And the prize goes to - Greater Anglia!
Eagle-eyed drivers spotted a snake under a train at Southend Victoria station yesterday. The snake was rescued & taken to a local vet. pic.twitter.com/OP2J6lksj5— Greater Anglia News (@GreaterAngliaPR) August 24, 2017
Nice use of social media by Network Rail today.
This from the Daily Star this morning...
Was followed up by this response from NR's press office...Waterloo travel news: 'Nightmare' this morning at London’s busiest station #waterloo #waterlooupgrade #Travel https://t.co/UBy4PWBkS6 pic.twitter.com/uIuxEaSjQz— Daily Star (@Daily_Star) August 7, 2017
Fancy!Sure that's a recent photo?— NR Press Office (@networkrailPR) August 7, 2017
Everyone's wearing hats and scarves... Waterloo has been quieter this morning (see pic) https://t.co/yd6CvPbvA6 pic.twitter.com/xmuHBOgjRR
This from the Deep Alliance...
Perhaps a little more polish on the voice over required?
Otherwise very good.
This from a Mr Trumpet...
A
strangely timed promotional Tweet by TfL:
London in autumn. Simply breathtaking @EmiratesAirLDN pic.twitter.com/U85g6LanCwBut not if your train to London’s been cancelled!
— Transport for London (@TfLOfficial) October 28, 2013
A very odd hashtag in this tweet from the DfT...
Former Eurostar platform opens to improve commuter services at Waterloo http://t.co/5pFKCmXdTU #globalrace pic.twitter.com/PvTverYFkz
— Dept for Transport (@transportgovuk) October 23, 2013
This via the Beeb with a bowler tip to @PaulCliftonBBC...
A brilliant side by side view of London to Brighton in 1953, 1983 and 2013:
Paul Clifton's report can be found here.
Good effort.
This from @SW_Trains...
See!
Narrowcast and talking direct to the customer isn't so difficult.
Although perhaps something on track condition, on the hottest day of the year, wouldn't have gone amiss...
UPDATE: This from Southern Belle...
Yeah, worth mentioning track condition just to be smug!
Bearing in mind the problems on the Western, South Eastern and Great Eastern tonight.
They're a cheeky lot in Derby!
This from RVEL - a nice little video package about a visit from Patrick McLoughlin on Monday.
Whilst 'RVEL-vision' is a little bit corny (a little bit!?! Ed), this is a great example of disintermediation!
Why go broadcast to get your message out, when Narrowcast is the future!
Or should that read South Western Railway?
No matter.
This is the bespoke case that SWT's twitter supremo has had created for her iPhone.
This from SouthEastern's twitter feed...
person hit trains through Gillingham Kt & Faversham subject to 45 mins delay & canc #southeastern bit.ly/RBhKM8This is wrong on so many levels.
— Southeastern (@Se_Railway) October 17, 2012
@spacechopper Apologies for any delay that you incurred. We will have a look into this for you.
— Southeastern (@Se_Railway) October 17, 2012
There's a nice time-lapse video over on Southern's website showing the refurbishment of a class 377 vehicle in 3 minutes.
Sadly it isn't embeddable so no chance of it going viral (railway PRs please note for future reference!).
No matter.
Eye's man in Croydon with the green ink writes:
"It's a really good vfm project (in-house, no long trips extending the non-availability of the unit etc etc)."
Good effort.
This morning Network Rail and the WCML TOCs have been showing how twitter can be an effective passenger communications tool during disruption.
A special plaudit to @NetworkRail who sent out the following photo to show the scale of the recovery work required at Bletchley:
A lesson in effective use of social media.
Meanwhile Eye's thoughts are with the driver of the loco who is in hospital with serious, although apparently not life threatening, injuries.
UPDATE: A further image from NR showing damage to track and OHLE...
Eye understands that the Virgin driver has now been released from hospital.
Many congratulations to @LondonMidland who scooped possibly the most important gong at last night's National Rail Awards.
Sponsored by Passenger Focus the award was for 'Putting Passengers First' and was given in recognition of how the go-ahead TOC (geddit!!!) had transformed customer service through the use of social media.
In the words of @PassengerFocus:
Passenger Focus sponsored National Rail Award won by @LondonMidland great use of social media during disruption, no jargon, quick and useful.
Hopefully other TOCs will take note and consider offering a similar interactive service to their customers?
