How to make sure the trains are running on time

A great example of the power of the community in staying up to date.

Last week I arrived at the local train station to discover chaos. The trains running into the city were delayed and nobody knew what was going on, particularly the station master. Yes, there were announcements over the PA but they basically told us that wires were down and no alternative transportation was being provided.

A minute later a gentleman starts reading updates off his BlackBerry. He read off some very detailed updates on what trains were running and when. All very helpful information. I asked him if was getting that off the Web site for the train authority. No. He was reading it off a mailing list generated by consumers.

So here we have a situation where the commuters, the customers, know more than the train authority. Even the station master was grateful for the information.