Property left on train.Station master couldnt telephone the onboard train manager.

[quarella]

If you've left critical medication or something like that on the train then by all means contact a member of staff or a police officer and it will be dealt with as a matter of urgency, I'm sure (even if you contact customer relations it will be progressed urgently I'd have said).

No passenger carries critical medication. They demand a taxi after their train has been delayed ten minutes. One passenger found it wasn't so urgent when due to a road closure there was a lengthy diversion which meant they would arrive after the time they said they MUST have their medication so I offered a taxi to the local hospital.

 

[Clip]

No passenger carries critical medication.

Id reckon that people who have to carry their insulin with them would say something a bit different

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Id reckon that people who have to carry their insulin with them would say something a bit different

Or GTN spray or other items

 

[Robsignals]

Why should rail staff spend time, and hence money, chasing round after stupid passengers - if it's so important don't leave it behind - who don't even say thank-you. Maybe it's time to start charging a realistic amount, £10?, for returning Lost Property. Anyway the sad fact is the bag or it's interesting contents may be 're-owned' before the passengers foot touches the platform.

 

[Jatos]

That is quite a substantial amount of cash to find.

I once left my wallet on a table after suddenly having to leave a train because they needed for another service to the one is originally allocated to - wallet turned up in Cambridge! I was coming from New Street....

If I remember rightly it was a late night service - a good job or I could easily been ended in problems at the barriers as if I remember rightly my ticket was in it, or was it in a ticket wallet with my rail card? Meh, it was a while back...

Anyways £10 and it was mailed back thankfully.

 

[cumfy]

The simple answer to the original question is no it is not impossible for the station staff not to know the phone number for the guard on the train concerned.

Thank you, I think that summarises it rather neatly.
Have you been reading 1984 recently ?

 

[O L Leigh]

Have you been reading 1984 recently ?

Not recently. Not ever, I'm sorry to say.

O L Leigh

 

[TUC]

Why should rail staff spend time, and hence money, chasing round after stupid passengers

Because of something basic like customer care? Passengers aren't some irritating add-on. Without them there's no other reason for the railways to exist.

 

[blacknight]

I didn't realise we had station masters anymore on the railway. Though an old clerk of mine used to love giving himself that title to passengers.

Seems a bit daft why he couldn't have called XC control - he wouldve known the number and even if he didn't his own control would have.

Maybe station staff were to busy dealing with trains & other station duties to be making futile calls to control, anyway are control interested in tracing passengers lost property? Also making 2 or 3 phones ties up station phone line so the likes of the box or control are unable to contact station regards important operational matters so sometimes customer service as be of a secondary concern.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Hmm I'm well aware of what happens now thanks. We don't and a few TOCs I know don't have even station managers except for the biggest stations - we got rid ages ago and have now got group or area managers.

People left in booking office or dispatch staff are just that.

The person in charge of the station who manages the interface of passengers & trains= you don't need title on badge to do actual job.

 

[BestWestern]

...Maybe it's time to start charging a realistic amount, £10?, for returning Lost Property...

Most TOCs already do so I believe.

I must agree with others here that it is always a bit of a nightmare when somebody calls you and asks you to go hunting for somebody's lost items. Suitcases aren't quite so bad, but when you get a request to go searching for a wallet or similar, on a busy train and with only the vaguest details of where the person was sitting, I always sigh. I will only ever do the most cursory of searches, usually putting out a PA to ask if anybody has found anything and leaving it at that; I most certainly will not go through a train asking everybody to leave their seats whilst I crawl around on the floor.

Neither do I agree with the idea that if you find something you should make a personal effort to contact the owner. That is not my job, my responsibility or quite frankly my business. I don't know who the owner is, what they were doing on my train, and I don't particularly want a phone conversation with somebody's unsuspecting wife when they leave something behind on their way home from a dirty weekend with their secretary! Lost property offices are there to deal with reuniting items with forgetful owners, I'm just here to hand it in.

 

[Flamingo]

Regarding medication, I was leaving a station a while ago, when platform staff shouted in at me that a handbag was still on the platform. I announced on the PA, but nobody approached me. About 15 minutes later, when I was checking tickets, the mother of a family of four who'se tickets I was checking said "That was my bag, how do I get it back?". I rang the station, who said they would keep it, but the pax would need to travel back from the next station (about 15 minutes) to get it. The woman then says "Can you not send it on to our hotel, we're going to London for four days and it has my Chemotherapy drugs and credit cards in it." I explained that we couldn't do that, but I was more than happy to endorse their tickets so they could go back, and travel on the next train. The husband at this point goes off on a rant about poor customer service and how essential the handbag was, (keep in mind they were all sitting unconcerned until I approached them), and their eventual ecision was that rather than going back, they would get the bag four days later on the way back! So much for "urgent medication'

