have a moan but not even the normal massive moan.

Anyways I digress
 
We were travelling from Manchester airport to Newcastle last year via train. There was a fault between the airport and Picadilly (Manchester's hub) so it was carnage. Scores of tired holidaymakers getting off flights and no trains to take them to the hub where they could make the remainder of their journey. It was a time I expected staff to hide but the train company put half a dozen people on the platform in high viz jackets. They told people what the fault was, that it was being dealt with but they had no idea when it would be resolved. They then told people what trains they needed to take to get to Picadilly the scenic route. No one got angry because there were plenty of staff, the staff were upfront and honest, they gave us the info we wanted as best they could. They also gave us alternatives.

That is how these things should be dealt with, I made a point of thanking the person I spoke to and told them what they were doing was spot on. It just needs to happen that way all of the time as breakdowns will happen, it is inevitable.

Soon as you know it’s going to be something that can’t be fixed this kind of response is possible. Whilst it still has a chance of fixing they will always try and fix it and publish delays
 
Soon as you know it’s going to be something that can’t be fixed this kind of response is possible. Whilst it still has a chance of fixing they will always try and fix it and publish delays
I think Homer's point, and mine, is that it is all about communication. We can handle bad news as long as it is clear. Get bodies on the platform, tell commuters the bad news. Even if you don't know when it will be fixed just get out and tell us. Honesty diffuses the situation. Not being told what is happening, not finding anyone to give information, that is what annoys commuters.

Tough old job when it goes wrong, out of your control, and I do know that the general public can be horrible so that doesn't help.
 
I think Homer's point, and mine, is that it is all about communication. We can handle bad news as long as it is clear. Get bodies on the platform, tell commuters the bad news. Even if you don't know when it will be fixed just get out and tell us. Honesty diffuses the situation. Not being told what is happening, not finding anyone to give information, that is what annoys commuters.

Tough old job when it goes wrong, out of your control, and I do know that the general public can be horrible so that doesn't help.
Totally and sounds a bit like the old IT bit of have you turned it off and on again? Sounds like last night was a real left field problem but handled as well as possible especially if 99% of drivers were OK and all the staff worked as a cohesive unit so well done for getting a resolution. I agree that for the commuters, we'd rather know something, even if its bad news and be able to make contingencies rather than minutes and then hours left in the dark
 
Totally and sounds a bit like the old IT bit of have you turned it off and on again? Sounds like last night was a real left field problem but handled as well as possible especially if 99% of drivers were OK and all the staff worked as a cohesive unit so well done for getting a resolution. I agree that for the commuters, we'd rather know something, even if its bad news and be able to make contingencies rather than minutes and then hours left in the dark

The comma are only as good as the staff on the ground tho.. he have a person who radio updates all the stations all the time during incidents.. I’ll let the drivers know and then in turn they should let the customers know

However for every 5 that do you get 1 that doesn’t.. one driver that doesn’t is 1000 potential customers kept in the dark
 
I think Homer's point, and mine, is that it is all about communication. We can handle bad news as long as it is clear. Get bodies on the platform, tell commuters the bad news. Even if you don't know when it will be fixed just get out and tell us. Honesty diffuses the situation. Not being told what is happening, not finding anyone to give information, that is what annoys commuters.

Tough old job when it goes wrong, out of your control, and I do know that the general public can be horrible so that doesn't help.

No comment on the last line 😂
 
One of the women in the factory has spent the last 20 minutes telling all who will listen, she is loud so we have no choice, that she 'has no time to do anything she wants to'. I finally cracked and asked her what she did do that stopped her, 'everything' came the reply. 'No, from the minute you get up, break it in to 10 minute chunks.'

Answer - The same as everyone else basically, no more, but she makes a fuss about it. I had to walk away in the end as I realised that taking her apart on the shop floor was not conducive to her morale at the company and I couldn't listen to any more rubbish.

(I should add she works a 3 day week, 6hrs a day so work is not filling her time)
 
Got our daughters DLA forms returned today. Apparently being described as a confident young lady by her physio means that her cerebral palsy doesn't cause her walking difficulties. Amazing how a 10min review can determent how she copes daybto day.

Now I'm not someone who necessarily thinks that disability payments are always a necessity. It won't really effect us much financially as will just get a second car, but if the review does fail it'll make a mockery of the multiple people I know (family included) it who still get payments for an inability to walk who still go rambling.....
 
Going into work today finding our region operations director there and all staff being made redundant including myself a shutting down a large portion of our Gym businesses...

Not helped by fact tomorrow is Mrs Wolf's birthday and Wednesday she due to go away for 5 days on her hen do as we get married in less than 3 months...


Sorry to hear that mate, bad news indeed. But having met you at Woburn I have zero doubt that a guy such as yourself will have no difficulty in finding a new challenge soon!
All the best, Trev
 
Sorry to hear that mate, bad news indeed. But having met you at Woburn I have zero doubt that a guy such as yourself will have no difficulty in finding a new challenge soon!
All the best, Trev
Cheers mate, Woburn was nothing short of brilliant hopefully we will have more fun golfing adventures through the forum was a pleasure to meet you.

Just been on the phone with an old Pal who plays pro rugby league about an opportunity so watch this space.
 
Got our daughters DLA forms returned today. Apparently being described as a confident young lady by her physio means that her cerebral palsy doesn't cause her walking difficulties. Amazing how a 10min review can determent how she copes daybto day.

Now I'm not someone who necessarily thinks that disability payments are always a necessity. It won't really effect us much financially as will just get a second car, but if the review does fail it'll make a mockery of the multiple people I know (family included) it who still get payments for an inability to walk who still go rambling.....
The system is a disgrace mate, went through it with my wife after her stroke, don’t give up and keep fighting, we ended up getting our MP involved after they admitted they’d lost our supplementary evidence.
We’ve been through the appeals process so if I can be of any help please drop me a pm.
 
The system is a disgrace mate, went through it with my wife after her stroke, don’t give up and keep fighting, we ended up getting our MP involved after they admitted they’d lost our supplementary evidence.
We’ve been through the appeals process so if I can be of any help please drop me a pm.

Cheers mate, ironically we will be getting more money as they've accepted her care needs have gone from low to high, but at the same time decided her mobility and reliance on us has lessened? Baffles me.

Have gone for mandatory review atm, will go through full appeal if required.
 
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