Anyone who catches public transport on a regular basis will have something to say about lateness.
Although 100% punctuality on every service every day is something operators strive for, anyone with an ounce of common sense and empathy will understand such a figure is often unrealistic. With accidents, congestion, breakdowns etc all having an impact on punctuality, there is a possibility the bus/train you are waiting for might be a few minutes late.
Whilst the operator can't control the external factors affecting lateness, they most certainly can control the communication around it.
A friend and I were sat waiting for a bus over the weekend. Working backwards from our 2.30 meet time at the pub, we were confident we'd arrived in plenty of time (given the service's 15-minute frequency).
Thirty minutes later we were still waiting. Not the end of the world but a frustrating situation.
The RTI was proving not so real-time, the Twitter feed hadn't been updated since the previous day and the online map was showing diddly squat. In a nutshell, we didn't have a clue what was going on!
Do we sit it out in hope or try and tap a lift from a friend?
The lateness wasn't a huge issue but being left in the dark about it, more so. I'm not sure customers are particularly interested in why a service is late but communication there is a problem and confirmation when a service will arrive is something they'd benefit greatly from.
There's plenty of channels to get service updates out there, so operators don't really have any excuse for an annoying silence.
To top things off, the driver didn't even apologise for being late!!
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