Piccadilly Line - manual announcements of good service

[jon0844]

On the Piccadilly Line today, the driver opted to give a series of manual 'customer service' announcements about the status of the network.

He started by saying there was a good service on all Underground lines, which was then later extended to a good service on the Piccadilly line and a good service on other lines. Later, he split it further up to include DLR and London Overground.

Now, I was at the front of the train and could see there was no indication of this on the platform for the driver to look at - so where was he getting the information from? Is there now a way to report this information to the driver, or was he merely making it up? Surely, he wouldn't be getting given this sort of info over the radio?

The only other thing I can think of is that he had a phone/tablet in the cab and was able to get live running info at the stations that now have Wi-Fi!

 

[Mojo]

Service updates are periodically broadcast over the Connect radio system for Train Operators and have done for a long time now. The message usually ends with "please update our customers for their journey ahead." Unfortunately only a minority do...

 

[Dstock7080]

These messages are broadcast by the Line Information Specialists at varying degrees of frequency, some Lines prefer 15min updates, others 30mins.

 

[jon0844]

Thanks for this. First time I've ever heard a driver do them (and in such detail) and I was very curious as to how he would or could know!

 

[DavyCrocket]

The scorecard (on which the Line Information persons manager is measured) requires the radio call to train operators' broadcast to be made every 30 minutes between certain times of the day.
It just has to provide status of TfL LU and Rail modes and cannot include anything else. It does not have to end as stated by Mojo.

 

[Mojo]

It does not have to end as stated by Mojo.

I didn't say it has to, but usually does, as most times I hear it it does.

 

[Daniel]

I didn't say it has to, but usually does, as most times I hear it it does.

"please pass this message onto your customers" was discontinued quite a while ago, when new guidelines were issued relating to the messages. The messages should now start as "Customer Service Update" too.

 

[Mojo]

The offending line shall remain unnamed then