Great Western Coffee Shop

Herewith lies a story:

My wife's colleague, a 23 year old girl, was returning last night from her graduation at Plymouth.  She looked to make her connection at Reading into the Gatwick Airport service on the North Downs line.  Now despite most of us knowing from 19H00 that trains were not running due to the lightning strike, she was assured at 22h15 that waiting on 4a/b there would soon be the Gatwick Airport service.  Eventually she was told there was a bustitution!  She made her way to the front of the station, and by now her telephone was flat and she had no money on her.  [It is also worth pointing out that she had only 6 weeks previously left home in Wales and moved to start work in Farnborough.  Hence her geography was not very good.]

On boarding the bus, she was told it was going to Guildford only, but would be stopping at Farnborough.

At 23h00 the bus arrived at Wokingham where upon the driver announced he wasn't doing any more that day and ordered all passengers OFF the buses.  Desperate and without money and no mobile phone, she approached the duty staff at Wokingham station.  Who... completely ignored her, refused to speak to her, slammed the door in her face and wouldn't answer her knocking.

She didn't have a clue in the rain at 23h00 where Wokingham was and couldn't contact anyone.  It was down to the ingenuity of her friends who repeatedly tried to contact FGW customer services and eventually traced the supposed route of the bus and found her crying in a heap in the Wokingham car park at 00h45!!

Now, how would this inspire ANYONE to travel by rail.

That's absolutely shocking. I can't even imagine another side to it, as is so often the case with these things. Quite frankly, this is one of the rare occasions I think I'd go to the press with the story and generate as much publicity as I could in order to hopefully prevent anything similar happening again.

A truly major fupp up by all parties. I'm shocked that such treatment can be given to a fare paying passenger. Some butts need to be seriously kicked.

I trust complaints have been laid at the door of SWT, FGW and so on. It can be a double edged sword but maybe involve the media as well.

Sounds like a cowboy coach company to me! There are plenty about.

Have just heard she's been awarded ^170 in rail vouchers a compensation.  I looked up and saw that was about double the SVR fare.  It's going to be in vouchers though!

In which case, it may be worth writing a polite but firm reply, pointing out that, in view of her bad experience, she is unlikely to travel by train again, and asking for a cheque instead of vouchers.

Despite the compo, I'd still suggest approaching the media. The prompt payout may be an attempt by the TOC to try and nip the story in the bud.

If it's FGW offering the payout, then the actions of SWTs' staff at Wokingham still need to be addressed. If the payout will be from SWT then FGW's failure to get her to her destination needs addressing.

Can I just say that's an EXCELLENT suggestion. Well said, that man!

 :-[

Chris is, after all, a man of few words....but those used are always well chosen.   :D 

 :-[ :-[ :-[

Defo send a letter back saying that the vouchers are useless. I wouldn't want to travel by rail after that experience regardless if its free or not.

If my staff did that during my watch, I would kick some serious **** into them. (I might even leave them in the middle of pewsey station with no money and no phone, oh wait......).

Send letters to both of the MD's.
Mark Hopwood
First Greater Western Limited
Milford House
1 Milford Street
Swindon
SN1 1HL

And
Andy Pitt
South West Trains
Friars Bridge Court
41-45 Blackfriars Road
London
SE1 8NZ

It's obviously gone very wrong for this person.

From checking, the 22:34 Reading - Gatwick left Reading 43 late and the 23:34 left Reading 19 late - so I cannot understand how she did not get on one of these trains.

Glad she is getting compo though, surprisingly quick.

Do press SWT regarding the staff issue at Wokingham, however it's unlikely there would have been a manager on shift at Wokingham - it doesn't have Duty Managers - was probably an unfortunate under pressure member of platform staff.

Thanks very much for that honest assessment of the situation, Ollie.  :-X

Well, if the OP is an accurate account of what happened, then we have the scenario of an infrequent user of Reading Station being given advice from a staff member to board a rail-replacement bus. A bus that, as it turned out, wasn't going to her destination.

Most of us here on the forum have the tools and nous at our disposal to check and double check information given to us. It's the less frequent users of the rail network that can end up somewhere other than their destination.

To clarify I meant why she didn't board at Wokingham rather than Reading..

And sorry for the double post.

But I need to point out as perhaps I look unsympathetic with my posts - but I feel the need to stress that I do sympathise with her - and can appreciate it's not easy for those new to an area. And despite bignosemac pointing out - I do realise not everyone has the appropriate tools to use.

End.

Ah yes, that could make sense.

BUT is it not possible that CIS and staff on the ground were not updated at that particular moment. If a staff member at RDG mistakenly directed her to a RR bus, then I imagine it's possible that the staff at Wokingham had not been updated. From what I can see on Live Departures, no FGW units had travelled toward Reading through Wokingham since the lightning strike, so maybe the WKM staff were unaware that there was a FGW unit sat on 4B at Reading waiting to go (as it did at 2320) after the line reopened.

