@@jacksdjfam I could not agree more. All these useless pep talks and management BS is only covering up the desparate state of all public services in Britain! Expensive, inefficient, dirty, outdated, rundown - simply a disgrace for the nation!
Well, it's also nice to actually have seats, and seats that don't give you haemorrhoids. Cheap trains that run on time are nice, having seating on those on time trains is nicer. You can see all the people trying to find places to sit in all sorts of places, or just relegating themselves to stand around feeling miserable.
Happy to see at the end of this film that he takes a pride in his garden. When you retire it is so important to have a hobby or something to keep you occupied and mind fired up , especially after doing the busy hands on job that this wonderful guy did.
I know it's just an hour documentary, but the impression given is that company policy is to try to improve by shouting "customer service" at the employees over and over again, rather than asking them what needs to be changed to improve things.
TieDef My uncle spent his whole career with the railway. His famous saying was that a boss could be lead to knowledge, but couldn’t be made to think. It seems this manager fits that saying brilliantly.
At the point of Connex taking over the Brighton line I found one of their customer statements which seemed to suggest they paint everything blue and yellow it would work so much better.
You do know that these grunts don't matter to these bozos, right? They are just fodder, and the consultants and office based managers are the ones calling the shots.
i feel i have to agree with the old bloke during the discussion about customer expectations. What a customer should expect is that a train will depart and arrive when it says it is supposed to and transport people from A to B for an affordable price within the constraints of running a railway. The modern management obsession with 'customer service' over actually fixing the issues with the system that causes people to become annoyed is the reason that good people are leaving the job. I worked for a historic railway station turned museum for a couple of years and the number of people who would turn up expecting to catch a train to the city despite the fact that the station had not seen a regular passenger train since 1994 was unbelievable. And then instead of driving to the next station (15 minutes up the road where passenger services from the city stop) they would instead argue with me and demand that I have a train stop at our little museum station so that they could board and go to the city.........
Lol I scrolled down from the video to make this comment but straight away saw you already made it 3 years ago. I'm glad so many people agreed. What a tool.
Trixtah That job must make anybody who works in it hate the world, and the human race eventually to the point they prefer animals to humans. I don't blame them.
it's not as bad as it looks trust me, still better job than serving ungrateful customers for minimum wage, at least you don't have to be polite and keep smiling and pretend everything is ok, you have time for thinking, sorting things out in your mind, etc.
Here's a Business Pro Tip: If you're working at a company and a, "Steve Newland" shows up, it's time for you to leave. Give your notice and get out immediately, as it's all downhill after that. Trust me on this one. I earned these gray hairs the hard way. You don't have to.
The bloke at 37:10. Now thats a model of society, puts his point across in such a way to indicate his frustration but in a polite way and shows great respect for the station staff as the problem is out of their hands. Why can't more of the public be like him. Manners doesn't cost anything.
Maintain the trains, the trains are a wreck it's disgusting an you charge stupid prices to travel by train. An you say its not about the money we'll it is. An PAY THEM CLEANERS MORE CLEANING TOUR SHIT UP
"Deliver great customer experience"... I cannot stand such a nonsene blabla.. the only thing people expect from a railway are on time trains and a reliable service, nothing more. They should concentrate just on this.
+Bastian Mann I worked on the railways for nearly 50 years . We used to get a lot of what we called rhubarb . I used to switch off and think what I was going to have for my tea !
Agree, I don't get on a train and think "Am I going to be offered a scone and a cup of tea"... all I ask is that it runs to time, I don't even expect a seat either.
Try traveling in Japan. Changed my whole perspective on passenger transportation. The priority for passenger railways should be punctual, comfort, and friendliness. Passengers are human being after all. But yes, on-time trains and reliable service is the very first step in making people satisfied, but not enough for people to truly enjoy.
He did his job well for 30+ years, but in that time he saw and experienced things no one should ever experience at work, and still smiles. You can't find employees like that
Not enough people like Laxman any more unfortunately. Even some of his colleagues, like the guy he was giving all his locker stuff to, clearly not interested in what he had to say or that it was an emotional time for him. Can't understand why this miserable guy reading the paper at 20:00 does that job, clearly a glass half-empty type of guy and therefore woefully unsuited for customer service.
that young guy taking the locker stuff from Laxman was so rude :-O if nothing else, he was at least *honestly* not giving a fuck... but yeah he should be ashamed of himself! sadly though, i doubt he ever will be :-/
If he's new to the job, he might be stressed and too busy listening, or thinking about the job and stuff. Don't assume that because people don't outwardly show emotion, sympathy, or empathy, that they don't experience that inside. Some people may also have autism/Asperger's, and may not be able to express their thoughts and feelings visually or effectively.
