_garbo_
Member
I have done my tour of crap towns using an EMR 7 Day Rover ticket so I thought I would share the experience as a newly disabled user venturing out for the first time
So, the first step was to buy the tickets, which can only be bought at a ticket office, so I drove to the ticket office the day before travelling started, only to find they had closed the office for the day for reasons unknown. It did say it would be open again the following day, so I hoped for the best and assumed there would be no problems buying it on the day.
Buying the ticket was fine, the chap seemed to be in training, but issued the tickets, apologised that they weren't cards, but gave me a wallet and folded them to fit with the QR codes on show and off we went.
The first train was a few minutes late and it then got stuck behind a slow train so we missed our connection meaning we missed our connection and had to wait an hour in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, there were decent toilets and a kiosk.
The first time we exited a station required the use of the ticket gates, and the tickets didn't work, so we queued up at the end where the staff were, who weren't really particularly pleasant, telling me to unfold the tickets, then telling me that they weren't valid, refusing to listen to me when I was trying to explain what the ticket was, then another staff member walked over glanced at them and started a conversation with her, so we just walked through and away we went. Of course, they didn't work when we returned through the station, but we just strolled through the gate at the end, the staff not checking us at all.
This repeated at the next stop, so we asked why they don't work, and I was told that its because the barriers are old, they also didn't bother looking at the tickets. This was the general pattern for all barriers so we started just going straight to the staff who mostly just ignored us, but some would tell me to scan them on the glass, for them not to work, and then just be waved through anyway, always without anyone looking at the tickets.
At Lincoln, the same happened but when we returned the staff member asked me to scan, and I said they wont work, and she said had i tried it today, and i hadn't, then it was a bit strange, she scanned her pass, told me to scan mine and it worked, so I asked why it worked today but not yesterday and while having this conversation, someone else appeared, snatched my tickets and started an argument with me, refusing to actually listen to what I was saying and just shouted well it worked today, so I asked why it didn't work yesterday and she just shouted the same thing at me. She didn't actually check the ticket, but once I had them back she shouted at me to get on my train and swore at me! I took umbrage to this so couldn't resist asking why she thought it was ok to swear at me and she just said we hear it all the time. Anyway, she did stop shouting at me at this point.
We got coffee and waited for our train while she was watching, then she got on our train had a word with the train manager, no idea what but it was then the first and only time I was asked to show my railcard, tickets scrutinised, all of which were in order.
So, in summary, the staff at the barriers were at best indifferent but mostly pretty rude. I can't work out what they are doing when they seem to be stood in groups of about four, not checking tickets. Platform staff were always helpful, and even to the point that it felt like going back in time making sure I knew what to do etc. The train managers were also always helpful. Their assistance was always polite and I never felt rushed.
I found the stations variable in their salubrity, and even the smallest that we used had warm waiting rooms (why do they always have that weird smell?) All had lifts and all had disabled toilets which were clean and usable. I suspect this is because they were all RADAR locked.
Milton Keynes station I thought was particularly good, loved the architecture and it felt very natural to circulate through. Coventry was pretty good too although the town centre was not somewhere to visit. Lincoln was hard work, and I mean to circulate through. Tamworth felt unsafe, I certainly wouldn't want to be alone in the dark there.
We only caught a couple of trains that were on time, one was 63 minutes late due to a lineside fire and this made it hard to use the national rail app. We weren't being time sensitive but I imagine if you were using it for work, you would be late regularly.
The trains themselves were all ok, the cross country intercity trains were the worst, the newer regional ones were the best and all had toilets, pretty grim, but any port in a storm and all that.
I actually couldn't work out what train class we were on, some were very long, must have been 12 carriages and a few only had two carriages but we always got seated.
My biggest fears have been quashed, and they were probably based on a few horrific journeys in years gone by, squashed up in a corridor for 90 minutes to Birmingham and back, some terrible Nottingham experiences and even worse in Sheffield.
I would definitely do it again, and £203 for a weeks travel for two people is a bargain but it was hard work, I am now exhausted, mulling over the few hilariously rude passengers I met.
