Just curious--why would you do this as a rail employee?

[Coffeetree]

I live one stop from city centre. This morning there were some delays on the boards but the ladies at the ticket office said they'd been resolved. Got my ticket and went up to the platform.

There was a train on my platform and I went to get on but the rail employees standing around yelled, "Nooooo! No trains running at all into city centre!" There were a few other commuters on the platform.

I said, "Oh right, none at all?"

They said, "No, and there won't be for hours. You need to get a bus".

I went back to the ticket office to try and return my ticket and they said, " What? No, trains running fine now."

Went back upstairs to platform. The train they'd told me not to get on was pulling away from the station, full of people, going to city centre. The rail employees were still standing around and pretended not to see me.

I pointed at the train and said, "So they are running?"

And the rail emoyees said, "Yeah, that one's running, but there likely won't be any more for hours! Like we said, you need to get a bus!"

As they spoke, another train pulled up to the platform. I got on with some other commuters, and travelled to city centre.

I know it's not an easy job but wtf? Is it really that hard to say, "I don't know, let me check for you".

Just bemused.

Well it's possible that they're acting on different information to the ticket office and one set of information is wrong?
Considering that rail companies seem to be all over the place at the moment, it'd not be surprising really.

Welcome to the world of public transport. Why do you think so many people use cars??

On the very rare occasions, any of us have to use the trains, I get "real time trains data" websites up on my devices and work out for myself what's happening. You can't rely on departure boards nor station staff at all.

"Best" was when we had to go down to London on a Sunday. The Northern train we had booked on (to get us to the main line station) wasn't shown on any live departure boards nor the online Northern timetable, so initially I thought it had been cancelled. I checked RTT websites and it clearly showed it on it's way, departed at source on time, and running on time at earlier stations. When we got to the station platform, it wasn't on the departure boards and station staff queried why we were waiting on the platform when the next "scheduled" train was hours away (it is Northern, so trains not frequent). I told him and he scoffed and really nastily said "can't you read the departure boards". I started to explain RTT but then realised I was wasting my breath. Shortly, the train pulled into the station, the railway guy shuffled looking embarrassed. We got on and were on our way to London!

Just a couple of weeks ago, son was coming home from work (different city) for the weekend. "Last" train from his city was a ridiculously early 7:20 (reality of life in the North of England!), and it takes 2.5 hours to travel 70 miles! He can't leave work early enough to get the earlier one at 4:45 - yes, they're 2.5 hours apart! So he hung around the station then saw the departure board showing the train was delayed until around 9pm and he phoned us up. I told him to go back to his flat as it wouldn't be running so he asked station staff who told him it would. I knew it wouldn't because it has to come here and then back again, so a round trip of over 5 hours, which if it left at 9 would mean getting back at after midnight, and I know the line will be shut earlier than that as trains don't run that late here, station staff finish, lock up and go home sooner! Anyway, he trusted the station staff, so carried on waiting. At around 8.30, the departure board changed to cancelled! As I knew it would. Son then went to find station staff, who just shrugged and said nothing they can do, no rail replacement buses, so basically told him to bugger off. So a completely wasted evening.

He's now bought a car!

Northern and Transpennine trains firms are abysmal. They're operated for the benefit of the staff, certainly not the paying travellers as they just don't care.

Quite possibly a nutcase

No no I get that, but it's the doubling down for me. Like instead of pretending not to see me as the train pulled away, they could just say, "Huh, clearly we don't have the right info." And look into it? They are literally carrying radios and mobile phones. They can coordinate info.

And the other day the train never pulled away, the electricity went off, we watched the driver get out and walk away, and fifteen minutes later we're all pounding on the windows until another ra employee noticed and let us out. He then helpfully told us the train had broken down and we had to go to another platform.

Did they forget that there were people on the train? Which is the whole point of trains?

@Coffeetree I don't deny the trains are abysmal and public transport in general is too, like @Badbadbunny 's son I've just learned to drive and bought a car because of this!
But I don't think that the station staff would be deliberately being awkward - what would they gain from it? It's miscommunication which obviously isn't good, or organised but that's not the fault of the staff on the ground so to speak.

Northern and Transpennine trains firms are abysmal. They're operated for the benefit of the staff, certainly not the paying travellers as they just don't care.

Like just about any company these days, they're not run for the benefit of customers or staff, they're run for the benefit of the shareholders and board members. My local bus service is run by a massive national (possibly international) company and I'm pretty sure the drivers don't enjoy driving clapped out buses and being stranded on the side of the road for hours or getting a bashing from customers again because they broke down/are late/the last one didn't turn up. People can only work with what they've got and if the company ethos is profit profit profit then it shows through the whole company.

These companies are on to a good thing, they are cutting corners and maximising profit they get to enjoy yet they're not the ones facing inconvenienced and annoyed travelers daily because of how they're running the company - so they don't see the need to change anything.

Okay but it is kind of the fault of ground staff? Since they were very clearly misinformed but then doubled down rather than just saying, "Let me at least try and look into it with the eight communication devices I'm literally carrying about my person".

A few years ago I was trying to get home and it had snowed and the info was iffy as to whether the trains were delayed/cancelled. It was all 'check at the station' type thing.

I rocked up with my case and waited. I was in the SE on the coast so the 'snow' wasn't bad or deep, but the roads and probably train lines were icy.

I was happy enough if the trains were cancelled - it happens. But the sign on the platform said 'on time' so I waited. The time came and went, and the 'on time' train that simply never showed, switched to the next scheduled one, again saying 'on time'.

Trains were one an hour. I was a bit stuck, it wasn't easy to just give up and go back to where I came from. So we tried the help station thing that calls customer service.

3 trains and multiple calls later, they kept saying the next train was definitely coming. Eventually I asked 'can you confirm it's left X station' (the first one the route) when yet another one was doing a no show. And they said, no, it hasn't left yet...

I've still no idea why they couldn't have said that at the start!

Yep, totally feel your pain. It's baffling. The whole experience of commuting these days is even more agonizing than it was before 2020, and it was terrible then!

I worked on buses , and all our buses serve the town centre station.Id often see trains just being cancelled or get terminated before their destination due to whatever problem.

Ive seen trains just get cancelled or terminate there randomly, late at night even after 11pm sometimes. Passengers would ask the bus drivers if there were any buses going to XYZ and inevitably the answer was no because the last bus had already gone or the bus service didn’t serve that place.

One particular evening very late , the train had to terminate and people had to get off the train. There wasn’t any rail staff around to assist and they had absolutely no one to ask or help them. How were they expected to get to their destination?

What about woman, young people, vulnerable people ? Do they even care anymore ?

Similar experience after storm B. I showed up at Cardiff Central for my train (shown running on the Trainline app) to be turned away from the station entrance by an employee. We were all told no trains would be running that day and advised not to enter the station.

They wouldn’t refund my alternative transport costs because a train did in fact run several hours later. The delay meant I got my full train fare back though.

The real time train tracker on the National Rail app is good - the red dot that is your train is tracked by some automated system and the information is reliable, even if the train itself isn't!

The train driver told his passengers he had to terminate there late at night, there were no other services and no rail staff to ask or get help from .
People literally abandoned, miles from its intended destination. Not much good at 11pm at night. People were stranded and probably had to ask friends or family for a lift, bearing in mind their destination was 30 odd miles away .

That is shit. I was stranded once - not entirely the railway's fault - one train broken down and blocking the usual line, but the alternative line was blocked by a train that had been vandalised. They ended up getting everyone home in taxis - 20 years later, that is still the largest taxi fare I have ever seen as it was a two hour journey!