Arriving at WKM as she did at 2300 was still half an hour before the service to Dorking called. Now I would've stayed on the station, but she chose to sit in the car park and may not have been aware (or made aware) of the FGW services that did call at WKM prior to her being collected at 0045.

I'm speculating as to reasons - in these cases it is usually a series of small errors made by all parties that contribute to the massive cock-up.

Makes me wonder where she actually went, seeing as Car Park is right next to the Platform the Gatwick train would have departed from. Unless she just went to the very back of the car park.

I'm not faulting her though - obviously confusion causes us to do things we wouldn't normally.

Despite the lack of help from the staff member at Wokingham, there are help points about, and a taxi rank outside with nice drivers from my experience who would have probably helped her.

Not forgetting the Pub right next to the station which would have been open.

The other question I ask is what happened to the other passengers? Or was she the only person on the coach..?

I ask questions so we can get the full story, not because I'm trying to defend any company.

No, that's fair comment, Ollie.

However: a young female, travelling alone, finding herself in an unfamiliar location, with her mobile phone battery flat and having run out of cash, may very well have felt disinclined to approach a taxi rank, or enter a pub?

Hopefully, bigdaz can update us on this story, in due course.

Chris.  :-X

Pub has a cash machine too..

And doorman - so shouldn't feel threatened by it, but can see why in a unfamiliar place can feel isolated.

I feel threatened when I go into certain other stations messrooms. Esp drivers accommodation!!!!!

Running out of cash can also mean nothing left in the bank. I've been potless many times on a journey home, (return ticket already bought - before you ask/assume!) particularly in my late teens/early twenties.

True - I was just pointing it out, perhaps it's useful for reference when anyone else may find themselves at Wokingham needing some money, or a pint whilst waiting for a train?

Atually that us useful since I've has many a cab from office to Wokingham diverting through town so I can get cash!

Ollie - the Wokingham staff refused to speak to her.

At Reading Station FGW staff said the coach / bus was stopping all stations to Guildford - it was the coach driver who apparently said he felt he'd working long enough that day and wasn't working beyond Wokingham. 

She was returning from Plymouth to FNN.  She had NEVER done the trip in her life before - had NEVER heard of Wokingham and therefore would NEVER have realised where services went from Wokingham.  And since the Wokingham staff wouldn't talk to her, then she could have been in Outer Mongolia for all she knew.

As for running out of cash - she thought the rail replacement was going to get her home and she wouldn't need any further money!! 

interesting one.....looks as if to me the coach company /driver failed to provide what it was contracted to do do because the driver felt he had done enough although what happened to all the other passengers

Or the driver was up to his maximum hours for the day (I am assuming that he/she hadn't just been sat about waiting for the rail system to collapse) and legally couldn't drive any more. Just because someone maybe isn't the best of communicators doesn't mean they are evil passenger haters!

It is still a failing of the coach company though if they didn't arrange a replacement coach/driver.

If you getting your cab to J&J I would suggest you go via Tesco - so not through town. Might add on a quid to taxi fare if you have a bit of a wait at cash point - last time I was there they had 2.

The cash machine in the pub is one of those last resort ones - that charges you for your own money.

Thank you everyone for all your contributions to my discussion thread.  People have given many different pieces of advice and I am sure ^&* will be better equipped to deal with any future situation such as this.

I would suggest this discussion thread has now run its course.

Bigdaz.

Thanks very much for your feedback, bigdaz.  :)

Our best wishes to your wife's colleague, and I do hope that one bad experience doesn't put her off having another go at travelling by train, sometime.

On this forum, we tend not to lock topics where it is acknowledged that a discussion has run its natural course, so I'll leave this one open.  If anyone has anything genuinely new to add, please feel free to do so: otherwise, as bigdaz suggests, we'll perhaps leave it here.

Thanks,

CfN.  ;)

Interesting,

   My partner who travels from Egham to Reading was held up by all of this. He found the staff very unhelpful. Was just told ^I don^t know what^s going on there will probably be buses^. So he ended up getting a taxi with some others and paying for it. I understand that buses/ coaches take time to sort out, but what is the TOC duty of care?!

Had a similar issue at Ascot after a broken down train- and again information was lacking and it seemed the station staff didn^t really care.

TOC had a duty of care to get you to your destination.  SO if they cannot lay on coaches / buses, then you have the right (I believe) to get a taxi and charge it to the TOC (although others on here, such as bignosemac, will be able confirm this for me).  However, I think the TOC have to order the taxi not the customer...?

National Rail Conditions of Carriage (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/system/galleries/download/misc/NRCOC.pdf) says:


Bear in mind that this clause only covers you when the disruption is caused by circumstances within the control of the rail industry. Circumstances not within the control of TOCs are futher defined in the NRCoC:

(i) Staff that cannot be bothered.
(j) Coach drivers that dont know the route, or just want to go home eariler.
(sic)