KEEP THE COMMUTERS IN THE LOOP

I REGULARLY travel to work by train. There’s no special reason for this; I enjoy it. The waiting, the lottery to see when your train will arrive… it’s calming, relaxing, and sometimes, a little exciting.

But I can understand how frustrating it can be for commuters who have to be at certain places at exact times. I have the luxury of not being too tied down to a specific start time at work.

I find the train offers me an opportunity to catch up on my social media, reach out to contacts, and just breathe. I don’t have to deal with the frustrations of traffic or the ridiculous hikes in fuel.

But what irks me is when trains stop, either at stations or between them, for extended periods.

During a delay of this nature, at Kenilworth station, I furiously typed a message to my friends at Metrorail: “Why can’t you let your customers know what the hold-up is? They’re getting really frustrated and no one can tell us why we’ve been standing still for 20 minutes.”

The reply surprised me pleasantly. They shared my frustration, saying they wished there were on-board announcements on trains to keep commuters up to date while on their journey. This is apparently one of the features of the new trains “coming soon”.

They can’t come soon enough. The delay was the result of a faulty level crossing, meaning there had to be manual authorisation. During the delay at least 10 people got off to seek alternative transport.

Metrorail has an SMS notification system advising passengers of delays, and they’re quite active on social media, but none of this gives passengers on a train standing still in the middle of nowhere any comfort.

In the absence of an on-board announcement system, why doesn’t Metrorail invest in a WhatsApp group?

It seems to be the preferred method of communication these days – news there travels faster than anywhere else, and it takes minimal data to operate. My contact at Metrorail assured me this point had been raised, but said the budget for communications infrastructure fell far down the priority list, behind rolling stock, cable theft, and automation and signalling infrastructure upgrades.

Again, understandable, but come on, Metrorail. Step into the modern age already and get a WhatsApp group going for commuters.

People are far less likely to act out in frustration if they’re just kept in the loop.