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From Somerset County Gazette (http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/15394488.Mariella_Frostrup_kicked_off_train_to_Taunton__for_asking_a_question_/)


I would suspect there is rather more to this story than in the report. And indeed I suspect the journalist who wrote it has the same thoughts if you read it between the lines.

Indeed. The first response from @GWRhelp is informative on this point

She claims to have missed her daughter's 13th birthday party as a result, although the service was not due in to CCary until 2145.  Clearly a late birthday party then for a girl of such an age.

Although the literate and well-informed people who wrote the comments below the article don't seem to agree.

Now, I wonder where Private Eye gets its ideas for its 'From the Message Boards' section? Hmm.

Wonder if she was rude/aggressive/threatening in her manner that she asked. And I imagine if she missed her stop being thrown off would leave her somewhere closer than Taunton?

I'm sure she reacted when it was explained that she hadn't read the departure board and that the train was bo longer acheduled to stop

Wonder if the GWR employee decided she was being rude/threatening/aggressive when merely being assertive. It happens.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion ... I would find it very hard to believe that a member of staff would have someone thrown off for asking a question, but others are pretty sure that the problem should be squarely laid as GWR's door:

The story has made it to the Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4669490/Frostrup-threatens-legal-action-thrown-train.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4669490/Frostrup-threatens-legal-action-thrown-train.html)

There's one interesting comment in the Mail that seems to add a new slant:

"An eyewitness told us...", "Anonymous sources said..."

Be very wary about the veracity of these quotes in tabloid journalism.

The daily mail eyewitness kind of confirms my expectation of the other side of the story.

That's why I posted it. Whilst I fully concur with BNM's scepticism of tabloid journalism, the original story seemed to have a whiff of self-promotion on Ms. Frostrup's part...

If the train I was on didn't stop at a scheduled stop I was wanting to get off at I'd be unhappy and want to know why.

I believe she was advised why.

I can't remember exactly but wasn't there an additional service to Plymouth that evening?

It is the line between being rude and being threatening that is the tricky one.  Of course people shouldn't be rude, but we all know that some people are and we don't know the background circumstances which could make someone appear rude.  I'd even go so far as saying that sometimes rudeness is an entirely understandable response to perceived idiocy, or rudeness in the other direction.    I would be a strong supporter of taking a zero tolerance approach to threatening behaviour,  in my view it should be treated very similarly to how we should treat actual violence (ie genuinely threatening to punch someone should be taken as seriously as actually punching someone).  But mere rudeness is different in that it is sometimes richly deserved in the way which violence never is. 

I suspect she was asked to leave the train because it wasn't calling at her station. If she then refused to leave, railway staff would be in their right to have her removed, forcibly if necessary. (Eg if she was holding up departure of the train). Failure to act on a request of a suitably authorised railway person would in itself be grounds for the BTP to get involved.

You notice I started with "suspect". None of us know the full story, but that would be my hunch.

Me too, but I'd also get off the train voluntarily and therefore avoid being thrown off. 

I was on a service one day many years ago when I had a suspicion that the train was going too fast to make a scheduled station stop so I pulled the emergency stop as the train thundered through the platform.

The train came to a stand just short of a green signal. The guard, as they were called then, came through and asked who activated the emergency stop and why. I owned up and said the train didn't stop at the station. He argued that it wasn't suppose to stop despite the number of passengers who had made their way to the end vestibules ready to alight. He was definitely in the minority.

When the driver arrived to reset the train pipe the guard spoke to him through the carriage window telling him that the passengers are saying we should have stopped. I heard the drivers reply which was, "yes we should have, the panel told me to set back"

Case closed, the guard never even asked me for my name and address.

   

There are employees out there whose employer supports the police being called simply for being shouted at (no threats, swearing etc, just raised, angry voices). It's termed 'verbal abuse'. The police will waste their time & yours once a complaint is made.