Meet the Manager

Last Thursday I took up the invitation to "Meet the Manager" at London Euston.  There were actually quite a few managers there (I reckon at least a dozen including three Network Rail representatives), including Mike Hodson, the LM Managing Director.

I wanted to talk to David Whitley, the Head of Marketing who runs the @londonmidland Twitter service but I also spoke to Alex Hynes, the Commercial Director.

So what did I learn?  The answer has to be "a lot".  On the infrastructure problems between Northampton and Euston things are clearly not as simple as they may first appear.  We all know that the West Coast Main Line upgrade only completed in 2008 and cost £9bn+, but there's still track and equipment that's 20+ years old.  There is a programme of work in place to sort out the remaining problems (e.g. simplifying the track layout at Bletchley), but it is going to be a while before that's all finished.

Did I make any complaints?  Of course I did!  I raised the point about the loss of the fast Bletchley services in the AM and PM peak.  I asked why we don't have speakers or visible VDUs at the north end of Bletchley station, platforms 4-5.  We also talked about congestion at the barriers and on the concourse at Euston.

Was it worth the effort to "Meet the Manager"?  Yes it definitely was.  I was genuinely impressed with the effort that the London Midland senior management are putting into talking to their customers.  Like the @londonmidland Twitter service, this didn't come across as a cosmetic exercise designed to look good in the next edition of their annual report.

If you travel with London Midland and have also talked to their management at one of these events then I'd be really interested to know what you thought of the experience.  I'm particularly keen to hear if you found that something that you'd raised was acted upon.



.