Here is the letter that Mike Rawlins wrote.

Screens Not Working

The screens at the bottom of the stairs to the station are not working so you have to climb the 2 flights of stairs and walk the length of the platform to see if your train is on-time or delayed.

Hello Mike,

I am sorry to see that East Midlands have asked you not to use FixMyTransport for correspondence.

We believe there is no good reason for an operator not to engage with its customers through the site, so our advice would be to write back (using the yellow 'email' button at the top of this page) and say that this is your preferred method of communication.

However if you prefer to follow their own guidelines and take communication offline, please do come back and update us on any progress you've made. This was there will be a public record, plus a chance for others to add their support and discuss the issue.

The East Midlands contact email address is getintouch@eastmidlandstrains.co.uk .

Hello Patrik,

I hope you are well?

Many thanks for asking me to contact you directly but please can you respond to me through the Fix My Transport site as my preferred method of communication.

I am a great advocate of openness and transparency I like things in the public domain.

This will also help you in the long run as public responses may stop people making identical requests for information from you.

Best wishes

Mike

Asked the nice people at East Midlands Trains to use FMT as my preferred method of communication.

Thanks for trying, Mike - I am sorry East Midlands are refusing to engage further (though it is good to hear they have passed your message on).

Please do come and keep this page updated with any progress you make.

Hello again Patrik,

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why you can't discuss the issue of the street level screens at Longton Station with me in this public forum, yet you are able to use it to tell me that you can't discuss them.

It's all very strange don't you think?

I know the people at Fix My Transport and they are all lovely and I'm sure will be deeply upset by the fact that East Midlands Trains won't use their rather splendid public service platform to help get things fixed.

They worked like trojans for well over a year just to come up with the tag line 'Euston, we have a problem' so I dread to think how many man hours went in to the actual coding of the site and all this public service goodness is being lost on East Midlands Trains :(

Anyway it has been lovely having you as a pen friend for these few short days and I'd hate for our friendship to end just because East Midlands Trains don't like FMT, so if you do want to ask your managers if they will reconsider using this site to respond to my request I really would be most grateful.

I hope you have a splendid Christmas & New Year.

Best

Mike.

PS I like your tie :)
PPS and your haircut :))

Please write soon…….

Ah Mike, thanks for all the lovely comments - I hope they won't fall on deaf ears :)