Please don't laugh, this is a genuine request for information.

I am orgainising an event in Swindon next week, and amongst the many international visitors attending is an American lady who has already proved to be a little, shall we say, demanding.

She's intending to arrive in Swindon by train, and would like me to confirm that there will be sufficient porters there to meet her off the train and convey her and her "large amount" of luggage to a nearby taxi.

Quite frankly I'm hoping she'll cancel as she's already causing everyone headaches (demanding the the air conditioning in the b&b she's booked into be scrubbed before she arrives caused a wry smile for a start - air con? I'm not sure such refinements have reached Swindon yet!), but I want to be able to politely explain, hopefully backed with some regulations, my theory that there haven't been porters on British station platforms for at least 40 years now.

I assume Train Despatch Managers aren't allowed to carry luggage out of the station to a waiting taxi?

In fact, is there anyone around to help people with heavy luggage these days, or do health and safety regulations prevent it?

London Paddington has porters. But when I went through Swindon the other day there was no-one I could see who would be able to do it.
Suggest she book assistance?

Yes, assistance can be booked by phoning up First Great Western. Phone customer services on 08457 000 125.

Yes, thanks, Ollie and Tom!

Hopefully, if Phil's particular request has now been answered, may I now pose a related general question?

Has anyone else noticed that the size and weight of a suitcase is usually in inverse proportion to the size and weight of the little old lady using it?

Seriously, I've been astonished at BTM sometimes to see some dear little old ladies struggling with HUGE suitcases.  Hence my gallant offers of help - with mixed results: 


Do these dear little old ladies perhaps remember rail travel in their younger days and they just assume there will be a porter to carry their case?  And then they just struggle with it themselves, when they aren't approached by 'Mr Porter' as soon as they enter the station?

Is there perhaps an opportunity here for FGW to be more 'customer-centric' and have staff available who can look out for such situations - and simply produce a trolley for the suitcase - without such a service having to be booked in advance?

fgw do ask station staff to look out for customers having problems with luggage and to help them whenever possible and to do it with a smile

Sorry Jim, I disagree, my great uncle who has a heart problem and finds it very hard to walk in hot or polluted places. When he travelled from Southall-Camborne last year for the first time he needed help getting around Paddington, he could lift his suitcase fine but just couldn't get around easily. After getting off the stopper from Southall it took him 20 minutes to get to the Assitance office. When he got there he got in a trolley and he got took straight onto the train to Camborne. If it was not for the assistance he wouldn't have made it, and he doesn't have a physical disability.

That was still possible in 1980 when I started at University. It was ridiculously cheap (a couple of pounds) to have a big trunk sent from Cardiff to Soton so long as you had a train ticket. So cheap in fact that the service lost a lot of money and was stopped a couple of years later.

Sorry Conner, and any others didn't mean to upset you there.

I must just point out, that this is not the attitude that i share to all booked assistance, there is just 1 or 2 who I personally think are very fussey when it comes to it.  And yes it's good to serve with a smile, however at a station such as Westbury, there just doesn't seem to be enough staff to do everything, so there, and at some other stations, if your not served with a smile, that could be why.