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Avoid the Use of Jargon!
This short tale isn't from a day when I was working, but whilst travelling on the Metropolitan Line as a passenger one afternoon.
One thing we always try to get across is to avoid the use of jargon when making Public Address announcements - it makes all the difference between your enforced audience understanding what's going on or confusing them further!
I was on my way up to Baker Street to meet up with a crowd of friends and had got on an Aldgate service from Uxbridge. As the train approached Rayners Lane it stopped. In itself not unusual - it's a busy area with Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines converging and diverging and, of course, the Piccadilly Line has trains which are reversed there. However, the delay seemed unusually long.
The standard practice is to wait for two minutes and then make a PA to let your passengers know what's going on, though, at first, this may just be an announcement to let them know that you're making some enquiries and that, should there be a significant delay, you'll keep them informed.
So, after about two or three minutes, the driver made an announcement; although these weren't the exact words it was very much as follows:
'Good afternoon Ladies and Gents. We're standing at a red stick. I don't know what the problem is, but I'm going to speak to the cabin to find out. I'll come back to you as soon as possible when I've spoken to the cabin.'
Obviously I knew what he was talking about, but of course my fellow travellers hadn't got a clue, as was all too apparent by the bemused look on their faces!
A couple of minutes later he made a further announcement: 'I've spoken to the cabin and there's a track down in front of us. The supervisor's on his way down to scotch and clip the route. This will take a few minutes, so we'll be here for a bit longer yet.' More bemused expressions on the faces of the passengers.
I'll give a translation later as to what these meant, but - for the minute - I'll just say that I now expected the train to remain where it was for a while, and looked forward with some anticipation to his explanations of the procedure that would follow!
However, in the event, the situation resolved more quickly, but this was accompanied too by two further rather meaningless announcements: 'It looks like the route's cleared itself. I'm going to speak to the cabin again just to make sure everything's OK and that I can move up'. A further brief delay occurred, followed by 'I've spoken to the cabin again. It looks like the route's come back up and he can clear the sticks so we're now going to move up - sorry for the delay'. With that the train moved off and we continued with our journey.
I suppose the positive thing was that at least the driver had made some announcements, so at least the passengers were being told something, and didn't think that the driver had just disappeared, dropped dead or whatever but, beyond that, what was said told them nothing about what was occurring!
So, having set the scene, what was going on, what had occurred and what was now happening?
Let me take the announcements one by one, and translate them into plain English.
The first announcement:
'Good afternoon Ladies and Gents. We're standing at a red stick. I don't know what the problem is, but I'm going to speak to the cabin to find out. I'll come back to you as soon as possible when I've spoken to the cabin.'
What should have been said was (ignoring the preamble):
'We're being held at a red signal. I don't know what the problem is, but I'm going to speak to the signaller to find out. I'll make a further announcement once I've spoken to the signaller.'
The second announcement:
'I've spoken to the cabin and there's a track down in front of us. The supervisor's on his way down to scotch and clip the route. This will take a few minutes, so we'll be here for a bit longer yet.'
What should have been said was:
'I've spoken to the signaller and it seems that there's a signal failure and he's unable to allow us to proceed at the moment. The Station Supervisor is carrying out a procedure that will enable us to proceed, but this will take about fifteen minutes before I can move the train. I'll keep you informed'.
The third announcement:
'It looks like the route's cleared itself. I'm going to speak to the cabin again just to make sure everything's OK and that I can move up.'
What should have been said was:
'The signals ahead of us have now gone to green, and that means that I should be able to move the train into Rayners Lane. However, before I do as a safety precaution I am going to speak to the signaller again to ensure it is safe to so.'
The final announcement:
'I've spoken to the cabin again. It looks like the route's come back up and he can clear the sticks so we're now going to move up - sorry for the delay.'
What should have been said was:
'I've spoken to the signaller again. He's confirmed that the signals are now all operating correctly and it is safe for me to move the train into the platform at Rayners Lane. I'm sorry for the delay and we'll now be able to continue our journey normally.'
So what had actually happened that had caused this delay? It initially appeared that there had been a Track Circuit Failure and and the signaller in Rayners Lane signal cabin had been unable to set the signals to allow the train to proceed. Initially it appeared that the procedure involved in securing the points ahead of the train would need to be undertaken, and the Train operator would then be authorised to pass the signals which were remaining at danger. More on this procedure can be read here in Phil Wimbush's explanation of signal operation.
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