Compare and contrast
Coming home on the DLR yesterday (I only take it one stop, but it really is a bloody civilised way to travel and if you sit at the front of the train you can pretend you're driving it - there are no real drivers), my very polite guard/person who opens the doors (what are people on the DLR called?) said:
"Thank you for travelling with us today. We are now at Bank and I'd like to wish you a safe onward journey on your way home. Have a nice evening".
DVBoy sent me an email where he heard the following at Warren Street station saying that Piccadilly Circus was closed "cos of a fire alarm or summink".
It's like comparing Vicky Pollard to Joanna Lumley.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Oval Thinkers in Metro
Tao and the Art of Tubing
After all the stressful thoughts of yesterday, it was nice to see Tuesday's Metro reporting on the guys at Oval station with their "Thoughts of the Day". This station was first brought to my attention a few months ago and there's a site which shows all of the "thoughts" which appear at Oval station.
The motivations behind the station assistants were to improve relations between staff and passengers, and they were very surprised at the positive reaction they got.
�It�s a break in that routine which everyone gets into, of rushing into the Tube and ignoring everything around them. It�s unexpected and catches them by surprise.
�No one has ever said they don�t like it. We get at least three good comments a day. One woman regularly takes a photo of it with her phone and sends it to her husband.
�We�ve made so many friends through it. People come up and speak to us. Without the �Thought of the Day�, we would not have had that interaction. People look for it now. We never expected this sort of reaction.
�It works both ways - it shows customers that staff are not faceless and vice versa. It says we do care about how they feel about travelling on the Underground. And we care about how they feel about us.�
Nice one guys. But I wonder now that they've had fame through Metro whether the posts will change or become wackier? At the moment they come from the ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu. Perhaps they'll become more widespread across the system. One can only hope.
After all the stressful thoughts of yesterday, it was nice to see Tuesday's Metro reporting on the guys at Oval station with their "Thoughts of the Day". This station was first brought to my attention a few months ago and there's a site which shows all of the "thoughts" which appear at Oval station.
The motivations behind the station assistants were to improve relations between staff and passengers, and they were very surprised at the positive reaction they got.
�It�s a break in that routine which everyone gets into, of rushing into the Tube and ignoring everything around them. It�s unexpected and catches them by surprise.
�No one has ever said they don�t like it. We get at least three good comments a day. One woman regularly takes a photo of it with her phone and sends it to her husband.
�We�ve made so many friends through it. People come up and speak to us. Without the �Thought of the Day�, we would not have had that interaction. People look for it now. We never expected this sort of reaction.
�It works both ways - it shows customers that staff are not faceless and vice versa. It says we do care about how they feel about travelling on the Underground. And we care about how they feel about us.�
Nice one guys. But I wonder now that they've had fame through Metro whether the posts will change or become wackier? At the moment they come from the ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu. Perhaps they'll become more widespread across the system. One can only hope.
We're more stressed than fighter pilots
Do you get commuter amnesia?
Don't know about commuting but Blogger's been stressing me out lately very, very slow to load posts. Anyway, there's been another one of those studies released today which shows how commuting is really stressful
"Stress expert Dr David Lewis compared the heart rate and blood pressure of 125 commuters with those of pilots and police officers in training exercises.
"The study, part-funded by technology firm Hewlett Packard, found the stress levels of commuters were higher in extreme circumstances.
"Workers' stress is exacerbated by their inability to control their situation."
I'm very lucky with my morning commute of not having to get into work that early so I do miss the bulk of the crowds going in, although rush hour at night gets later and later so I face the scrum like everyone else. I do try to turn off when stuck in tunnels or facing boards saying 10 minutes till your next train, but you can always see people getting fairly frustrated.
"Dr Lewis, who measured the stress levels of the commuters for five years, has identified a syndrome he calls "commuter amnesia", where people forget large parts of their journey because of stress.
"The survey suggests an average commute is between 45-60 minutes," he said.
"That is at least a working day a week that you are losing completely out of your life.
"Switching off the mind, turning people into zombies for 90 minutes, seems to me a quite appalling waste of talent."
Too right. To read more of this story check out the BBC's site.