I would love to know about how the barriers don't work, except for Saturday at Lincoln
So, the first step was to buy the tickets, which can only be bought at a ticket office, so I drove to the ticket office the day before travelling started, only to find they had closed the office for the day for reasons unknown. It did say it would be open again the following day, so I hoped for the best and assumed there would be no problems buying it on the day.
Buying the ticket was fine, the chap seemed to be in training, but issued the tickets, apologised that they weren't cards, but gave me a wallet and folded them to fit with the QR codes on show and off we went.
The first train was a few minutes late and it then got stuck behind a slow train so we missed our connection meaning we missed our connection and had to wait an hour in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, there were decent toilets and a kiosk.
The first time we exited a station required the use of the ticket gates, and the tickets didn't work, so we queued up at the end where the staff were, who weren't really particularly pleasant, telling me to unfold the tickets, then telling me that they weren't valid, refusing to listen to me when I was trying to explain what the ticket was, then another staff member walked over glanced at them and started a conversation with her, so we just walked through and away we went. Of course, they didn't work when we returned through the station, but we just strolled through the gate at the end, the staff not checking us at all.
This repeated at the next stop, so we asked why they don't work, and I was told that its because the barriers are old, they also didn't bother looking at the tickets. This was the general pattern for all barriers so we started just going straight to the staff who mostly just ignored us, but some would tell me to scan them on the glass, for them not to work, and then just be waved through anyway, always without anyone looking at the tickets.
At Lincoln, the same happened but when we returned the staff member asked me to scan, and I said they wont work, and she said had i tried it today, and i hadn't, then it was a bit strange, she scanned her pass, told me to scan mine and it worked, so I asked why it worked today but not yesterday and while having this conversation, someone else appeared, snatched my tickets and started an argument with me, refusing to actually listen to what I was saying and just shouted well it worked today, so I asked why it didn't work yesterday and she just shouted the same thing at me. She didn't actually check the ticket, but once I had them back she shouted at me to get on my train and swore at me! I took umbrage to this so couldn't resist asking why she thought it was ok to swear at me and she just said we hear it all the time. Anyway, she did stop shouting at me at this point.
We got coffee and waited for our train while she was watching, then she got on our train had a word with the train manager, no idea what but it was then the first and only time I was asked to show my railcard, tickets scrutinised, all of which were in order.
So, in summary, the staff at the barriers were at best indifferent but mostly pretty rude. I can't work out what they are doing when they seem to be stood in groups of about four, not checking tickets. Platform staff were always helpful, and even to the point that it felt like going back in time making sure I knew what to do etc. The train managers were also always helpful. Their assistance was always polite and I never felt rushed.
I found the stations variable in their salubrity, and even the smallest that we used had warm waiting rooms (why do they always have that weird smell?) All had lifts and all had disabled toilets which were clean and usable. I suspect this is because they were all RADAR locked.
Milton Keynes station I thought was particularly good, loved the architecture and it felt very natural to circulate through. Coventry was pretty good too although the town centre was not somewhere to visit. Lincoln was hard work, and I mean to circulate through. Tamworth felt unsafe, I certainly wouldn't want to be alone in the dark there.
We only caught a couple of trains that were on time, one was 63 minutes late due to a lineside fire and this made it hard to use the national rail app. We weren't being time sensitive but I imagine if you were using it for work, you would be late regularly.
The trains themselves were all ok, the cross country intercity trains were the worst, the newer regional ones were the best and all had toilets, pretty grim, but any port in a storm and all that.
I actually couldn't work out what train class we were on, some were very long, must have been 12 carriages and a few only had two carriages but we always got seated.
My biggest fears have been quashed, and they were probably based on a few horrific journeys in years gone by, squashed up in a corridor for 90 minutes to Birmingham and back, some terrible Nottingham experiences and even worse in Sheffield.
I would definitely do it again, and £203 for a weeks travel for two people is a bargain but it was hard work, I am now exhausted, mulling over the few hilariously rude passengers I met.
I would love to know about how the barriers don't work, except for Saturday at Lincoln