I was watching these on my TV and literally went and found the video on my phone so I could leave this very comment. The things that man had seen on the railway, clearly emotional and they tasked this kid on the job who had no idea or interest. Awful. The locker clearout should have been done by someone from Laxmans calibre
You can be a huge pessimist & still be great at a service job. You CHOSE how you act & you can always chose to be professional or not.. but still, just bcs some work in service, they can't be expected to just take anything. Even abuse. We need to get rid off the old "customers is always right" absolute nonsense. You should be expected to be abused day in & day out. We should put that expectation on the adults who chose to behave like an ass.. I have the right to refuse you service, if you refuse me basic human respect. but somehow we don't expect the adult customers to behave better, esp males get away with way more than they should.
7 years later and I am still watching this. Thanks for the upload, gives a really good insight to the old Kings Cross , the new concourse has Harry Potter platform 9 and a 3 quarters now !
As a train driver I pretty much agree with what those blokes said. Trust me there'll still be plenty of whinging, but we got it pretty good. For example in Gladstone Australia (heavy haul coal) where I work we're on $120,000/year + overtime at 175%, 40 hour week, two driver operations, 5 weeks' leave, 10 sickies and long service after 7 years. All that from just being a man off the street plus a year's training.
You are a member of The Lucky Bastards Club. I was a member of it in the USA - it was called the Phone Company. When I left, I was making $107,000 a year US, Overtime started at 150% and maxed out at 250%, pension, health care, 36 days leave (after 25 years), sickies, 40-hour week, Union, you name it. They had to drag me out of there, literally. I did not want to go, but after my third stroke, they made me retire after 28 years. I still miss it, I was a Lucky Bastard.
@@bobwalsh3751 Dollarydoos - these days with no overtime you're getting 140k including penalties and if you work overtime it's not unheard of to get over 200k.
Fooken hell. I work in the emergency services. After 6 years in the job I'm on just under £50k (GBP), no limit as such to sick days but if you are continually sick it's a disciplinary and can lead to dismissal after continued sickness periods. Annual leave is not great, about 21-22 days a year, our leave is counted in hours rather than days, i.e we get 200 hours leave per year, and work a 9 hour shift, so it equates to 22 days per year with 2 hours remaining. Overtime is usually 1.33x rate unless it's pre-planned (say for a central operation or big ceremonial event) then it would be 1.5x rate, amazingly despite being in the emergency services we are not technically required to work bank holidays, so if we do work them we get 2x rate (double pay) for that whole day. On my salary, working one single bank holiday means I can earn £500 in one single day, pre deductions, so take home is around £370 per bank holiday.
I don't know why I love this documentary series... I binge watch all 6 episodes of it once a year and still love it every time that I do and I live in the USA, never been to the UK.
My last journey out of Kings Cross was to Harrogate in 2000. Had no problems and arrived on time. What you see here is about what to what we experience with AMTRAK in the states, and some of our long distance trains can be days late.
Ken Bird Problem is, Amtrak doesn't own their own track. In Britain, Network Rail controls all lines, while in the US, each railroad controls their own track. This in turn means each railroad's trains have priority on their own track. Meaning, Amtrak is late, because they are delayed by another railroad. If you want to spend 3 to 5 times your money, on Amtrak and have them maintain their own track, they would be in time.
34.55 BOOM he is bang on the money lol. Customer service is such a non profession. People just want a train that runs safely to time and that they don't have to remortgage their house to get on
+Andrew Young However, people like him will observe their career flatlining. He will never get promoted or rise anywhere. Use the buzzwords or lingo that managers want to hear, and you will go places. Don't try to be a smartass. And NEVER be honest with your answers. Toe the line.
"People are going to travel from afar to see this" No they won't. It seems East Coast management concentrate too much time on their customer services skills. People won't care about customer service if their trains are on time, nor will they travel to see the station.
These programs always dwell on the drama of delays and upset customers to the point that one might assume this was the usual state of affairs, where in reality the worst case situations they portray are the exception, not the norm. I have great respect and empathy for people in front line service positions.
The haulmark of customer service on the British railway network - "Conflict Avoidance" rather than "Problem Resolution". 10 minutes in, and from what I can see there's nobody there with any actual customer service skills. Because it always has to begin with compassion, and you can tell by their body language that they just don't give a shit.
is it me or does brittain need some double decker trains...? Seriously, so many complaints about how many space more is needed per train, but double decker trains can hold up to 60% more passangers. Theres not really a reason why not. Netherlands did it, germany did it, france did it, heck even italy has double decker trains, where are you brittain?
+FunsterProductions I think the issue with double decker trains in Britain is the loading gauge, which is the maximum size of carriages that can go through tunnels and any other sort of obstructions. It is probably smaller than most places on the continent. I believe that was one of the considerations of the Eurostar when it first started. The maximum height above rails in the UK is 2.9 m. In the Netherlands, it's 4.7 m. Most places in North America allow for double stacked container cars, which is why we see a lot of double decker trains here. It's a special case in Montréal though with the 100-year old Mount Royal Tunnel, and the only place in Canada with an electrified rail line. The new double decker rail cars that use that tunnel had to be specially designed to fit through there. By comparison, the loading gauge in that tunnel is 4.4 m. It was a joint order with New Jersey Transit, because they have trains using tunnels in New York City as well. I would like to try those new double decker cars eventually. But AMT's service is really inconvenient for me, especially since I live in Ottawa and only visit Montréal on weekends.
