Southern Rail announcer sparks outrage with bizarre ‘Please stop asking me what time trains are’ rant
Alleged announcement follows months of disruption to troubled service
A FRUSTRATED commuter has claimed an announcer said 'please stop asking me what time trains are. I have no information' over loudspeakers at a busy London station.
Phil Groves took to Twitter to express his disbelief at the Southern Rail worker's alleged statement using the hashtag #southernfail yesterday evening at Balham.
Civil servant Phil, 33, told the Sun Online: "The station was heaving and there was complete confusion.
"There are four platforms and people were dashing between them with no idea what was going on.
"There was one member of staff saying 'I do not know, I have no information'.
"Then they made that announcement.
"To be honest it's the kind of thing I would expect from Southern."
After the announcement Phil tweeted: "Actual announcement at Balham by "Please stop asking me what time trains are. I have no information" ."
Southern replied to Mr Groves' tweet asking him to provide a full account via its online customer service system.
Within Phil's reply to the operator he said: "Announcements throughout eve at Balham have been pretty unprofessional!"
Phil commutes from his home in Streatham Hill to Waterloo each day.
He said: "This train service is an absolute nightmare you go to the station every day and have absolutely no idea if you are going to get to work. "
This is not the first station announcement to raise eyebrows.
Last month passengers were surprised to hear a high-pitched and unintelligible voice fill carriages of a Liverpool train.
Passenger Phil Kelly, 23, told the Liverpool Echo: "My first thought was that the train must have been taken over by a demon . There’s a good chance the guard was bored and just wanted to do something briefly. Or there’s a chance it was a technical fault."
Southern passengers have been vocal on twitter following months of disruption because of industrial action and staff shortages.
On Monday Southern workers walked out on strike in a bitter dispute over the role of conductors. The planned five-day strike was called off on Wednesday to allow for urgent negotiations.
Southern has been contacted for comment.
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