Thrown off a GWR train for asking a question?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Somerset County Gazette

TELEVISION presenter Mariella Frostrup claims she was booted off a train en route to Taunton - simply for requesting information from a member of staff.

Ms Frostrup is now threatening legal action against Great Western Rail for the incident on the Paddington to Taunton train last Saturday (July 1).

She says she simply asked an employee why the train was not making a scheduled stop at Castle Cary.

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.

[ChrisB]

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

[John R]

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.

[patch38]

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.

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.

[LiskeardRich]

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?

[ChrisB]

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

[JayMac]

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?

Wonder if the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) employee decided she was being rude/threatening/aggressive when merely being assertive. It happens.

[grahame]

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.

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.

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^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s door:

Geripp4 hrs ago
Omg that's awful I hope she sues their arses

[patch38]

The story has made it to the Daily Mail - 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 on the train told The Daily Mail: ‘She was having a stand up row. We couldn’t believe who it was at first. She caused a huge scene.’

[JayMac]

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

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

[LiskeardRich]

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

[patch38]

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...

[1st fan]

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.

[a-driver]

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?

[Tim]

Wonder if the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) employee decided she was being rude/threatening/aggressive when merely being assertive. It happens.

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.