Much of the human factors work we do in the transport industry is, in the end, about making the train service more passenger and therefore customer focused. Criticising the railways in the UK for being too inward focused on how they operate has often been too easy. One example of this is in how train operating companies explain to the passengers what is happening when things go wrong. All too often this is done using technical "railway" language: they talk about trains as units, they talk about "operational difficulties"...And they don't have an easy way to explain why they take certain decisions to recover the service.
So it was good to see First Capital Connect making an effort to explain some of the background to operational decisions so that the passenger can make more sense of what is going on (see www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/spotlight). This information is on their website and also on posters on their trains.
Understanding what is happening can remove a major source of stress from the travelling experience.Labels: passenger, railway