Meanwhile Eye is pleased to see that even the Infrastructure Controller has embraced social media, with @NetworkRail dealing with the concerns of the railway's neighbours in real time.
Of course not all railway companies are so foresighted and this can lead to problems. Social Media (whether facebook, blogs or twitter) is very much like nature - in that it abhors a vacuum.
So where there is no effective official presence lots of others will rush-in to fill the gap.
Some who occupy the space are just plain malicious, but others are loyal and enthusiatic members of staff who give of themselves and their time at no cost. Sadly this is not always appreciated when public and private personas overlap..
The Fact Compiler was sad to see that the Apostle of the 3rd Rail has decided to hang up his keyboard.
He/she (?) along with myriad other railway employees can be found on twitter performing an invaluable service answering passengers' questions, defending their company from the usual on-line calumny and representing the railway in the public forum.
Oh if only enlightened employers would harness, focus and reward the undoubted enthusiasm of these brave souls who unlike so many in the industry are actually prepared to put their head above the parapet!
No matter!
Meanwhile to those industry colleagues who selflessly plough the lonely on-line furrow on behalf of our industry - Eye salutes you, and respectfully offers the following gentle observation....
The identity of The Fact Compiler is of course a closely guarded secret known to only two people in the entire universe. However your humble author remains acutely aware that, despite this all pervading cloak of anonymity, he too wears a 'company uniform' (Shurely several? Ed).
So whilst his tweets are 'whispered in the dark' they will almost inevitably be 'shouted from the rooftops' - and seldom in context.
Perhaps something all those on-line may wish to reflect on?
'Nuff said?
It took Virgin Trains just 8 minutes to respond from a tweet by Tom Harris MP criticising their coffee.
That makes NR's famed Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit seem slow in comparison !
Good to see a PR at the top of his game!
Eye favourite the soi disant 'veteran' observer managed to sink in the mire of the twitterverse this weekend.
Bluster-Brown, for it was he, was left floundering as the hashtag #trainonfire lit up Sunday's internet, at one point being viewed by 22,500 'tweeps'.
And where in this alleged conflagration was the great spin surgeon?
Left forlornly punting emails to a twitter based Guardian hack...
Happily no fire, no story.
No matter!
Eye advises all TOCs (with the following noble exceptions who Actually Do Twitter)....
"Get with the program, get a corporate Twitter account, get your team on-line and engage".
'Nuff said.
Sad news indeed for South Eastern passengers who rely on social media to plan their journeys.
According to the 853 blog @Train_Driver is no more!
The anonymous twitterer was famed for being the only reliable source of information on how South Eastern services were running (sic) during the recent adverse weather.
This for instance on the 30th November:
Of course South Eastern doesn't do social media.
This despite yesterday's wise words from Bill Emery of the ORR:
"Britain has recently experienced hostile weather conditions and all transport sectors have faced difficulties - but the regulator is clear that the rail industry can, and must, improve performance for passengers, particularly in providing useful and accurate information."
@Train_Driver - you will be sorely missed.
This from the TfL website...
Updated Web Developers' Area and free travel information go live today. Free provision of data part of Transport for London's (TfL's) digital strategy and supports the Mayor's commitment to make data available to the public.
Compare and contrast TfL's policy with that of ATOC, where the monopoly supplier of UK rail information charges developers a hefty fee to use 'live departure board' & 'journey planning data' - even when the resulting apps are to be offered to users for free.
Of course the failure of TOC's to provide effective communications during the recent poor weather has revealed the limitations of ATOC's approach.
Meanwhile the Mayor and TfL are keen to exercise more influence over the Greater London rail network - with one of the prizes being the better integration of passenger information so that rail travellers can be kept informed about network performance.
Hopefully TfL have made an appropriate submission to David Quarmby?
This from SN Barnes...
With lessons obviously learned from last year, Eurostar has outshone most domestic TOC's with their immediate and steady use of twitter to give frequent updates on a service that was doing a lot better than cross channel flights.
Aside from the wonderfully boring Nicola @chilternrailway telling us nothing was out of order, the efforts of South Eastern's ("the trains are all fecked") @Train_Driver has proven to be the most accurate, honest, and reliable when compared to the fault line slips between what the TOC's were putting on line, what NRES published and the train information displays at the point of delivery.
Passengers, of course, are no longer surprised by kafka-esque relationship between 'official information' and the actual presence of the trains they purport to describe.
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