Plymouth yesterday.
I was travelling on a Club 55 Cheltenham - Plymouth return. Broke my journey overnight in Exeter on Tues, arrived in Plymouth around 1230 on Wed. Ticket wouldn't open the barrier. Usual response from the attendant - "ticket isn't valid".
Half expecting such a situation to arise, I had printed off the Club 55 T&Cs and so handed them over. Cue much bafflement, Revenue Inspector called. Two people now reading the T&Cs. Third person (not sure of status) then arrives and joins the reading club. Inspector says "Well I didn't know anything about this, do you need to keep the copy of the T&Cs" ? Clearly I did, as without them who knows what might have happened. "OK then, do you mind if I take a photcopy ? Passengers often find out about things before we do."
Now, considering these conditions have been online since early September, and the T&Cs were exactly the same last year, it seems FGWs staff communications really do take a long time to get out to the people who need to know.
Happy to be of assistance, but should I ask for a consultancy fee ?
As a postcript, the return portion was rejected by the barrier this morning. The attendant said that they were getting so many valid tickets rejected that, when passsengers were exiting, they were keeping all the tickets in a box with a view to sending them off to the powers that be to try and get things changed - good luck with that one !
I was travelling on a Club 55 Cheltenham - Plymouth return. Broke my journey overnight in Exeter on Tues, arrived in Plymouth around 1230 on Wed. Ticket wouldn't open the barrier. Usual response from the attendant - "ticket isn't valid".
Half expecting such a situation to arise, I had printed off the Club 55 T&Cs and so handed them over. Cue much bafflement, Revenue Inspector called. Two people now reading the T&Cs. Third person (not sure of status) then arrives and joins the reading club. Inspector says "Well I didn't know anything about this, do you need to keep the copy of the T&Cs" ? Clearly I did, as without them who knows what might have happened. "OK then, do you mind if I take a photcopy ? Passengers often find out about things before we do."
Now, considering these conditions have been online since early September, and the T&Cs were exactly the same last year, it seems FGWs staff communications really do take a long time to get out to the people who need to know.
Happy to be of assistance, but should I ask for a consultancy fee ?
As a postcript, the return portion was rejected by the barrier this morning. The attendant said that they were getting so many valid tickets rejected that, when passsengers were exiting, they were keeping all the tickets in a box with a view to sending them off to the powers that be to try and get things changed - good luck with that one !