+FunsterProductions The current High Speed 1 route going to St. Pancras International in England was built for it, but that opened in 2007. But before then, the Eurostar used the old conventional lines going to Waterloo International.
+AutoGamerz its been considered many times but the problem is, britain has the oldest railway in the world and a lot of the track has low down tunnels. to make larger trains, many tunnels would have to be rebuilt and thats very expensive. its cheaper just to add extra cars.
I was born in Japan, growing up in New Zealand and I appreciate the history of railway in UK coz Japan learned a lot from UK rail. But I think UK really needs to upgrade their railway. Shinkansen runs in tolerance of few seconds. Same as other commuter trains. UK, you can do better than this.
What Rob Swales seems to forget is that the bulk majority of ticket prices go to the privately owned TOC's and maintenance comes from Government subsidy. As long as it makes his job easier though, eh?
I honestly can kind of relate to the cleaning lady. Cleaning a department store and I get nothing to show for it. Specially in the restrooms. Once people leave their homes, there manners go away.
I really thought they would have had him a retiring party either on the train or the platform . All those years & all it meant to them was a thank you wow that aint even rite .How the rest of ya life goes better than that part did Lax .
***** I think it is a bleak look at humanity in general, not just English culture. Obnoxious customers, frazzled staff, human mess and short tempers are found everywhere in the world.
Even in Scotland where our government is pushing around £10,000 a year into our railway in Scotland, a peak ticket is £26 from Glasgow to Edinburgh express service
Customer service staff are limited by the processes that run the place. Forgot your tickets? A decent system would allow you to prove it and simply replace them. They can't. So what can the service person do? They can't 'fix' the problem, just give an answer nobody wants to hear when modern technology ought to solve it in seconds. In fact why on earth are so many people using physical tickets at all? Why not some sort of electronic travel card integrated with buses etc? Simply underinvestment in processes and technology. Find and fix the root causes of problems; you can't forget a physical ticket if you don't have one in the first place. Pretty pathetic compared with so many other rail systems around the world. Feel sorry for the staff; they're even more helpless than the passengers.
Yes i thought that. How difficult can it be to track down a visa/credit payment, cancel those tickets and issue new ones. Do what the airlines do and treat it as a change rather than a no can do situation.
Amtrak owns the corridor between Boston and Washington, DC and about 100 miles in the state of Michigan. The rest of our 180,000 miles is owned by stockholders on both large lines and short lines. Taxpayers do not have to support the private lines. Britain has about the same number of square miles as the state of Wisconsin and in spite of the Beeching cuts in the 60s, you still have 3000 station and 20,000 miles of track. Amtrak serves only 525 stations, most of those with only one train per day. Out side of the corridors, Its trains are mostly political and really don't provide any meaningful transportation. American will never give up their cars for trains and the private railroads will never give up their lucrative freight trains over a passenger train. You are lucky to be so rich in rail transportation.
I worked on tracks in Australia and all I can say is - what a bloody circus! Management with no clue, staff with the motivation of depressed lemmings, unions causing delays and track workers who won't get their hands dirty!
Fun fact for all who are still watching - East Coast was taken over by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 2018 and similarly I believe for Virgin who became Avanti WestCoast
@@EliasSchmid00 the reason they're so full is that passenger numbers have more than doubled since the 1990s, but the number of trains and capacity of the infrastructure have basically remained the same :/
#OMG @23:25 train is 1hr10m late. In Japan, the driver would apologize if his train is 10 seconds early. I’m also pretty sure he carries a mini samurai sword to commit seppuku if his train is 10 secs late. #cray
It's interesting how they inform people about the train hitting a person. Here it's not shown to everyone on the station. Ofcourse passangers in the train might know and might even feel it at front part of the train - and to them it's told. But it's not usually something what's told to everyone - difference being that it being something major like full car with people in it etc. then there might be bigger info to everyone in the station, because to them have to be found new way to get them where they were going.
That's what customer service can do to you. It breaks you down and dehumanises you. Being sworn at and verbally abused daily, you start to lose any care
@@OlanKennywhen you've done it for years you can see right through management who won't help you on the front line nor will fight to change the processes that make you powerless
British built railway in many countries and itseems that they have forgotten to run railway successfully without slaves working for them. Most of their colonies have successful railway system of their own. I am a citizen of one of their colonies and here train is on time come rain or sunshine. only during typhoon trains are stopped these days.
Real great stuff. The old King's Cross still looks better than NY Penn station, so those passengers should visit NY if they really want to be dissatisfied.
