Trains need staff.. but staff need training. (Merseyrail)

Member Name: Johnny Phoenix

Product:	Merseyrail
Date:	05/08/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Generally Reliable, Punctual service

Disadvantages: Ineffective unfriendly staff, collapse in a crisis, They let cyclists on wearing Lycra

I live in North Wales but work in Liverpool so until my suggestion of the "Primark Bridge" becomes a reality, I am resigned to a daily commute. I have suggested that Primark fund the bridge of dreams because in North Wales we are blessed with an abundance of Chavs, most of whom are called Britney.

In any case, I drive to one of the stations and Park and Ride into Liverpool every morning. Now to be fair the trains themselves are usually on time. I would say 95% of the time, this year they have been on time and only one service cancelled which delayed me by only fourteen minutes.

Merseyrail operates two lines, the Northern line which goes north from Liverpool to Southport, Ormskirk and Kirkby and the Wirral line of course goes through the Wirral to a choice of exotic locations like New Brighton, West Kirby, Chester or Ellesmere Port.

The prices are quite reasonable, starting at a few pounds return from Birkenhead to around £13.00 return from one of the terminal stations to Liverpool

One of the few problems lies with the staff in the ticket office. They are just so slow and seem even slower when the train is coming.

I try to speed him with an intense stare that should scream urgency and for a second he hesitates and I start to think maybe my expression was so readable that he got it, or maybe I have finally mastered the power of telepathic suggestion that I tried so hard with as an angst ridden teenager. I curse silently because if it's the latter, it's almost twenty years too late to convince Britney Barlow in the sixth form to show me her cans.

.....anyway.... he shakes his head from the stupor and begins to move like I have "unpaused" him, it appears he was unaffected by my mind control attempt but merely couldn't recall for a moment how to blink and breathe at the same time but he's back on track now.

The trains are quite clean and there are signs up saying don't put your feet up on the seats, which is actually quite effective as it seems that the ASBO's are put off by the threat of a weighty and a ban from Greggs for a week.

Sometimes, if they are expecting a lot of commuters at James Street Station in Liverpool, they will put three members of staff on the lift on both floors (Platform and Booking Office/Exit).

These six people have joint responsibility to inform you to "press the up button" if you are down on the platform or "press the down button" if you are up in the booking office. There are only two buttons "Up" and "Down" but it's good that we have these six people to help us make our selection.

(There is actually a "door open" button but this is shiny and unused as the very thought of holding a door open for another commuter is enough to bring the word "guffaw" back from it's retirement in 1987).

As much as I love job creation, there are six people employed for the sole purpose of pointing out the freaking obvious. These people are probably the same ones that thought it was a good idea to get cash machines to have a message saying "Please Take Cash" as the twenty pound notes just sit there.

Presumably before this message, people just around in slack-jawed confusion prodding the money with a finger and grunting.

Merseyrail all in all provides a good, reliable service.

When things go wrong out of their control, they are unfortunately unable to crisis manage a solution and the replacement bus services are seldom effective.

The staff are unfriendly and unhelpful especially when things go wrong and you need to find the replacement bus service. When I tried.....five of them just kept telling me to press the "up" button and the sixth kept pleading me to "take my cash from the machine".

JP

Summary: Generally a decent travel provider - but with very poor staff.