A bag left on a train - it costs £24 to get it back

[BanburyBlue]

I left a bag in Southampton Cruise terminal once (my fault) , and they wanted £80/90 to get it back to me. So the amount charged here sounds quite reasonable.

 

[KashmireHawker]

Full of excitement 2 weeks back, after hearing the England penalty shoot-out win I stupidly left my suitcase on my train (ironically down to Bristol too) when switching at Birmingham. Was simply a case of the following day calling GWR's central office and after speaking to Temple Mead's Lost Property team, they safely had it and with a friend heading to the British GP at Silverstone that weekend - we were both working/volunteering at, she picked it up with no costs attached and got it back on the Saturday evening of the weekend.

I've learnt the lesson and I'm sure the Women who's had the unfortunate cost will be much more weary next time!

 

[mrcheek]

it would mean people would have no complaint about a charge if they knew it existed in the first place!

you clearly have never dealt with the general public!

 

[Warwick]

So would them saying that they would charge you for returning your property make any differenc as to whether you accidentally left it behind? I doubt it.
The whole issue of lost property (let's call it abandoned items) has changed enormously since the '70/'80s. Way back before then, a bag/rucksack would be seen by most as a wanted possession that somebody mislaid. More recently, we have seen malicious devices disguised as lost property used to commit acts of terrorism. The majority of the travelling public might feel wary of moving it, (unless they wanted the seat to sit in) so it is left to end of line/shift staff to do something about it. Not so long ago, it meant bringing in the bomb disposal teams to make things safe. In some areas, the act of neglecting to remove possessions carried a penalty so "I genuinely forgot" is no defence.
In simple terms, leaving posessions (whether wanted or not) in modern times is an act of extreme irresponsibility and to comolain about being charged for its safe recovery is at best ungrateful, - at worst, it is antisocial.

There's a world of difference between abandoned and forgotton.

 

[Adlington]

There's a world of difference between abandoned and forgotton.

Not to the security staff....

 

[InterCity:125]

I left a bag in Southampton Cruise terminal once (my fault) , and they wanted £80/90 to get it back to me. So the amount charged here sounds quite reasonable.

I don’t know about other stations, but at Bristol temple meads (where the lost property is managed by GWR) it’s free to get lost property back.

 

[ComUtoR]

Would it have been free if she had gone to the station and collected it herself ?

 

[mark-h]

Lothian Buses charged me £5 when I left my phone on a bus. The charges enabled them to provide a quality lost property service with the items transferred to a city centre travelshop which has dedicated lost property staff who log the items and deal with customers promptly.

Due to the long distance nature of railways there is more chance that items will end up in a lost property office that is some distance from the customer. Scotrail state that they take items found on trains to Glasgow Queen Street without offering to forward them to another station/address. For a customer in Inverness the £24 courier fee would be a bargain compared with £58 off peak return and the loss of a day.

 

[Antman]

It's their own fault for leaving the bag on the train. Pointless story.

Pointless comment.

Reality is that people do forget things, why did it take two weeks?

My daughter left her phone at Bluewater shopping centre and somebody kindly handed in to security and she collected it later the same day, no charge.

 

[greyman42]

Would it have been free if she had gone to the station and collected it herself ?

Yes, it is on LNER. I could not say for certain regarding XC.

 

[Esker-pades]

Pointless comment.

Reality is that people do forget things, why did it take two weeks?

My daughter left her phone at Bluewater shopping centre and somebody kindly handed in to security and she collected it later the same day, no charge.

Trains move, unlike Bluewater Shopping Centre.

As has been discussed in this thread, the lost property was most likely only found on the return to Birmingham. As Birmingham is a big station, with a lot of lost property to handle, it would have taken roughly a day for everything to be logged etc. Then, one has to wait for the lost property request to come through. I assume it would have come originally from the person who lost the bag to CrossCountry. They would then have had to contact departments at Bristol, Birmingham and other places (Cheltenham, Manchester) to see if anyone had picked up something matching the description. This all takes time because different companies operated different stations and certain jobs (like lost property) are further sub-contracted, meaning a lot of searching has to be done to find out exactly where this bag has ended up.
Once the bag has been found, it has to be transported down and some of the costs incurred on administration and transport are billed.

What it boils down to is that the railways are far more complicated than Bluewater.

 

[farleigh]

Trains move, unlike Bluewater Shopping Centre.

