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This is a true story of being stuck on a Virgin
train four years ago. I wrote to Richard Branson while aboard
the train; the original letter has been edited for clarity.
24.6.00
Dear Richard Branson
I write this sitting in a broken down train
(power unit failure) between Bristol and Manchester. We have been
stationary for four and a half hours altogether. We have blocked
the line, so services countrywide are affected.
When we stopped the driver got out to try to
restart the unit. After an hour he admitted defeat, so a fitter
was sent for from Birmingham. That also took about an hour. He
also failed to restart the unit.
They then told us that the train immediately
behind us would push our train to the next station.
We were startled to learn that this was a possibility.
Why had they not thought of this before?
Two hours later, we were told that we cannot
be pushed, as the special bar does not fit. An engine would be
called from Birmingham to pull us.
Within 20 minutes of this announcement we were
towed away successfully by said engine.
Delays like this are to be expected with the
aging stock that Virgin have inherited from an era of underinvestment.
I know this from customer care letters from previous delays; ironically
I am travelling on a voucher supplied because of a previous failed
Virgin journey.
The approach to fixing the train was chaotic.
Clearly a more efficient breakdown protocol is called for.
Why not have a policy that prioritises clearance
of the line after a few initial checks by the driver have established
that a serious breakdown exists?
If the design of the bar required for pushing
were to be standardised, (an adaptor unit should do the trick),
a following train could push trains as soon as the driver's checks
fail to restart.
As a backup for this, an engine from a station
upline could be mobilised as soon as the word of the stoppage
comes through.
I hope that you will give this proposal serious
consideration, and give me an answer that adopts the proposal.
Yours more in sorrow than anger.
Richard Lawson
cc Customer Relations Manager
Reasonable, no? I am giving them, free of charge, sound business
advice that would save them costs associated with serious disruptions
in future.
In reply, I received a vacuous, breathy letter
from customer services expressing their deep sympathy and apologies.
I wrote back to say that I did not want apologies;
I wanted a reasoned response to my suggestion of how to improve
their breakdown protocol. They wrote to say they would forward
my letters to the technical department. I heard nothing for a
couple of months, so I prompted them again.
The technical department wrote back to say they
did not intend to reply.
So there we have it. When trains break down, the
situation is to be addressed in a chaotic, unco-ordinated way
as a matter of policy, rather than according to a worked out policy.
So much for the myth that privatised companies
are more efficient than state owned enterprises.
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