Doesn't have to be over the main PA system just a small local system for the ticket sellers with a pa speaker at the head of the waiting line Of people waiting for tickets. Cheers and enjoying the videos about British rail system both freight and passenger Retired locomotive engineer ( you call em drivers) now I understand why the difference in size of equipment between American and British Just as a note of interest to steam loco enthusiasts the Union Pacific Railroad just a few days ago started the restoration of engine 4014 a 4-8-8-4 articulated the posted a video on TH-cam showing the 844 steam engine bringing it out of the engine house to turn it on the turntable and putting it back in the shop.
th-cam.com/video/FJtnfv1N80I/w-d-xo.htmlm21s - Is this the same guy recently in trouble with police over trying to plug his phone in a socket marked not for public use on a London Overground train?
![Inside King's Cross: The Railway (Episode 4) [FULL EPISODE]](/img/n.gif)
"Ive not met a lot of bad people, just good people in very bad moods"
What a man. As someone who works in costumer service I applaud that behavior.
It’s a great line, one I’ll remember
That old guy in the meeting was absolutely on point.
ahh that would be experiance
@@billybogg3602 experience over middle management bullshit and corporate speak. She even came back at him with the same scripted bullshit
@@jacksdjfam I could not agree more. All these useless pep talks and management BS is only covering up the desparate state of all public services in Britain! Expensive, inefficient, dirty, outdated, rundown - simply a disgrace for the nation!
Hilarious loved the way he handled the mASSES near the end as well
Well, it's also nice to actually have seats, and seats that don't give you haemorrhoids. Cheap trains that run on time are nice, having seating on those on time trains is nicer.
You can see all the people trying to find places to sit in all sorts of places, or just relegating themselves to stand around feeling miserable.
Laxman is a legend. He has seen and dealt with things I wouldn't want to
Happy to see at the end of this film that he takes a pride in his garden. When you retire it is so important to have a hobby or something to keep you occupied and mind fired up , especially after doing the busy hands on job that this wonderful guy did.
I know it's just an hour documentary, but the impression given is that company policy is to try to improve by shouting "customer service" at the employees over and over again, rather than asking them what needs to be changed to improve things.
TieDef My uncle spent his whole career with the railway. His famous saying was that a boss could be lead to knowledge, but couldn’t be made to think. It seems this manager fits that saying brilliantly.
At the point of Connex taking over the Brighton line I found one of their customer statements which seemed to suggest they paint everything blue and yellow it would work so much better.
You do know that these grunts don't matter to these bozos, right? They are just fodder, and the consultants and office based managers are the ones calling the shots.
Maybe costumers need to be more understanding
i feel i have to agree with the old bloke during the discussion about customer expectations. What a customer should expect is that a train will depart and arrive when it says it is supposed to and transport people from A to B for an affordable price within the constraints of running a railway. The modern management obsession with 'customer service' over actually fixing the issues with the system that causes people to become annoyed is the reason that good people are leaving the job.
I worked for a historic railway station turned museum for a couple of years and the number of people who would turn up expecting to catch a train to the city despite the fact that the station had not seen a regular passenger train since 1994 was unbelievable. And then instead of driving to the next station (15 minutes up the road where passenger services from the city stop) they would instead argue with me and demand that I have a train stop at our little museum station so that they could board and go to the city.........
The long lost, final episode of 'The Office'.
That manager "Steve Newland" is insufferable. He is the real-life version of Ricky Gervais from The Office.
PandaBashable I agree lol , The David Brent School of Management.
Just as well hes out of a job!
Lol I was struggling to think of who it was he reminded me of and pandabashable you got it SPOT ON.
Lol I scrolled down from the video to make this comment but straight away saw you already made it 3 years ago. I'm glad so many people agreed. What a tool.
"A bronze medal, or a silver medal, is not good enough. You have to deliver gold, yeah?" Ahahaha tosser.
INTERVIEWER: Anything good about this job?
TRAIN CLEANING LADY: No.
Trixtah That job must make anybody who works in it hate the world, and the human race eventually to the point they prefer animals to humans. I don't blame them.
it's not as bad as it looks trust me, still better job than serving ungrateful customers for minimum wage, at least you don't have to be polite and keep smiling and pretend everything is ok, you have time for thinking, sorting things out in your mind, etc.
Trixtah they why does she do it
Not so easy to find work mostly. duh
Oof
Here's a Business Pro Tip: If you're working at a company and a, "Steve Newland" shows up, it's time for you to leave. Give your notice and get out immediately, as it's all downhill after that. Trust me on this one. I earned these gray hairs the hard way. You don't have to.
I completely agree. Jump ship before it's downhill. Just joking. Just jump ship when "Steve" comes aboard.
I don’t think that he could effectively conduct a one man band.
😁
@@brianburns7211 vvbbbvvcsaa
The bloke at 37:10. Now thats a model of society, puts his point across in such a way to indicate his frustration but in a polite way and shows great respect for the station staff as the problem is out of their hands. Why can't more of the public be like him. Manners doesn't cost anything.
Laxman has certainly earned his retirement. I have worked with people like him.
