SunRail’s success and ridership depend on one word –
reliability.
We’re the first to say that SunRail can’t be held
responsible when somebody carelessly, or intentionally, blocks the tracks.
But SunRail can mitigate the situation by promptly
communicating with riders when delays occur.
That was not the case early Monday morning with a
southbound train was delayed by a vehicle blocking the tracks.
One of our favorite riders tweeted the delay news at 7:06
a.m. SunRail didn’t send their first tweet until 7:24 a.m. By then our favorite
rider sent a second tweet at 7:14 a.m.
During that time two other riders also tweeted delay information –
before SunRail.
Some may say, “Oh come on, it’s only a ‘few’ minutes.”
But minutes count, especially when people are heading to work in the morning.
Folks have deadlines and early-morning meetings. Hourly workers get penalized
for clocking in late.
At least if people know there’s a delay they can call and
email their places of work to let team members and bosses know they’re stuck on
the train. Beyond riders on the train, let’s not forget people stranded on
platforms waiting for the delayed train.
Keep in mind that if the southbound SunRail train is delayed,
there’s a good chance the delay will cascade and affect northbound trips
because the southbound train becomes the northbound train when it reaches the
end of the line at Sand Lake Road. (SunRail deserves credit for quickly getting
things back on schedule this morning.)
We have no idea how the SunRail operations center in
Sanford is set up, but there should be one person in the operations center at
all times whose only job is to communicate with riders when there are service
delays. Rider communications are a big part of reliability. Remember, SunRail is
hauling people, not sacks of cement.
Once a train experiences a delay of more than 5 or 6
minutes that person should be tweeting. We would rather have SunRail over communicate
than leave riders uninformed.
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
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