Earlier this month South West Trains told passenger groups it was suspending the audio announcements of train information at Waterloo Station for a two-week trial. This was a particularly strange decision given that just two years ago they had spent almost £3million on a new 90-decibel system, comprising 1,000 speakers, which it said would deliver “better and clearer” information.
Suspending audio announcements would have had a devastating impact on blind and visually impaired train users, not to mention thousands of others who benefit from this service. It would have forced people to seek out assistance from information points and made it much harder to be independent. It was a terrible idea, the RNIB campaigned against it and Caroline Pidgeon from the London Assembly described it as “one of the most absurd decisions by a train company I have ever come across”.
The positive news, however, is that South West Trains listened to the outcry and changed their minds. I am pleased to report that audio announcements will remain at Waterloo. If this is an optimistic tale of people power then it is also a reminder that we should never assume that anything, no matter how sensible and seemingly beyond question is necessarily forever. It is down to us, as communities and individuals to ensure that better is the benchmark and never let anything simply slip away.
At a time when much is written about voter apathy and community disengagement it’s good to be reminded that people do care and actions can change things.
“Change” ?
but in which direction ?
for better,
or worse ?
Hark awhile to the St Erth – StIves on-train announcements
it’s like being clamped in the stocks in front of of an amplified megaphone of an already-noisy-enough Death Camp !
“People do ‘care’, and ‘actions’ can ‘change’ ‘things’ ? –
c’mon, that’s not gold-medal persuasion.
And look at the absolutely stinking malfeasance now in train by English-‘Democracy’ against the honest-to-God Scots ! They sure were “loudspeakered” and by our English tax-monies being used literally as a weapon against our Scots friends and indeed against our own English Selves.
[My submission to “I always thought we liked each other” by Baroness Murphy, will explain an urgent need for more thorough “catharses”, in “England” and “English”].