Maintain the trains, the trains are a wreck it's disgusting an you charge stupid prices to travel by train. An you say its not about the money we'll it is. An PAY THEM CLEANERS MORE CLEANING TOUR SHIT UP
@@chinwe25it’s because Uk is privateded now so the companies do the proce
I saw David Cameron in 1st Class. No Secret Service around him. How casual.
Secret service would have been there, though not easily noticed.
i hope there was no secret service, i thought they were meant to be in America protecting the president.
@@nblucas MI12, or whatever their clandestine code is. 😅
@@AndrooUK MI5/6
@@nblucas 😂😂😂😂😂😂
"Deliver great customer experience"... I cannot stand such a nonsene blabla.. the only thing people expect from a railway are on time trains and a reliable service, nothing more. They should concentrate just on this.
+Bastian Mann I worked on the railways for nearly 50 years . We used to get a lot of what we called rhubarb . I used to switch off and think what I was going to have for my tea !
+welshpete12 Is "rhubarb" a term for pointless motivational meetings? :p
+Giradox , Yes quite !
Agree, I don't get on a train and think "Am I going to be offered a scone and a cup of tea"... all I ask is that it runs to time, I don't even expect a seat either.
Try traveling in Japan. Changed my whole perspective on passenger transportation. The priority for passenger railways should be punctual, comfort, and friendliness. Passengers are human being after all. But yes, on-time trains and reliable service is the very first step in making people satisfied, but not enough for people to truly enjoy.
Great programme - compelling viewing - and very poignant in places. Thanks for uploading this.
Www bf
Bf wwwbsfcsm
Cameron seems very unhappy to see the BBC there.
Hmm
Maybe he hasn't been paying his TV Licence? 😅
He did his job well for 30+ years, but in that time he saw and experienced things no one should ever experience at work, and still smiles. You can't find employees like that
Not enough people like Laxman any more unfortunately. Even some of his colleagues, like the guy he was giving all his locker stuff to, clearly not interested in what he had to say or that it was an emotional time for him. Can't understand why this miserable guy reading the paper at 20:00 does that job, clearly a glass half-empty type of guy and therefore woefully unsuited for customer service.
that young guy taking the locker stuff from Laxman was so rude :-O if nothing else, he was at least *honestly* not giving a fuck... but yeah he should be ashamed of himself! sadly though, i doubt he ever will be :-/
If he's new to the job, he might be stressed and too busy listening, or thinking about the job and stuff.
Don't assume that because people don't outwardly show emotion, sympathy, or empathy, that they don't experience that inside.
Some people may also have autism/Asperger's, and may not be able to express their thoughts and feelings visually or effectively.
He was probably glad to see the back of that laxman bloke!! He must of been a nightmare to work with!!
I was watching these on my TV and literally went and found the video on my phone so I could leave this very comment.
The things that man had seen on the railway, clearly emotional and they tasked this kid on the job who had no idea or interest. Awful.
The locker clearout should have been done by someone from Laxmans calibre
You can be a huge pessimist & still be great at a service job.
You CHOSE how you act & you can always chose to be professional or not.. but still, just bcs some work in service, they can't be expected to just take anything. Even abuse.
We need to get rid off the old "customers is always right" absolute nonsense. You should be expected to be abused day in & day out. We should put that expectation on the adults who chose to behave like an ass.. I have the right to refuse you service, if you refuse me basic human respect.
but somehow we don't expect the adult customers to behave better, esp males get away with way more than they should.
All the other episodes in this series are mostly positive and upbeat, this one is bloody depressing
Took them the first episode to hit their stride and find a workable style it seems.
Especially at the 38:00 minute mark.
Last scene with Laxman was fitting, "A Briton's home is his castle".
7 years later and I am still watching this. Thanks for the upload, gives a really good insight to the old Kings Cross , the new concourse has Harry Potter platform 9 and a 3 quarters now !
As a train driver I pretty much agree with what those blokes said. Trust me there'll still be plenty of whinging, but we got it pretty good. For example in Gladstone Australia (heavy haul coal) where I work we're on $120,000/year + overtime at 175%, 40 hour week, two driver operations, 5 weeks' leave, 10 sickies and long service after 7 years. All that from just being a man off the street plus a year's training.
Is that USD or Dollaridoos?
You are a member of The Lucky Bastards Club. I was a member of it in the USA - it was called the Phone Company. When I left, I was making $107,000 a year US, Overtime started at 150% and maxed out at 250%, pension, health care, 36 days leave (after 25 years), sickies, 40-hour week, Union, you name it. They had to drag me out of there, literally. I did not want to go, but after my third stroke, they made me retire after 28 years. I still miss it, I was a Lucky Bastard.
@@bobwalsh3751 Dollarydoos - these days with no overtime you're getting 140k including penalties and if you work overtime it's not unheard of to get over 200k.
