I am at a large train station in the waiting room and a member of staff has just come in to let people know of a general change of timetable and a replacement bus service for one of the main services. He did this as a general announcement and not one person acknowledged him. Afterwards he kind of stood there a bit awkwardly before leaving. So not to drip feed he appeared to be at least partially blind and perhaps couldn't see people well. Most people here are on their own and not many have ear buds /headphones on as far as I can see so being engrossed in conversation or not hearing him isn't relevant to most
I just think it doesn't hurt to say thank you. A couple of people got up to leave after this in the direction of where the bus would be departing from so looks like this was at least helpful for them.
Would you expect people to say thank you / acknowledge you in this situation or would you expect to be ignored? I know we don't thank airline staff when they do the safety demo either so maybe saying thank you isn't the done thing. But when he stood there awkwardly afterwards, saying thank you just felt like what should happen.
Edit. I did thank him. I was the only one who did