Don't know about commuting but Blogger's been stressing me out lately very, very slow to load posts. Anyway, there's been another one of those studies released today which shows how commuting is really stressful
"Stress expert Dr David Lewis compared the heart rate and blood pressure of 125 commuters with those of pilots and police officers in training exercises.
"The study, part-funded by technology firm Hewlett Packard, found the stress levels of commuters were higher in extreme circumstances.
"Workers' stress is exacerbated by their inability to control their situation."
I'm very lucky with my morning commute of not having to get into work that early so I do miss the bulk of the crowds going in, although rush hour at night gets later and later so I face the scrum like everyone else. I do try to turn off when stuck in tunnels or facing boards saying 10 minutes till your next train, but you can always see people getting fairly frustrated.
"Dr Lewis, who measured the stress levels of the commuters for five years, has identified a syndrome he calls "commuter amnesia", where people forget large parts of their journey because of stress.
"The survey suggests an average commute is between 45-60 minutes," he said.
"That is at least a working day a week that you are losing completely out of your life.
"Switching off the mind, turning people into zombies for 90 minutes, seems to me a quite appalling waste of talent."
Too right. To read more of this story check out the BBC's site.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Talking on the Tube
The Rabbit has the right idea
Euan from The Londonist has just created a cool little flash animation which reminds you why you don't talk to random people on the tube.
It's not just Londoners being miserable. It's that the chances are that the first person you speak to will turn out being someone who was just too mad to make it into Little Britain.
Euan from The Londonist has just created a cool little flash animation which reminds you why you don't talk to random people on the tube.
It's not just Londoners being miserable. It's that the chances are that the first person you speak to will turn out being someone who was just too mad to make it into Little Britain.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
52 day holiday for Tube Staff
No wonder they have so many applicants
That's it, now I know why so many people (including one of our very own co-writers) apply to work on the Tube. Where else can you get a 52 day holiday just because you work vaguely unsociable hours? Just so that we can run a tube service on New Year's Eve, there's been an agreement between the RMT and London Underground for a 35 hour week. Technically it remains a 37.5 hour week but two and half days can be "banked" towards more days off.
Well at least we will be having tubes running all night on New Year's Eve, no strike (which was being muttered about earlier) and apparently it's also paving the way for later trains on Friday and Saturday Evening.
On the front page of today's Metro, Roger Evans, the Conservative's Transport spokesman was outraged by the deal and called it "an insult to every hardworking Londoner. Yet again are we seeing the unions holding the capital to ransom. They know the threat of strikes always pays off. The answer is to ban strikes on the Underground." For a fuller report check out The Scotsman.
I know we get a fair few Tube staff who read this blog and I'd be really keen to get their comments. Come on "thereisnospoon" where are you?
As Quin just noted in the comments in the previous post there is another poll in The Standard asking whether tube staff deserve 52 days holiday a year - currently it's massively in favour. Wonder how many tube staff voted?
I'll leave you with today's Oval Tube station thought which is kind of appropriate
That's it, now I know why so many people (including one of our very own co-writers) apply to work on the Tube. Where else can you get a 52 day holiday just because you work vaguely unsociable hours? Just so that we can run a tube service on New Year's Eve, there's been an agreement between the RMT and London Underground for a 35 hour week. Technically it remains a 37.5 hour week but two and half days can be "banked" towards more days off.
Well at least we will be having tubes running all night on New Year's Eve, no strike (which was being muttered about earlier) and apparently it's also paving the way for later trains on Friday and Saturday Evening.
On the front page of today's Metro, Roger Evans, the Conservative's Transport spokesman was outraged by the deal and called it "an insult to every hardworking Londoner. Yet again are we seeing the unions holding the capital to ransom. They know the threat of strikes always pays off. The answer is to ban strikes on the Underground." For a fuller report check out The Scotsman.
I know we get a fair few Tube staff who read this blog and I'd be really keen to get their comments. Come on "thereisnospoon" where are you?
As Quin just noted in the comments in the previous post there is another poll in The Standard asking whether tube staff deserve 52 days holiday a year - currently it's massively in favour. Wonder how many tube staff voted?
I'll leave you with today's Oval Tube station thought which is kind of appropriate
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