Fooken hell. I work in the emergency services. After 6 years in the job I'm on just under £50k (GBP), no limit as such to sick days but if you are continually sick it's a disciplinary and can lead to dismissal after continued sickness periods. Annual leave is not great, about 21-22 days a year, our leave is counted in hours rather than days, i.e we get 200 hours leave per year, and work a 9 hour shift, so it equates to 22 days per year with 2 hours remaining. Overtime is usually 1.33x rate unless it's pre-planned (say for a central operation or big ceremonial event) then it would be 1.5x rate, amazingly despite being in the emergency services we are not technically required to work bank holidays, so if we do work them we get 2x rate (double pay) for that whole day.
On my salary, working one single bank holiday means I can earn £500 in one single day, pre deductions, so take home is around £370 per bank holiday.
That Steve Newland is a monumental bell end
Typical crap manager
@@vincitveritas3872 The first one to blame the staff when everything goes pear shaped.
@@InquisitorMatthewAshcraft yep worked for those kind of managers.
An infantile pillock
A 1st class bawbag
This is the best EVER episode of the office I've seen. Lets have more.
I don't know why I love this documentary series... I binge watch all 6 episodes of it once a year and still love it every time that I do and I live in the USA, never been to the UK.
Theres loads of good series like this from the uk, just search uk documentaries bbc , itv or channel 4.
Solution to the railway problem is make all the execs use it for 3 months at peak time in standard class
James Brindle oh yeah
The best solution would be to work the jobs which they manage instead of straight University-> Management.
How the hell has a documentary on trains made me cry god dammit.....
Fake Name what part
Fake Name . Why did it make you cry
Not in Wyoming
Because it’s not about trains.
My last journey out of Kings Cross was to Harrogate in 2000. Had no problems and arrived on time. What you see here is about what to what we experience with AMTRAK in the states, and some of our long distance trains can be days late.
Ken Bird Problem is, Amtrak doesn't own their own track. In Britain, Network Rail controls all lines, while in the US, each railroad controls their own track. This in turn means each railroad's trains have priority on their own track. Meaning, Amtrak is late, because they are delayed by another railroad. If you want to spend 3 to 5 times your money, on Amtrak and have them maintain their own track, they would be in time.
34.55 BOOM he is bang on the money lol. Customer service is such a non profession. People just want a train that runs safely to time and that they don't have to remortgage their house to get on
+Andrew Young However, people like him will observe their career flatlining. He will never get promoted or rise anywhere. Use the buzzwords or lingo that managers want to hear, and you will go places. Don't try to be a smartass. And NEVER be honest with your answers. Toe the line.
He must be near retirement age, that's why he's speaking the truth to the idiots.
"People are going to travel from afar to see this"
No they won't. It seems East Coast management concentrate too much time on their customer services skills. People won't care about customer service if their trains are on time, nor will they travel to see the station.
I think they're on about trainspotter, like me for example.
honest and hard working employee like should never be retire. all the best for his future.
These programs always dwell on the drama of delays and upset customers to the point that one might assume this was the usual state of affairs, where in reality the worst case situations they portray are the exception, not the norm. I have great respect and empathy for people in front line service positions.
It actually happens more often than you think
The haulmark of customer service on the British railway network - "Conflict Avoidance" rather than "Problem Resolution".
10 minutes in, and from what I can see there's nobody there with any actual customer service skills. Because it always has to begin with compassion, and you can tell by their body language that they just don't give a shit.
Seems like it's the drivers and guards that always love their jobs, everyone else on the railroad hates their job lol.
Cos the drivers get paid well and have a strong union. Everyone else is on shit terms and shit pay.
What an excellent series this is. Thanks for uploading.
The phrase "Confusion & Delay" comes to mind.
is it me or does brittain need some double decker trains...?
Seriously, so many complaints about how many space more is needed per train, but double decker trains can hold up to 60% more passangers. Theres not really a reason why not. Netherlands did it, germany did it, france did it, heck even italy has double decker trains, where are you brittain?
+AutoGamerz I think the problem is that they would need to make all overhead wire cables higher as they were not designed for double decker trains.
I checked stuff, they seem to be the same height as in the netherlands. so even though they keep saying it's an issue it's actually not.
+FunsterProductions I think the issue with double decker trains in Britain is the loading gauge, which is the maximum size of carriages that can go through tunnels and any other sort of obstructions. It is probably smaller than most places on the continent. I believe that was one of the considerations of the Eurostar when it first started. The maximum height above rails in the UK is 2.9 m. In the Netherlands, it's 4.7 m.
Most places in North America allow for double stacked container cars, which is why we see a lot of double decker trains here. It's a special case in Montréal though with the 100-year old Mount Royal Tunnel, and the only place in Canada with an electrified rail line. The new double decker rail cars that use that tunnel had to be specially designed to fit through there. By comparison, the loading gauge in that tunnel is 4.4 m. It was a joint order with New Jersey Transit, because they have trains using tunnels in New York City as well.
I would like to try those new double decker cars eventually. But AMT's service is really inconvenient for me, especially since I live in Ottawa and only visit Montréal on weekends.
+FunsterProductions The current High Speed 1 route going to St. Pancras International in England was built for it, but that opened in 2007. But before then, the Eurostar used the old conventional lines going to Waterloo International.
