Radio Interview about @uktrains Twitter service
Earlier today I spoke to BBC Radio about how the National Rail website and those of many of the individual train operating companies had failed under the volume of traffic associated with the heavy snow across the UK. They were interested in how people were turning to unofficial internet-based sources - services like @uktrains - for help. It didn't make it into 'PM' on Radio 4, but was included in Radio 5's 'Drive'.
2 comments
The fact that I could choose to pay 25p means you're paying for quality. If they don't provide an update or they somehow provide the wrong update, I could complain and ask them to refund me for the 25p and any other fees paid.
But then the problem is that the National Rail Enquiries tweets are sometimes incorrect for example the Tweet I received for a problem in South London with a link to a service disruption in the north of England!
Also it's a real shame that the BBC Travel updates pages you link to are really messy and unappealing to look at so seems like neither you nor National Rail Enquiries can get it right.
Still, I have to acknowledge your hard work on this, it is surely appreciated by many others out there - even if I cannot seem to find appreciation it as yet.
Thanks,
Cameron.
I'm surprised to hear you've had problems with the National Rail twitter feeds. Whilst they *are* done manually (so I guess there is some risk of mistakes) I've always found them very good - the team creating them are also responsible for alerts distributed in more traditional ways too.
In terms of 'receiving multiple tweets all at once' I'm a bit confused - posting is batched-up into 5 minute periods, but that rarely means more than 1 or 2 tweets at time (compared to NRE who issue many more updates and repetitions). Are you getting tweets by SMS and if so which network?
