We hear a lot about our railway infrastructure and how it's basically Victorian but I hadn't realised that the train companies are basically Victorian ... until yesterday.
For reasons too complicated to get into, my daughter was stranded in Nottinghamshire with no bank card and no money. If she'd wanted to get a flight back from Europe, I could have bought a ticket and sent it to her phone - no problem but that's not possible with Ye Olde Railway Companye, nor could I buy one over the phone for her to pick up.
I had to go to Brighton station, queue at the ticket office, buy a ticket and then get the booking clerk to send a fax to the station. But to do that, he has to ring the station and ask for a fax number (a directory or a website with every station's fax number and internal phone is clearly beyond the imagination of the rail companies). There was no answer so he had to ring LNER's customer services, get an internal number off them, call it, get the fax number and then ring through to confirm it had been received). This whole process took exactly an hour.
If my daughter had been stranded in London, it could literally have been quicker (and a lot cheaper) for me to hop on a train and buy a ticket myself. I'm only amazed that they didn't use carrier pigeons.
After commuting for so long, I'm not shocked by the incompetence of the rail companies but this sort of administration is a sign that there's very, very wrong in the way they're run.
For reasons too complicated to get into, my daughter was stranded in Nottinghamshire with no bank card and no money. If she'd wanted to get a flight back from Europe, I could have bought a ticket and sent it to her phone - no problem but that's not possible with Ye Olde Railway Companye, nor could I buy one over the phone for her to pick up.
I had to go to Brighton station, queue at the ticket office, buy a ticket and then get the booking clerk to send a fax to the station. But to do that, he has to ring the station and ask for a fax number (a directory or a website with every station's fax number and internal phone is clearly beyond the imagination of the rail companies). There was no answer so he had to ring LNER's customer services, get an internal number off them, call it, get the fax number and then ring through to confirm it had been received). This whole process took exactly an hour.
If my daughter had been stranded in London, it could literally have been quicker (and a lot cheaper) for me to hop on a train and buy a ticket myself. I'm only amazed that they didn't use carrier pigeons.
After commuting for so long, I'm not shocked by the incompetence of the rail companies but this sort of administration is a sign that there's very, very wrong in the way they're run.