+AutoGamerz its been considered many times but the problem is, britain has the oldest railway in the world and a lot of the track has low down tunnels. to make larger trains, many tunnels would have to be rebuilt and thats very expensive. its cheaper just to add extra cars.
20:00 bloke just wants to read his paper.
thats is former prime minster David cameron
kate breislin no at 20:00 lmao thats not cameron
this is one of the most touching doccos I have seen. Superb.
I just left a job in customer service. That Travel Center scene made me cringe.
"train travel set to double in the next 20 years,"
Covid-19: hold my coffee
An interesting program about railways but a completely FASCINATING portrait of peoples' lives.……Hᴜɢʜ….Lɪᴋᴇᴅ…..ツ
I was born in Japan, growing up in New Zealand and I appreciate the history of railway in UK coz Japan learned a lot from UK rail. But I think UK really needs to upgrade their railway. Shinkansen runs in tolerance of few seconds. Same as other commuter trains. UK, you can do better than this.
Japan learnt and built on a system via long term investment where the Uk rested on their laurels and stagnated assuming it will be tolerated
@@sutherlandA1 Not to mention money given to Japan by the Allies to rebuild after the war.
What Rob Swales seems to forget is that the bulk majority of ticket prices go to the privately owned TOC's and maintenance comes from Government subsidy. As long as it makes his job easier though, eh?
I honestly can kind of relate to the cleaning lady. Cleaning a department store and I get nothing to show for it. Specially in the restrooms. Once people leave their homes, there manners go away.
Watching this in Covid 2020 while "working from home". Haha, thx for the upload!
There are too many damn ads on TH-cam these days... hoping another video service comes along.
00:16 "Surely its illegal to be packed in like this!" eh...no. It's actually not.
I reacted as laughing
Bradley Caslin she was one daft old fart
If you see the episode (e4) she has 9 kids with her and demanded to be in a carriage together
Brad Lee Caslin I think that is a good replacement for lol
Excellent program…..at time touching.
Laxman is a gem ❤️
I really thought they would have had him a retiring party either on the train or the platform . All those years & all it meant to them was a thank you wow that aint even rite .How the rest of ya life goes better than that part did Lax .
Good!! He was a typical jobsworth! Nightmare to work with I bet!
wow this is a really bleak look at English culture.
***** I think it is a bleak look at humanity in general, not just English culture. Obnoxious customers, frazzled staff, human mess and short tempers are found everywhere in the world.
Totally agree.
Seán Ó Laochdha It's because Ireland is a smaller country.
I used to work passenger trains in Chicago. People are the same everywhere, not just Britain.
@@georgemacpherson1992 No, it's because the Irish are usually more polite. Not the staff's fault if some tosser caused the system to go pear shaped.
One does hope Mr Cameron paid for his own first class ticket! 🤔🙈😂
Nice! Seniors are train experts!
Laxman shall live as the best worker... ever.
Even in Scotland where our government is pushing around £10,000 a year into our railway in Scotland, a peak ticket is £26 from Glasgow to Edinburgh express service
The cleaning lady is my type of person shes brilliant love her
Customer service staff are limited by the processes that run the place.
Forgot your tickets? A decent system would allow you to prove it and simply replace them. They can't. So what can the service person do? They can't 'fix' the problem, just give an answer nobody wants to hear when modern technology ought to solve it in seconds.
In fact why on earth are so many people using physical tickets at all? Why not some sort of electronic travel card integrated with buses etc?
Simply underinvestment in processes and technology. Find and fix the root causes of problems; you can't forget a physical ticket if you don't have one in the first place.
Pretty pathetic compared with so many other rail systems around the world.
Feel sorry for the staff; they're even more helpless than the passengers.
Yes i thought that. How difficult can it be to track down a visa/credit payment, cancel those tickets and issue new ones. Do what the airlines do and treat it as a change rather than a no can do situation.
Amtrak owns the corridor between Boston and Washington, DC and about 100 miles in the state of Michigan. The rest of our 180,000 miles is owned by stockholders on both large lines and short lines. Taxpayers do not have to support the private lines.
Britain has about the same number of square miles as the state of Wisconsin and in spite of the Beeching cuts in the 60s, you still have 3000 station and 20,000 miles of track. Amtrak serves only 525 stations, most of those with only one train per day. Out side of the corridors, Its trains are mostly political and really don't provide any
meaningful transportation. American will never give up their cars for trains and the private railroads will never give up their lucrative freight trains over a passenger train. You are lucky to be so rich in rail transportation.
We fly. No train can compete with the speed of an airliner.
If Nathan Fillion played David Brent in ‘The Office’, Steve Newland is what you’d end up with...
I can’t unsee this now 😂
Great programme, thanks for sharing.
finally a HD recording of this. thanks. but why only 2 episodes :(
i wish trains could only be accessible by people who actually like trains
I worked on tracks in Australia and all I can say is - what a bloody circus! Management with no clue, staff with the motivation of depressed lemmings, unions causing delays and track workers who won't get their hands dirty!
