News & Views

Sitting on a (yet again) delayed First Capital Connect train this morning, the chap next to me was busy tweeting his views on the service and reading out extracts of abuse from other tweets, and the Facebook FCC hate group.  All a pretty entertaining way to wile away the time while the train crawled through south London. Searching Twitter and Facebook for comments on FCC and Southern Trains, its counterpart on the Brighton line, I could only find negative remarks: “The lesser spotted ‘On Time’ variety of the First Capital Connect train” and “Train is clearly running late. Not a single announcement. First Capital Connect at its best” and “First Capital Connect services have all the vim and vigour of a hungover panda with its head in a pail.” Some people put a great deal of thought, wit and effort into their 140 characters. Yet only a few had thought to thank the train companies when their train arrived on time – “Bizarrely First Capital Connect have done something that makes sense for once.”

And why should they? They pay for a service (£3,708 for an annual season ticket from Brighton to Victoria in 2012) and they expect to receive it. Commuting is enough of a hassle without late trains, packed carriages and diverted routes (the London Bridge train this morning rather remissingly failed to stop at London Bridge).

It’s all rather reminiscent of facilities management. The feedback (read complaint) board at my local gym is a litany of moans (why isn’t the Jacuzzi working? The shower are always dirty, why don’t you clean them? The music is crap, can we have something decent?) and most FM helpdesks are the same – my bin wasn’t emptied this morning; the toilet isn’t flushing properly; the sink’s blocked; the car park is always full; you ran out of jacket potatoes again today; the coffee tastes disgusting. And, like with the train companies, our customers aren’t afraid of sharing their views. Facebook groups have been set up complaining about everything from an organisation’s new lifts to the restaurant food; while internal social networks such as Yammer are ubiquitous with facilities-related comments.

Of course, it’s not all negative. Before I visited the Mintel office last week, a Twitter search revealed some fantastic comments about its fabulous new office from both staff and visitors.  But it’s human nature to only find the time to comment when we want to complain. So much so that when I had some great service from an Asda delivery man a while ago, there wasn’t a button on their website to give feedback, just to complain. Maybe they’re so deluged with complaints, they don’t expect any praise?

Perhaps that’s just the way it is in service delivery companies and we’ve got used to it. But as fellow members of this diverse and often thankless industry, I think we should take the lead and if not stop complaining, then at least remember to praise when we receive exceptional service. And hope that somewhere along the way, someone remembers to return the favour.

You can’t call yourself a true Brightonian, I reckon, unless you’re often seen coasting around on a rusty, secondhand bicycle with some sort of basket, ideally wicker, attached.

Cathy disagrees. Once she all but went into shock at the mere suggestion of owning a bike in Brighton – the same Cathy, that is, who admits to going for a jog one morning in the pitch black to shake off sore legs caused by “too much sleep” (too much sleep?! 6.30am?! A jog?!). “A bike?!” Cathy said. “Are you mad? But think of the hills in Brighton!”

Indeed there are hills, gigantuous ones, really more like mountains. And I have on occasions when I’ve felt my thighs and lungs begin to burn about two feet into the incline, cursed the day hills and bikes were born. But there are also loads of cycle paths throughout the flat parts, including a magnificent route all the way along the seafront from east of Brighton Harbour to west of Hove. What’s more satisfying than, at the weekend, being propelled gently by the sea breeze along the seafront to a café selling chippie chips, beer and even ice cream?

By cycling rather than walking into work I also slash my journey time by 10 minutes (including the five minutes I spend fumbling at each end with my bike lock). That’s 10 whole luxurious extra minutes snugged under my duvet dreaming about one day owning a brand shiny new bike.

The other day the owner of the building that Magenta happily lives in requested that I remove my bike from the railings outside, carry it down stairs to a makeshift area and attach it to a flimsy hoop in the wall. I obliged, somewhat grudgingly. My bike on the railings hadn’t been harming anyone, just as the other bikes on railings outside other properties in the street are out of the way, not harming anyone. Now not only was my bike insecurely attached to a hoop moonlighting as a towel-holder, but I could harm myself carrying a steel frame bike up and down concrete stairs. Adding insult to my injured sense of fairness, when I retrieved my bike at the end of the day it was covered in a thick layer of dust from the building works in the yard next door. Since then I’ve had to secure my bike to a lamppost a few feet down the road.

This unnecessary palaver got me thinking about the importance of providing good cycle parking to keep an increasing number of cyclists happy. Larger companies (courtesy of FMs), building owners and councils all have a responsibility. You might say that I’m somewhat out of season. But down south at least, there are still a good few cycling days left of the year, I think.

So how should cycle racks be managed properly? A range of issues must be considered: is cycle parking safe and secure, visible, accessible, easy to use, available; what type of parking should be provided; how much should be provided; what else should be provided to support cycle parking; and how should staff be encouraged to cycle to work (a workforce that regularly cycles to work is likely to be fit, healthy and on time), among other issues. Transport for London’s excellent Workplace Cycle Parking Guide, fortunately, has many of  the answers.

Back in Brighton, Brighton & Hove City Council provides a stellar amount of safe and secure cycle parking all over the city. Saying that, should they someday soon wish to provide some in the middle of Grand Parade next to Magenta’s office …

Does anyone else cycle into work? What are the issues you’ve encountered in doing so? Does your employer provide good cycle parking – or could they do better? We’d love to hear your comments.