One day after it was pointed out on social media, it was fixed.
Japanese customer service has become famous around the world for its commitment to ensuring that diners, shoppers, and hotel guests have an enjoyable experience. But that dedication can be seen in the public transportation sector too, where rail operators strive to do all they can to make sure train and subway passengers arrive at their destination in a timely and pleasant manner.
Still, there’s always room for improvement, and on September 1 Japanese Twitter user @kiseshou pointed something out regarding the Tokyo Metro subway network’s Ginza Station. See if you can spot the problem in the photo below.
Ginza Station is in the middle of the Ginza Line, and if you’re headed down to the platform via the stairs shown in @kiseshou’s photo, Track 1 takes you towards Shibuya Station, and Track 2 is the one that heads to Asakusa Station, which are on completely opposite ends of downtown Tokyo. But while the which-track-goes-where information is clearly displayed on a sign above the stairs, the sign unfortunately makes it look like Track 1 is on the right and Track 2 is on the left, but that’s the opposite of where they really are (note the track numbers on the platform’s support pillars).
The discrepancy is especially confusing because the misleading sign is what people will see first, and since they’ll see it just seconds before hopping on the train many people won’t stop to reconfirm their route on the platform pillars. “The other day, I got on a train going in the opposite direction I wanted to at Ginza Station,” tweeted @kiseshou, “and today [looking at this sign] I can see how that happened.”
Plenty of people who saw the tweet agreed that it’s a confusing way to guide subway users to where they need to go in order to get where they want to be. The very next morning after sending the tweet, though, @kiseshou was back in Ginza Station again, only this time…
…the sign had been corrected, and it now lists Track 1 on the left and Track 2 on the right, matching their actual positions on the platform when viewed from this angle. “Amazing! They fixed it in just one night,” said @kiseshou in an appreciative follow-up tweet. “It may just be a coincidence, but thank you, Tokyo Metro!”
For its part, the rail operator is indeed saying this is just a coincidence. The stairway in @kiseshou’s tweets is one of the few passages to the platform that’s oriented in the way it is, with most other access routes facing the opposite way. The company says that the incorrect signage had been installed, but that an employee had spotted the mistake earlier in the day on September 1, before @kiseshou posted the tweet.
That seems like an awfully big coincidence, but regardless of how the problem came to their attention, it’s nice to see that Tokyo Metro thought it was important enough to take care of ASAP, quickly putting up an ostensibly temporary tarp instead of doing nothing while waiting for a whole new sign. It’s definitely something passengers will be thankful for, since hopping on the wrong train and having to make a time-costly U-turn can be a stressful way to start your day if you’ve got an important meeting or test first thing in the morning, or to end it if it causes you to miss the last train of the night.
Sources: Twitter/@kiseshou, IT Media
Top image: Wikipedia/BetacommandBot (edited by SoraNews24)
Insert images: Twitter/@kiseshou (1, 2)
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