The reply Ive just had from Arriva. My response is also below, see what happens next! Dear Mrs Boyle Thank you for your comments regarding the Revenue Protection exercise that we undertook recently at Barry station, and for drawing to our attention your dissatisfaction in this regard. First of all, please accept my apologies for any upset or distress caused to your son as a result of the incident that you have reported to us. It may help if I explain that historically Arriva Trains Wales have been criticised for a perceived lack of activity in dealing with fare evasion, and ticketless travel. Therefore, it is clear to us that the majority of our customers and our staff appreciate the requirement to hold a valid ticket being enforced, and hence our current practice of frequent ticket irregularity checks. We are using a team of external contractors, Transport Investigations Ltd, to support our own staff in this exercise. These inspectors are not our own employees and therefore do not wear an Arriva Trains Wales uniform, however they are required to carry full identification and are authorised to act on our behalf. As you state that your son’s details have been taken by Transport Investigations, regrettably we are unable to correspond with you or with him on the individual case at present. Our colleagues at Transport Investigations are dealing with these cases on our behalf, and a small minority of cases where deliberate fares evasion has been detected may be taken to prosecution. By responding here in Customer Relations, we may risk prejudicing the outcome of a legal process. Before taking any further action, Transport Investigations will now write to your son and will provide him with an opportunity to put forward any mitigating circumstances he may wish for them to consider before they decide on how to progress. At this stage I can only advise that your son liaises directly with Transport Investigations Ltd, and not to ignore any correspondence you receive from them. For his reference I have listed their contact details for you below: Transport Investigations Ltd 1 Station Approach March Cambridgeshire PE15 8SJ Tel: 01354 656655 Notwithstanding the above, I was concerned to read your comments about the level of customer service that your son was provided on this occasion. Please be assured that we expect the inspectors to maintain high standards in this area, and I am genuinely very sorry if your son felt that this incident was handled in an unprofessional or discourteous manner. I hope that the above information is of use to you and thank you for taking time to write. My reply: Thank you for your reply, however, these external contractors as you state are acting on behalf of Arriva Trains Wales, and therefore represent Arriva when conducting any activities relating to collection of revenue etc. I know for a fact that my son is not alone in the way he was treated and I have seen comments via your facebook page from other passengers who also felt these “external contractors” were aggressive in their manner, I hope you’ve had the opportunity to read the attachment I sent along with my letter of complaint with passengers views on the service provided, one in particular said “The jumped up little hitler revenue officer at Cathays Station this morning needs to be taught how to speak to people in civilised manner! Ive used Arriva Trains since 2004 on a weekly basis, always paid for tickets and was made to feel like a bloody criminal this morning. I couldnt buy a ticket on the train because no Arriva staff could be bothered this morning.” In addition I’m sure Arriva must be paying Transport Investigations Ltd for this exercise and I wonder if this is money well spent, we’ve all heard of supply teachers / nurses who receive more money than those directly employed. Why doesn’t Arriva spend the money as I put in my letter of complaint on more conductors / machines etc so that passengers are able to pay. If my son was travelling to Cardiff for example, the conductor no doubt would have had time to collect his fare, as he was only on a 20 minute journey obviously it appears the conductor didn’t have chance to do this from Rhoose to Barry. I would agree that the majority of your customers appreciate the requirement to hold a valid ticket however, this is down to Arriva having enough staff / conductors / machines for customers to be able to pay. Most companies operate on a supply and demand basis and it appears Arriva are not meeting the demand of their customers. As I also put in my letter, you are in the service sector, your revenue is dependent on your customers / passengers, the service passengers are receiving is well below an acceptable level and I believe that Arriva has a duty of care in regard to the service and treatment my son and the other passengers were subjected to on the 29th October 2014. Arriva should be contacting Transport Investigations Ltd on our behalf to deal with this issue as Arriva employed them. You’ve put “Before taking any further action, Transport Investigations will now write to your son and will provide him with an opportunity to put forward any mitigating circumstances he may wish for them to consider before they decide on how to progress.” As outlined in my complaint he was informed that he’d receive a letter in the post and if he contacted the department that sent the letter and the person at the other end of the phone determined that my son was being aggressive or rude matters would be taken further. This sounds to me like a get out clause in that should someone make a complaint over the phone, automatically that person could face further penalties in whatever form Arriva or Transport Investigations see fit. I look forward to your reply. Mrs Deborah Boyle
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 10:36:01 +0000
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