As has been discussed in this thread, the lost property was most likely only found on the return to Birmingham. As Birmingham is a big station, with a lot of lost property to handle, it would have taken roughly a day for everything to be logged etc. Then, one has to wait for the lost property request to come through. I assume it would have come originally from the person who lost the bag to CrossCountry. They would then have had to contact departments at Bristol, Birmingham and other places (Cheltenham, Manchester) to see if anyone had picked up something matching the description. This all takes time because different companies operated different stations and certain jobs (like lost property) are further sub-contracted, meaning a lot of searching has to be done to find out exactly where this bag has ended up.
Once the bag has been found, it has to be transported down and some of the costs incurred on administration and transport are billed.

What it boils down to is that the railways are far more complicated than Bluewater.

Doesn't seem too complicated.
Someone lost a bag and then got it back

 

[Esker-pades]

Doesn't seem too complicated.
Someone lost a bag and then got it back

I have just spent a comment explaining why it is not as simple as that.

 

[Antman]

Trains move, unlike Bluewater Shopping Centre.

As has been discussed in this thread, the lost property was most likely only found on the return to Birmingham. As Birmingham is a big station, with a lot of lost property to handle, it would have taken roughly a day for everything to be logged etc. Then, one has to wait for the lost property request to come through. I assume it would have come originally from the person who lost the bag to CrossCountry. They would then have had to contact departments at Bristol, Birmingham and other places (Cheltenham, Manchester) to see if anyone had picked up something matching the description. This all takes time because different companies operated different stations and certain jobs (like lost property) are further sub-contracted, meaning a lot of searching has to be done to find out exactly where this bag has ended up.
Once the bag has been found, it has to be transported down and some of the costs incurred on administration and transport are billed.

What it boils down to is that the railways are far more complicated than Bluewater.

So why not lock the bag in a cupboard wherever it was found and then inform the owner who can then make their own arrangements about collecting it?

 

[Esker-pades]

So why not lock the bag in a cupboard wherever it was found and then inform the owner who can then make their own arrangements about collecting it?

1: That's what did happen. It was put in a cupboard (or the Lost Property Department at Birmingham New Street) and when he asked for it, it was looked for and found there. Eventually. As I previously explained, this takes time because of the number of locations it could have been.
2: A turn-up-and-go fare from Bristol to Birmingham is a lot of money. Even if they were to wait and book an advance service then that presents it's own problems. These are that CrossCountry advance fares are a lot higher than most TOCs and that it would have been at least a 3 hour round trip to pick up a bag.

You have to remember that thousands of people lose stuff every day. It's not just one bag, but multiple items from multiple trains.

 

[andythebrave]

I fondly recall the day that I left my wallet on a table on the Blackpool to Harwich train (remember that?) in 1987 when I got off at Peterborough.
Expecting all sorts of dire outcomes when I went to the ticket office there I was, later, most pleasantly surprised to find that it had been recovered at Ely, returned to Peterborough and was waiting for me when I returned that afternoon.
No charge. These things happen to the best of us and this story perhaps illustrates the change from a mindset of helpfulness to one of commercialism.
This is unfortunate.

 

[Esker-pades]

I fondly recall the day that I left my wallet on a table on the Blackpool to Harwich train (remember that?) in 1987 when I got off at Peterborough.
Expecting all sorts of dire outcomes when I went to the ticket office there I was, later, most pleasantly surprised to find that it had been recovered at Ely, returned to Peterborough and was waiting for me when I returned that afternoon.
No charge. These things happen to the best of us and this story perhaps illustrates the change from a mindset of helpfulness to one of commercialism.
This is unfortunate.

No! (I don't remember the Blackpool to Harwich train.)

It is mostly luck down to this kind of thing. The few times I've lost things on the railway network they have never been recovered.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I don't think £29 is a reasonable charge. For any such charge to be enforceable there has to be an agency of necessity - as clearly there is no contract in place. In such cases, only such costs as are reasonable may be incurred; sending an item of luggage to another place via an expensive means of transport is far from reasonable in my opinion.

At the very least they should have contacted the owner and asked if he wanted to pick up the bag himself or whether he would prefer to have it sent somewhere. Just randomly sending the bag to Birmingham means that, in line with the principles from ENE Kos 1 Ltd v Petroleo Brasileiro SA [2012] 2 AC 164 and Great Northern Railway Co v Swaffield (1874) LR 9 Ex 132, only such charges as are reasonably required can be recovered.

