A critics delay?

I recently took a great interest in a newspaper announcing they would be monitoring Metrorail trains in the Western Cape – interest was not only because I have build and still attempt to build a good relationship with Metrorail, but also because I’ve been criticizing them for about four years.

Commuters were advised to use #metroraildiaries on Twitter, so I scanned this hashtag and there were not even five tweets from commuters and less than 10 from three of the journalist who took a train - (excluding mine). What I find disturbing is that there was the assumption if “we take a train, we would understand and can share the frustration of commuters”. Being a commuter myself I can say it takes more than a 30 minute journey to understand the frustration of commuters.

If my media colleagues regularly took a train during peak time, they would understand the real frustration of commuters. Had they engaged with Metrorail Western Cape they would also have learned why trains are delayed and what the different delays mean.

From the article, I have to raise the following:

• They mention security preventing to take photos: so why not ask where the station manager or supervisor is and as journalists why not inform Metrorail’s Communications manager about this?
• They mention announcements were made, but fail to mention what the announcements stated on why trains were delayed.
• One of the journalist mentions about being surprised a train is on time: how do you know the train is on time and why not happy that it is on time?
• Another journalist took a train after 8am, now even though Metrorail’s morning peak ends at 9, any regular commuter knows majority of people take train between 05:30 and 07:45 and it is very rare that you will have an overcrowded train after 8.

What I find sad about the article is that there was despite a “my experience”, no research but a one-sided story. 

They mention no attempt to make contact with Metrorail, nor did they test @CapeTownTrains on Twitter, notice updates is posted on Facebook and they fail to mention thousands of commuters are registered for Metrorail’s SMS system.

Metrorail’s service is far from perfect, but is it not better to become a stakeholder that criticize as oppose to a critic that adds to the delay?