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Very bizarre idea of customer service
Earlier this week, Caltrain had "switching" problems which caused delays. They apologized (that's a good start) on the scrolling screens @ the stations. However, they also instituted a "free ride" to apologize, but didn't tell you until you got on the train. Mind you, Caltrain is proof of payment so you have to pay and get a ticket before you get on the train. Why couldn't they put "free ride" on the scrolling screens? They were telling us "well you can get off and get back on later tonight"? Really? When we are all schlepping home from the South Bay @ 7 pm? Who is going to do that?
Again, the whole payment system for Caltrain needs an overhaul....those 10 ride validators never work, and they could make more money if they sold tickets on board for a higher price.....Seems like a better idea for them....
Again, the whole payment system for Caltrain needs an overhaul....those 10 ride validators never work, and they could make more money if they sold tickets on board for a higher price.....Seems like a better idea for them....
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Inappropriate?10 rides are going to 8 rides in March. The 8 ride basically validates the corners without cutting them, which is supposed to make the process more robust. Evidently, it's the cutting part of the validation that causes the most problems with the validators. Other than that, the validators are supposed to be phased out for the Translink system this year, or Real Soon Now.
You also mentioned selling tickets on board. Are you a relatively new rider (last 10 years)? Tickets did used to be sold on board, for an extra fee. However, that process ended to create a more frequent schedule. When tickets are sold on board, there have to be more conductors *and* they have to "cash out" at the end of runs, which means trains can't be turned around as fast, so there are fewer train trips each day. So, it's a tradeoff, like many things in public transit are. Riders are asked to give up some conveniences (with all forms of public transportation, not just Caltrain) in exchange for other benefits.
Let's see. Other than that, as I think I've written elsewhere, the visual messaging system (the rolling screens) are old and fairly primitive. "Pushing" new information to them is not the simple thing you'd expect in the internet age and sometimes doesn't work as well as we'd all think it would. It's also impossible to for the folks imputting information in them to see what they're saying -- it's not a two way system, in that way. So, many of the solutions we'd imagine would be reasonable -- more frequent messages, clearer messages, etc -- aren't really viable given the age and peskiness of the system. Should it be better? Probably. But Caltrain depends on public money, federal and state. The reality of the economy means that public transit isn't getting the money it should, so there isn't money for a lot of the updates that should happen.
It's hard to be patient for these changes, because especially if you're used to the "speed of Internet", the speed of public agencies can be *glacial*.