 

[wintonian]

Regarding medication, I was leaving a station a while ago, when platform staff shouted in at me that a handbag was still on the platform. I announced on the PA, but nobody approached me. About 15 minutes later, when I was checking tickets, the mother of a family of four who'se tickets I was checking said "That was my bag, how do I get it back?". I rang the station, who said they would keep it, but the pax would need to travel back from the next station (about 15 minutes) to get it. The woman then says "Can you not send it on to our hotel, we're going to London for four days and it has my Chemotherapy drugs and credit cards in it." I explained that we couldn't do that, but I was more than happy to endorse their tickets so they could go back, and travel on the next train. The husband at this point goes off on a rant about poor customer service and how essential the handbag was, (keep in mind they were all sitting unconcerned until I approached them), and their eventual ecision was that rather than going back, they would get the bag four days later on the way back! So much for "urgent medication'

Perhaps you should have reversed the train and gone back to pick it up and offered compensation for the delay incurred - I doubt the other passengers on this or on the trains behind would mind.

[/sarcasm]

 

[Flamingo]

I think that was what they wanted.

Another one that sticks in mymind was a mobile, that was handed to me. I rang the "Home" number, to get a woman who wanted me to drop it around to her house in Neath, "It's only a few minutes from the station, it won't take you long".

Again, she was not impressed at being told I was giving it into lost property at Swansea.

 

[wintonian]

I think that was what they wanted.

Another one that sticks in mymind was a mobile, that was handed to me. I rang the "Home" number, to get a woman who wanted me to drop it around to her house in Neath, "It's only a few minutes from the station, it won't take you long".

Again, she was not impressed at being told I was giving it into lost property at Swansea.

You should of asked her what brand of coffee she likes.

 

[Flamingo]

You should of asked her what brand of coffee she likes.

Read it again more carefully - Neath

 

[quarella]

Id reckon that people who have to carry their insulin with them would say something a bit different

You don't appear to have read the rest of my post. My view is based on working at a station and in a number of TOC controls. I am sure most carry their medication, myself included however a passenger in desperate need of medication, usually insulin often comes out of the woodwork during service disruption, especially if rail replacement coaches are involved and whilst dealing with that individual everyone else is further delayed

 

[sheff1]

Why should rail staff spend time, and hence money, chasing round after stupid passengers - if it's so important don't leave it behind -

If you have never left anything behind anywhere you are in a very small minority. Congratulations.

Glad you think I am stupid, fortunately the Virgin staff at Manchester were far more professional and located my bag on the terminating train and had it ready for me when I doubled back from the airport.

 

[maniacmartin]

The Manual details a complex tariff for fees for returning and collecting lost property, based on what the property consists of. Do any TOCs actually charge this?

 

[Clip]

You don't appear to have read the rest of my post. My view is based on working at a station and in a number of TOC controls. I am sure most carry their medication, myself included however a passenger in desperate need of medication, usually insulin often comes out of the woodwork during service disruption, especially if rail replacement coaches are involved and whilst dealing with that individual everyone else is further delayed

I read your post quite well thankyou. After your first statement of claiming no passenger carries critical medication(which is still wrong) the rest was just waffle.
This was about people leaving property on a train.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

No passenger carries critical medication.

I beg to differ.

 

[ukrob]

Why should rail staff spend time, and hence money, chasing round after stupid

I assume you don't work in a customer facing role, Mr Perfect?

 

[Robsignals]

Because of something basic like customer care? Passengers aren't some irritating add-on. Without them there's no other reason for the railways to exist.

The vast majority of passengers manage to keep their belongings with them, if the number leaving items was much higher staff would do nothing but chase after property and wouldn't give any customer service to other passengers.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

If you have never left anything behind anywhere you are in a very small minority. Congratulations.

Glad you think I am stupid, fortunately the Virgin staff at Manchester were far more professional and located my bag on the terminating train and had it ready for me when I doubled back from the airport.

If I leave something I accept it's due to my stupidity and don't expect staff to drop everything to find it. I think 'stupid' is a fair and non insulting term, if items are important then focus on checking you have them all before leaving the seat.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I assume you don't work in a customer facing role, Mr Perfect?

No, I don't have the patience to put up with all the stupidity and insults I'd be subjected to. Thanks for the compliment!

 

[cumfy]

Thanks for your replies.
I'm somewhat curious about the security implications.

What is the procedure when staff or passengers identify large, heavy items abandoned intentionally or otherwise on trains ?