 

[Ianigsy]

I once left an umbrella worth about £10 on a train from Leeds to Birmingham - easily done when the weather in the Midlands was rather brighter than in Yorkshire.

I never pursued it as I assumed that it would be cheaper to buy a new one than follow the lost property route. Lost property charges need to be in proportion otherwise people will decline to collect items of low value, which just end up as clutter.

 

[Esker-pades]

I once left an umbrella worth about £10 on a train from Leeds to Birmingham - easily done when the weather in the Midlands was rather brighter than in Yorkshire.

I never pursued it as I assumed that it would be cheaper to buy a new one than follow the lost property route. Lost property charges need to be in proportion otherwise people will decline to collect items of low value, which just end up as clutter.

I believe the practice is to donate items not claimed within 3 months to charity.

 

[LordCreed]

I don't think £29 is a reasonable charge. For any such charge to be enforceable there has to be an agency of necessity - as clearly there is no contract in place. In such cases, only such costs as are reasonable may be incurred; sending an item of luggage to another place via an expensive means of transport is far from reasonable in my opinion.

At the very least they should have contacted the owner and asked if he wanted to pick up the bag himself or whether he would prefer to have it sent somewhere. Just randomly sending the bag to Birmingham means that, in line with the principles from ENE Kos 1 Ltd v Petroleo Brasileiro SA [2012] 2 AC 164 and Great Northern Railway Co v Swaffield (1874) LR 9 Ex 132, only such charges as are reasonably required can be recovered.

I accidentally left a case on a train last year, and Excess Baggage Company allowed me to collect the item from them with a small admin fee (which I believe was £5).

I'd expect having an item posted to me to cost considerably more, given the courier costs, the fact you'd have to wrap the parcel for transit, and the general staff and overhead costs.

 

[SussexMan]

Virtually every train I've been on since 2010 has had some form of "please remember to take all your belongings with you when leaving the train".

I think the phrase used is "please remember to take all your personal belongings with you when leaving the train". Quite what that extra word is for I haven't got a clue.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think the phrase used is "please remember to take all your personal belongings with you when leaving the train". Quite what that extra word is for I haven't got a clue.

The railway likes doing that, "station stop" is another one. OK, you could stop in the middle of nowhere, but in these days of central door locking it's hardly like someone's going to get out on the parapet of a viaduct.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I accidentally left a case on a train last year, and Excess Baggage Company allowed me to collect the item from them with a small admin fee (which I believe was £5).

I'd expect having an item posted to me to cost considerably more, given the courier costs, the fact you'd have to wrap the parcel for transit, and the general staff and overhead costs.

Even then - I would have thought the passenger would succeed in claiming back the £24 cost of sending the bag to Birmingham, given they never asked EBC to do so.

 

[Esker-pades]

Even then - I would have thought the passenger would succeed in claiming back the £24 cost of sending the bag to Birmingham, given they never asked EBC to do so.

£24 was the cost of sending it from Birmingham to Bristol. Not to Birmingham.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

£24 was the cost of sending it from Birmingham to Bristol. Not to Birmingham.

It's not clear whether the passenger asked for the bag to be sent to Bristol, and keeping it in Birmingham is counter to XC's published lost property policy.

 

[Esker-pades]

It's not clear whether the passenger asked for the bag to be sent to Bristol, and keeping it in Birmingham is counter to XC's published lost property policy.

I've not read the policy, so it would be useful if you could quote which section has been broken.

 

[185143]

I let an iPad at Heathrow Airport security and was charged £10 to pick it up the next day. It seems a fair charge, given it was my fault for leaving the thing.

Only a fiver at Southend Airport! And that was after leaving my tablet onboard the aircraft.

 

[LowLevel]

My company removed all fees for lost property some time ago as they were more trouble than they were worth - a station supervisor holding items that were claimed after their booking office had closed had no way of taking and remitting the fee anyway.

Some small items in urgent circumstances may be transported by the guard on a train at their discretion (I've carried passports and so on) - we have an app on our phones for such things to be signed for but only if it doesn't involve the item changing hands en route IE it's a direct train service. Otherwise the company will organise a courier at the customer's expense.

Excess Baggage Company fees are comparatively very steep - I suppose that's how they make their money on station rental charges.

 

[Antman]

I think the phrase used is "please remember to take all your personal belongings with you when leaving the train". Quite what that extra word is for I haven't got a clue.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to wonder that, surely the word 'personal' is superfluous?