Article: Commuters rail against train services on Twitter

[ozbob]

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Commuters rail against train services on Twitter

Commuters rail against train services on Twitter

    by: Robyn Ironside
    From: The Courier-Mail
    February 24, 2012 12:00AM

TWITTER is increasingly being used as a complaints desk for commuters, with almost 10 per cent of feedback to Queensland Rail coming via social media.

In the past six months Queensland Rail received more than 5000 "individual pieces of feedback", including 460 tweets and Facebook comments.

Complaints ranged from passengers offended by fellow travellers brushing their hair to debates over the appropriateness of mid-trip nappy changes and onboard breastfeeding.

Chief communications officer Martin Ryan said commuters seemed to enjoy having their voices heard by management via Twitter.

"Our followers engage with us and other customers on social media to discuss and debate comfort factors and the habits of other customers that disturb their journey," Mr Ryan said.

"Every opinion and piece of feedback we receive is considered - we look for trends, we investigate complaints and we use this valuable feedback to ensure everyone's journey is as pleasant and comfortable as it can be."

He said the most popular topics on social media were train etiquette, quiet carriages and consultation about the new City network timetable.

"The etiquette campaign, or #trainetiquette as it is more commonly referred to on Twitter, was the most popular topic of 2011 for Queensland Rail," Mr Ryan said.

"The campaign tackles onboard issues such as feet on seats, priority seating, littering, eating, standing aside to allow others to disembark, noisy behaviour and bags on seats and in walkways, among others."

Commuters are not afforded the same two-way communication by public transport co-ordination agency Translink, nor does the Brisbane City Council have a strong presence on Twitter.

Mr Ryan said Queensland Rail was an "innovative business" that was always looking for ways to improve communications between customers and stakeholders.

"Social media is simply another way to gain valuable feedback," he said.

Robert Dow, from commuter advocacy group Back on Track, said Twitter was an important communication channel that should be used by public transport providers around the clock.

"At the moment it shuts down about 6pm. We'd like to see it done around the clock to give people the opportunity to tweet their concerns or questions at any time," he said.

The appeal of Twitter was its immediacy, he said.

"When I've indicated a problem (to QR), the response is immediate. You don't get that if you ring up or write in."

[Cam]

The following response to this article was posted:

John Fraser of Queensland Posted at 7:21 AM Today

    Rail Back on Track wants everything ... but what they fail to understand or even worse what they fail to tell the public is that the public can have everything they want from the government as long as they are prepared to pay for it ...... and the public and rail Back on Track have displayed that they are not prepared to pay .... the 15% increases yearly.

Comment 9 of 9

No further responses have been published to date - including mine.

John, I think that it would be fair to say that the vast majority of RBOT members would be happy with rail frequencies & fares similar to what Perth has. In off peak periods, Brisbane currently has half the train frequency as Perth. With another two 15% fare hikes scheduled by 2014, rail passengers in Brisbane will then be paying approximately twice the fares as those in Perth for a comparable distance.

John, who wants to pay twice the price for half the service?

[Arnz]

I would hope he does his research if he replies here and not make ill-informed statements which border on ignorance and/or trolling   he's been caught out here before on getting the definition of a BUZ wrong.  

[#Metro]

"It is good to see that revenue from fare rises has funded new services. However, there is an upper limit to what can be charged for before degrading value for money. With fares rising at 15% each year, and fares being some of the highest in the world, there is now a huge public expectation that money will be prioritised to deliver frequency where it is needed most (Core Frequent Network) and that waste will be cut by reviewing 'legacy routes' and cancelling plans for 'Maroon CityGliders' (5)."

^^^ This is from one of our later releases. The fare increases have increased service levels, particularly on buses, not so much rail - yet. As I have said elsewhere, I don't mind if fares go up a bit if the service improves. That said though, there is an upper limit to what can be charged for public transport - and this is because public transport and cars are not perfect substitutes. A car provides a vastly higher level of service and thus can be charged much more for. It's a bit like some upmarket five-star ritzy Hotel versus a Youth Hostel or backpacker joint - the market isn't the same and the product being sold isn't quite the same either despite both being accommodation places. The concept of a price point matters here IMHO. If the price is too high, you degrade value for money. If the price is too low (or free) you also devalue the product and inhibit proper upgrades as well.

The task in Brisbane is much harder as the city is a egg-splat - everything is at the centre (apart from UQ!), and it reminds me of what Jarrett Walker talks about with respect to city planning and geography. Canberra has one frequent corridor where bus services come every 5 minutes all day, and that is Belconnen-City-Woden-Tuggeranong. By placing town centres as employment centres and not just shopping centres there is two-way patronage that makes better use of services, more efficient, faster and better use of infrastructure. In the case of Brisbane, we need somewhere around 20 or more frequent corridors to get decent coverage of the city because there is just so much area to contend with - all the BUZ lines PLUS all the rail lines need frequency upgrades to complete the CFN.

