Spotlight on your Questions
Q: What are you doing to improve customer communication during times of major line disruption?
A: We understand the importance of communication and realise how frustrating it is when information is not forthcoming. We have undertaken a major review of disruption handling and the output from that review has been used to establish what we can do to make sure we manage disruption more effectively in the future.
A new supplier, Atos Origin, provides new software for the station information screen. Atos Origin is one of the leading companies in the world in this area and supplies two-thirds of the UK rail market. They are also the first in the world to integrate with the industry’s main internal messaging system, which enables quicker manipulation of information when things go wrong.
The software system is industry leading in the speed of use during disruption and our first priority was to improve the information to our central London Thameslink stations. Both routes were upgraded in October 2010. We know that the information screens are the first information source that our customers look at when they are at the station. The new software is highly flexible and will allow us to update revised timetables almost in real time in the event of disruption. Our station and revenue teams will also have access to real time information via Blackberrys or ticket gateline computers to assist customers.
Information can also be pulled from our new website or sent to customers who sign up for various travel tools on our website.
Further details can be found on our Spotlight on Information page.