Taking The Mick!

[sheff1]

Sheff1, assisted travel still involves some poor sod having to lift the bag. If it's an unmanned station, this is the on-board train-crew. On-board train-crew are instructed not to lift heavy luggage as there is a risk of injury. You see where this is going?

Never thought about this - I do indeed see where it is going.

Is assisted travel actually available from/to unmanned stations ? My mother-in-law travels from Weymouth up to Sheffield once a year using assisted travel. With the train starting /terminating at Weymouth there is no problem with her neighbour getting her suitcase (light, but too heavy for her to lift) on & off. But what would happen if she wanted to travel from Dorchester West? The neighbour couldn't risk getting carried away by boarding the train.

At Bristol her luggage is carried for her from/to the connecting train.

 

[scotsman]

Never thought about this - I do indeed see where it is going.

Is assisted travel actually available from/to unmanned stations ? My mother-in-law travels from Weymouth up to Sheffield once a year using assisted travel. With the train starting /terminating at Weymouth there is no problem with her neighbour getting her suitcase (light, but too heavy for her to lift) on & off. But what would happen if she wanted to travel from Dorchester West? The neighbour couldn't risk getting carried away by boarding the train.

At Bristol her luggage is carried for her from/to the connecting train.

Presumably, the Conductor would be warned in advance (Assuming there'd be some sort of weight limit?)

 

[Flamingo]

Not really my patch, but the advanced notification depends on a lot of variables, provided the case(s) are within sensible limits there shouldn't be a problem, but I wasn't exaggerating when I said 30-40 kg suitcases get presented to us! (I used to tab with bergens that weight, and it's not funny trying to lift them).

 

[33056]

Getting on a busy train in Germany one day we sat opposite a little old lady with a smallish suitcase on the floor blocking the seat next to her. Somebody else came along and asked if the seat was free, the answer being something along the lines of "yes, but please can you move my case".

No problem, that will fit nicely in the luggage rack, so two of us tried to lift it but could barely get it off the floor - she must have had lead bricks or something in there hock:

In the end we managed to slide it under the seat, but goodness knows how she managed to get off the train with it or even get on for that matter!

 

[71B]

Now, I really expect better from the people who serve our Country. His conduct was an utter disgrace, and yet he has the cheek to lecture me on how he thinks I shouldn't be a Train Manager.

I've remarked to colleagues recently that the general public seem to be getting worse. They all agree!

As a serving member of the RN, you're right! Perhaps you should have offered to exchange your contact details at your TOC for his Name and Service Number (we're allowed to give this to an enemy under interrogation!) and see how belligerent he was then...

But please don't think that's the norm! I commute long distance each weekend by rail to my place of work and only recently, after trying to find a seat (unsuccessfully) on a crowded ECML service, happily got off at the next stop knowing the Leeds following close behind would be emptier.

I also don't need to ask at each station where the next train for xxx is, or when, having learned to read a timetable and a platform indicator board in my youth!!!

 

[SouthEastern-465]

When I was at Charing Cross earlier this year just as I got to the barriers I saw staff asking for a ticket from a man who had no ticket what so ever, they wasn't rude and were rather kind to him yet he gave them attitude pushed and punched one of them and jumped the barriers and got out. That was out of order, yet from what I heard he got away and it wasn't reported.

What an absolutely disgusting way to treat staff who was doing there job, but they annoying thing is, this sort of stuff goes unnoticed.

 

[Flamingo]

As a serving member of the RN, you're right! Perhaps you should have offered to exchange your contact details at your TOC for his Name and Service Number (we're allowed to give this to an enemy under interrogation!) and see how belligerent he was then...

One time I was charging up an advanced ticket (I was being nice, excessing him, and not even charging the £10, as the excess was only a few pounds and I was just making the point that if he was using it as a flexible ticket then that's the price he pays), and the chap says "It's disgraceful how the forces get treated in this country, I get shot at for people like you". I pointed out to him that as he was not in uniform or showing an MOD90 how was I supposed to know he was HMF, and finished up "... and anyway, pull your neck in sprog, I was in the army when you were in prep school." Walked away laughing