 

[Crossover]

A friend left their holdall bag on a cross-country train destined for Birmingham last night. Rang this morning and it's still not been handed in.

Apparently the station master couldnt telephone the onboard train manager as the station and train were run by different companies.
Is that plausible ?

As others have said, it is plausible. I had the misfortune of leaving a case I had with me on an ATW 175 (heading to the farthest reaches of Wales...of all the trains I could have left it on! :roll leaving at Crewe.

The best Crewe could do was call Shrewsbury to ask them to have a look when it arrived. They didn't, so I ended up going to Shrewsbury in the hope they may be able to talk to more people given it was all ATW territory. They spoke to the next stop, Hereford, and got it off and sent it on the next northbound, which I met to head back to Crewe.

As for why Shrewsbury didn't get it, they said they hadn't had time. I, however, think the reason was that Crewe gave Shrewsbury the headcode for the service 2 hours before (which I only realised after the initial reporting and looking it up on OTT), so they probably just ignored it!

I know I dread the phone-calls "Hello mate, somebody left a black suitcase on the train, they can't remember where they were sitting, the might have left it on a luggage rack, chuck it out at the next Stop, will you? Cheers!"

I think I may have had an advantage on that one. I can still remember, I had left it on the front left rack in the direction of travel, in the front coach leaving Crewe (I wasn't sure if there were any reversals at that point), on the top shelf. Even down to the colour and brand (though "Antler" was totally lost on the people at Crewe!)

If needed, I could have given them the unit number as well, but it didn't come down to it

Thanks for your replies.
I'm somewhat curious about the security implications.

What is the procedure when staff or passengers identify large, heavy items abandoned intentionally or otherwise on trains ?

I wasn't sure what to think that my bag had gone from Crewe to Hereford without anyone batting an eyelid it would seem! There again, I wasn't complaining

 

[blacknight]

I wasn't sure what to think that my bag had gone from Crewe to Hereford without anyone batting an eyelid it would seem! There again, I wasn't complaining

You left your case in correct place on luggage rack no one else would give it a second thought-regardless of brand, as theres no baggage label to indicate case should have come off at Crewe.
Biggest problem with recovering item of luggage is right case is taken off by staff or you end up with 2 passengers separated from their luggage.

 

[TUC]

The vast majority of passengers manage to keep their belongings with them, if the number leaving items was much higher staff would do nothing but chase after property and wouldn't give any customer service to other passengers.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Its the customers who have a problem who are most in need of good customer service

If I leave something I accept it's due to my stupidity and don't expect staff to drop everything to find it. I think 'stupid' is a fair and non insulting term, if items are important then focus on checking you have them all before leaving the seat.

Have you never gone through the experience of travelling with everal small children, trying to look after them and multiple bags, changing mats and toys when you get off a train? Keeping track of everything is not as easy as you seem to think.

 

[lincolnshire]

Items left on trains.
It always makes me laugh that these days, why does a lot of passengers have the habit of having all there mobile phones, I.Pods etc and wallets etc on the table in front of them, then they have to start gathering them up when they have to get off and no wonder they leave items behind. In my case wallets with money and credit acrds etc are best in me pocket where I know where it is and not out on display for all to see.
Luggage on trains is another one where I always keep an eye on it while travelling especially when people get on and off at intermediate stations, I like to make sure my case doesn,t get off with someone else.

 

[maniacmartin]

I will put some of my items on the table if someone is going to be sitting next to me, as its hard to get some things out of my pocket should I need them without elbowing the person next to me!

 

[Flamingo]

I have had a passenger insisting that someone had taken their case and left the wrong case behind. After much screaming, and comments about bloody railway and jobsworth guards who wouldn't let him keep it on the seat with him (it was a busy train), we opened the "other" bag to see if there was any ID in it, for the man to say in a very quiet voice "You know, I believe this is my bag after all"...

 

[Greenback]

I once left my camera on a train in Switzerland.I realised what I had done within a few minutes of alighting the service at Lucerne. I was pretty gutted, not because it was a good camera, or expensive, but because I had lost all the phots of my holiday to that point. I was annoyed, but only at myself for managing to leave it behind, and I ha dno expectations at all that it would be recovered, or that staff should go to any trouble to look for it for me.

However, I was delighted to find on enquiring at the lost property office, that the item had already been handed in there. I would have bene happy to pay a fee for its return, but there wasn't one. And this is really how it should work. Items found on board should be handed to train staff who should then follow the company's advertised procedure by handing it in to the nearest lost property office.

I don't think it's reasonable or realistic to expect that staff will be able to search for, arrange a search, or go and return items as a matter of course.