The events of the last couple of weeks have thrown up what seems to be a perennial but avoidable problem yet again.

Whether it’s an airport, a power company, the rail network or almost any public service or utility, in the age of instant and worldwide communication, no one can find out what’s going on when things go wrong.

It surely cannot be beyond the wit or budget of these vast organisation to set up a system whereby a dedicated team – and it wouldn’t have to be a large one – is mobilised when there are power outages, railway line closures or significant flight departure delays.

No one has ever reasonably complained about the front line services on these occasions. The power engineers, the track repairers, tree removers and flight despatchers all do a fantastic job in the most hazardous situations to restore our services. Nor should we expect them to stop what they’re doing to phone every household or individual who is left in the dark – literally and figuratively.

But the salaries of a small team of incident co-ordinators, (who might have other responsibilities during times when things are hunky dory) would not be a significant drain on their resources.

It would be their job to liaise with the teams on the front line and inform the public of developments. The worst example of the failure to see this as a priority occurs whenever there are hundreds stranded at international airports or railway stations. The abiding image is one of frustrated would-be travellers who have no information for hours; and although the case may be that for some of that time there is no concrete information available, even that lack of information could be managed better.

Of course, in the case of rail travel, the fragmentation of service providers doesn’t help any more than the number of airlines, but the airport and track authorities really should be able to institute a system whereby the sharp end employees, who are as uninformed as the travellers, are not the only point of contact for the frustrated passenger.

We can have instant email conversations between New Zealand and the UK; we can Skype each other and watch news unfold as it happens anywhere in the world. Big organisations should be able to communicate with their customers better.

Let their New Year’s Resolution be ‘It’s good to talk!’ Mine? Oh lose weight – as usual! Sigh.