SL Has Serious Communication Issues
It’s that time of the year again where the problems with the communal trains in Stockholm becomes more and more frequent. This morning was hell, it took me over an hour to get to work. It ususally takes me about 20 minutes.
I’m not too bitter though. I have several alternative ways to get to work so I know I’ll always be there even though I may be a bit late. It’s not a big deal for me. What bothers me is the lack of information we are given when this happens.
This morning I came to the subway as usual. There was a train waiting on the platform with the doors closed but I could open it by pressing a button next to the door so I went in and sat down. The cart was empty and that struck me as strange but I didn’t think too much of it, I just assumed that people in general aren’t aware that you can actually open the doors.
I sat there for a couple of minutes, reading the paper when suddenly the I noticed on the digital information displays on the platform said that there was a disruption in the train service. This train wasn’t going anywhere.
When I arrived at the station the the displays were not active so there was no information about this at first. Even worse is that there was actually a guy working at the subway entrance and he charged people as usual but neglected to inform them that the trains were stopped. What’s up with that? Seriously…
Anywy, I got out of the train to catch on of the replacement buses. It took me about 3 minutes to realize that that was a bad idea so instead I took another bus to catch a commuter train instead.
So far so good, I like having these alternative routes. The bus stopped at another subway station on the way to the commuter train station. Several people went off in hopes to catch the subway from there. I guess they hadn’t noticed that this line was stopped as well. On the other hand, the trains might have started moving again, it’s hard to tell when you’re on a bus and the driver won’t give any information about the issue. I think some information would be in place on the buses when they reach subway stations in situations like these.
I opted to stay on the bus and I barely caught the next commuter train and arrived at work 40 minutes late. I don’t know if I would’ve gotten there quicker if had I got off at the second subway station or not.
What I’m trying to say is that I can live with these interruptions as long as they aren’t too frequent. I think it’s more to operating and managing hundreds of trains every day than you think and of course there’ll be a fuck up or two every now and then, that’s fine. But ffs, when shit hits the fan please, please, please inform your customers!