No wonder the train tracks are an abomination in australia mr coight, everything you touch goes to shit!
It's funny because the guy in the opening titles who says to infinity and beyond actually looks like what buzzlightyear would look like if he was real
My idea for a show: Get a bunch of people from the German Railway in a room and make them watch this, then televise their live reactions.
Khadene is so cute, I love her 😂💖
Fun fact for all who are still watching - East Coast was taken over by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 2018 and similarly I believe for Virgin who became Avanti WestCoast
Fascinating . Have a Happy Retirement .
That Guy going to newcastle could have gone off peak a lot cheaper. 4 of us got to Bath from London for 80 quid
@@EliasSchmid00 the reason they're so full is that passenger numbers have more than doubled since the 1990s, but the number of trains and capacity of the infrastructure have basically remained the same :/
That man playing that guitar is very very good .
53:29 "this wonderful new edifice." Sounds like he's describing a monument.
Some of the scenes with complaining customers made me feel like in a Monty Python sketch.
13:23 that train driver is awesome
#OMG @23:25 train is 1hr10m late. In Japan, the driver would apologize if his train is 10 seconds early. I’m also pretty sure he carries a mini samurai sword to commit seppuku if his train is 10 secs late. #cray
It's interesting how they inform people about the train hitting a person. Here it's not shown to everyone on the station. Ofcourse passangers in the train might know and might even feel it at front part of the train - and to them it's told. But it's not usually something what's told to everyone - difference being that it being something major like full car with people in it etc. then there might be bigger info to everyone in the station, because to them have to be found new way to get them where they were going.
Young man in blue shirt, two meetings, doesn’t give a hoot. And that old guy, the ticket agent, I don’t think you could make him happy no matter what.
I honestly thought he was a plant for BBC
That's what customer service can do to you. It breaks you down and dehumanises you. Being sworn at and verbally abused daily, you start to lose any care
@@OlanKennywhen you've done it for years you can see right through management who won't help you on the front line nor will fight to change the processes that make you powerless
"Steve Newland" is DAVID BRENT hahahaha
Spent £80 getting to york. thats an advance ticket. crazy fares.
you can get fares from as little as £18 Advance fare from York to London, £32 Edinburgh to London and £56 Aberdeen to London, not always crazy fares.
This isn't "the age of the train"
56:15 is the most David Brent moment
Nice Documentary and Effort :) Well Done Keep it up
Love how nothing has changed in the past 10 years
It was painful listening to the HR department doing their interviews. Thnak God I jumped off the corporate ship.
Laxman, well done, sir!
Some people are just pigs. I would never leave my rubbish behind. There are plenty of bins in the station, surely.
Kids, pay attention! don't try hard in school... and you'll end up working for the rail services
British built railway in many countries and itseems that they have forgotten to run railway successfully without slaves working for them. Most of their colonies have successful railway system of their own. I am a citizen of one of their colonies and here train is on time come rain or sunshine. only during typhoon trains are stopped these days.
"say uh huh from time to time"
My life motto
Real great stuff. The old King's Cross still looks better than NY Penn station, so those passengers should visit NY if they really want to be dissatisfied.
1h 10m min late! Now that's gold!
That Steve Newland whom was making the presentation you could tell he was loving the eyes on him.. 😂 alright dude don't go full meglamaniac on us 😂😂😂
301 pound for a return journey is ridiculous in my country you can get a monthly ticket for 240 euro to almost anywhere
Wonderful that East Coast Trains took on David Brent after Wernham Hogg
At least there is a train. Where I live I only get 2 or 3 trains a week.
Steve Newland sums up everything thats wrong in Britain today - Mr Soundbite
I've been on the western concourse however good photos when not in rush hour, my mistake!
Okay the girl who left her ticket at home like come on that’s like forgetting your passport when you go to the airport 😂😂😂
Love kings cross station
6.30 clip on clothing. also worn in case one gets dragged by a train
Doesn't have to be over the main PA system just a small local system for the ticket sellers with a pa speaker at the head of the waiting line
Of people waiting for tickets.
Cheers and enjoying the videos about British rail system both freight and passenger
Retired locomotive engineer ( you call em drivers) now I understand why the difference in size of equipment between American and British
Just as a note of interest to steam loco enthusiasts the Union Pacific Railroad just a few days ago started the restoration of engine
4014 a 4-8-8-4 articulated the posted a video on TH-cam showing the 844 steam engine bringing it out of the engine house to turn
it on the turntable and putting it back in the shop.
th-cam.com/video/FJtnfv1N80I/w-d-xo.htmlm21s - Is this the same guy recently in trouble with police over trying to plug his phone in a socket marked not for public use on a London Overground train?
Jonathan Morris I believe so.
reb0118 He clearly has an ego problem then. Wonder where he'll pop up next?
If fares don't rise slightly how will the engineering projects and maintaining track is funded