Please excuse this "off centre" mail but I am sure some will be able to
help!
I am researching into to the images of public transport and matching
these to motivation. At present, I am into the "questionnaire" stage and
have a 6 page questionnaire which has almost a 70% response from
Nafferton (personal door-to-door delivery and collection), 27% Kilham (a
postal survey with SAEs because I decided it was dangerous and too-time
consuming to walk along dark country lanes for 4 miles) and around 66%
from a group comprised of RUCCs and officials of rail pressure groups. I
have over 200 questionnaires and need to collect another 300 from the
nearby toewn of Driffield.
My supervisor has suggested that I might include some cameos (his word,
not mine - travellers' tales I might have used) of horror stories when
attempting to travel by public transport. Whilst I can take some of the
incidents from Modern Railways etc., I need to have a little more detail
with some personal comments. My supervisor suggests that my stories
might be a little too subjective - but I doubt it! It is hard to be
subjective about dirty windows, late running, missed connections, and
staff who might benefit from a good kick in a certain part of the
anatomy.
If anyone feels moved, could you send me your "horror" story and let me
come back to you if it seems to fit the bill. My most recent effort was
on First North Western. It has taken me several months to work out why
there are two TV screens on platforms 14/15 at Manchester Piccadilly, so
that was the good thing to come out of the experience. The train was
late, not really clear why. It got later and later as I waited. At
Oxford Road, the next station along, it stopped for a rest. No
information available. The same happened at Salford Crescent. Eventually
the train was terminated short of its destination at Wigan Wallgate.
There was another 20 minutes to wait for the following service to
Southport. The station supervisor went to see if it was running on time
- but never came back. I left the station by a broken glass door,
crossed the road to North Western, entered past a defective door, and
travelled to Liverpool by a train leaving around 1300. The scenery might
have changed from the last time I travelled but it was impossible to be
certain as the train was one of those which had been collected from the
garbage tip that very morning and the windows were so filthy that it was
impossible to see out of them. The reply from Customer Relations to my
complaint said that cleaning contractors had been changed "recently" but
was careful not to let on whether this was before my journeys or after!
As the railrover cost 450 quid, I was not amused.
Incidentally, in view of the government's proposed "one stop shop" for
public transport information, does anyone have any views on whether it
will work when the bus does not call at something which is called the
"rail station" but a street called Westborough (or whatever) which is
actually right alongside the station as the local are quite aware.
Whether regaional enquiry bureaux are or not is another matter.
---
Roy Killey, MLS ALA Cert Ed
(formerly Academic Liaison Librarian, Design and Communication Systems,
Anglia Polytechnic University; now MPhil/PhD student researching into
the psychology of transport imagery)
28 Howe Lane,
Nafferton,
Driffield,
East Yorkshire,
YO25 4JU
01377 254718
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