The Ranting Room

I boarded the 20.27 train for Strawberry Hill. The guard announced that there would be a delay because of a missing member of staff, and recommended that passengers join the Guildford train. Shortly after this he recommended that passengers for Raynes Park join the Hampton Court train, which I did. A couple of minutes later the guard on the Hampton Court train announced that the train was delayed because of a missing member of staff, and recommended that passengers run back to the Strawberry Hill train, which I did, only just managing to squeeze through the doors as they tried to eat my briefcase. None of this - neither the delays (approximately 15 minutes) nor the reason for them is posted on your website. Nobody at Waterloo seemed to know what was happening, unless getting commuters to jog between platforms 1 and 4 is now part of the job description for your guards, and no clear information was available on any of the dot matrix displays or via the guard's announcements (although, to be fair, we were given numerous warnings about the possibility of beggars boarding the train).

It's pretty obvious that some problems were being experienced, but given the enormous public subsidy received by South West Trains, plus my own £1632 per annum contribution, perhaps somebody can dream up a contingency plan, brief the staff accordingly and maybe use some of your communications technology to make sure that there are regular updates. I doubt that the problems were unprecedented in the history of rail travel, and given your company's ability to mobilise a small army of ticket inspectors every morning I find the lack of staff available a bit baffling.

I use your service to commute to work. There is no realistic alternative way for me to travel, so I can hardly threaten to take my custom elsewhere. Incidents like this are a regular occurrence, which is inevitable on such a crowded network. What is not inevitable is the incompetence and lack of clear direction on any occasion when there is a minor glitch; having lived in Japan for several years I have seen that a busy urban rail network can run smoothly, even when earthquakes and flooding in the typhoon season are occupational hazards.

Please, if you reply to this, bear in mind that I am not complaining about the delay itself, but rather the way that the problem was dealt with and your heavily subsidised company's failure to manage the situation in a manner that would minimise inconvenience for your paying customers.

Or am I being unreasonable?