This is why efficiencies matter so much as well, and why I cringe at 'coverage rail' schemes or 'rail everywhere' or 'a train station on every street corner' proposals. Too much dilution!

At the end of the day, there will always be dissenters and peoples' logic that we don't understand or that they don't understand. There will always be complainers no matter what.
Let it be. Our job is MOBILITY and FREQUENCY as FREEDOM.

[somebody]

John, I think that it would be fair to say that the vast majority of RBOT members would be happy with rail frequencies & fares similar to what Perth has.

I wouldn't be happy with that.  Evening frequencies aren't provided in Perth.

[Cam]

John, I think that it would be fair to say that the vast majority of RBOT members would be happy with rail frequencies & fares similar to what Perth has.

I wouldn't be happy with that.  Evening frequencies aren't provided in Perth.

Do you expect a train service every 10 minutes or better off peak or are you not happy that the 15 minute services leaving Perth become a 30 minute service at 7-8.30pm on weeknights & 6.30-8pm on weekends? There should be services every 15 minutes until later in the evenings than what is provided in Perth.

I'm aware that the Thornlie Line only has a half hourly frequency on Sundays but generally, off peak train frequencies are 15 minutes in Perth which is twice the off peak frequency provided in Brisbane.

[somebody]

There should be services every 15 minutes until later in the evenings than what is provided in Perth.

That is what I am saying.  Ideally every 15 minutes until midnight.

[SurfRail]

There should be services every 15 minutes until later in the evenings than what is provided in Perth.

That is what I am saying.  Ideally every 15 minutes until midnight.

Even 9pm would be perfectly adequate for majority of people other than on Friday and Saturday.

[somebody]

There should be services every 15 minutes until later in the evenings than what is provided in Perth.

That is what I am saying.  Ideally every 15 minutes until midnight.

Even 9pm would be perfectly adequate for majority of people other than on Friday and Saturday.

That's assuming that you aren't going out anywhere after 9pm on a school night.

[SurfRail]

There should be services every 15 minutes until later in the evenings than what is provided in Perth.

That is what I am saying.  Ideally every 15 minutes until midnight.

Even 9pm would be perfectly adequate for majority of people other than on Friday and Saturday.

That's assuming that you aren't going out anywhere after 9pm on a school night.

Baby steps.  Travel demand is always going to be less after hours for obvious reasons.

Are you denying a 6am-9pm 15 minute frequency would be an improvement (or for that matter even Perth style 15 minute headways that cut out at 7pm)?

As it is, the city to Darra corridor only has this by accident - I don't expect to see it everywhere past 9pm even in a best case scenario.

[somebody]

Of course I'm not denying that daytime increases are useful.

However, to increase the ability to get around without car ownership it should include evenings.

[Fares_Fair]

There should be services every 15 minutes until later in the evenings than what is provided in Perth.

That is what I am saying.  Ideally every 15 minutes until midnight.

Even 9pm would be perfectly adequate for majority of people other than on Friday and Saturday.

That's assuming that you aren't going out anywhere after 9pm on a school night.

Baby steps.  Travel demand is always going to be less after hours for obvious reasons.

Are you denying a 6am-9pm 15 minute frequency would be an improvement (or for that matter even Perth style 15 minute headways that cut out at 7pm)?

As it is, the city to Darra corridor only has this by accident - I don't expect to see it everywhere past 9pm even in a best case scenario.

Darra is at the edge of the Transport Minister's electorate of Inala, it's no accident.

[Derwan]

I'm yet to see ANY frequency improvements despite paying the fare increases.

Still no sign of the phase 2 timetables - and even then, without the Sandgate upgrades, I doubt there will be any significant improvement.

So no - I don't want "everything".  I just don't like paying fare increases for absolutely no improvement to services.

[Mr X]

Darra is at the edge of the Transport Minister's electorate of Inala, it's no accident.

Trains from Richlands could easily have terminated at Darra and a changeover forced to the 2tph Ippy line <ducks> shouldn't give them any ideas 

I personally don't see anything wrong with the Richlands arrangement, it doesn't have the demand yet to warrant 4tph. Ipswich on the other hand...   tell me again minister, why would I bother to wait 1/2 hour for a slow all stopper train when I can jump in my car and drive along a nice upgraded motorway and get there in half the time?

[somebody]

I personally don't see anything wrong with the Richlands arrangement, it doesn't have the demand yet to warrant 4tph. Ipswich on the other hand...   tell me again minister, why would I bother to wait 1/2 hour for a slow all stopper train when I can jump in my car and drive along a nice upgraded motorway and get there in half the time?

4tph Richlands isn't just about Richlands walk up or park 'n' ride passengers.  It also makes it easier to feed the station with bus services.  Why isn't the 110 extended to Richlands?  One possibility is that it wouldn't be reliable enough to meet the train.  As it is, the 466 duplicates the 110 along much of its length.

The other point is that 4tph Richlands would allow the Ipswich line to run express full time.