Ok here i am writing this before the school run. I've had very little sleep as i stayed up way past my bedtime reading an old thread on this site that i somehow stumbled upon last night. I have never used this site before and it was while completing a completely different search that i found this....
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60937.
When i did get to sleep, i dreamt about being on the train again, as i have many times, trying to find the conductor to reason with her. So here i am, up bright and early wide awake ready to tell you all the full facts. I know a lot of you will think perhaps there's no point after all this time. After all - it's over two years ago now!! Bit crazy-obsessive! But things stick with me, thats just the kind of person i am, and there was never any resolution to this situation at the time. For ages it consumed me -the complaints procedure, the appeals process, passenger focus not being able to help, the blatent lies told by FTPE staff, and then months later as a final cathartic rant - the facebook posts.
As you may have gathered i'm the 'mother' that got kicked off. Silly female in her mid 20's, sleep deprived mum of a two year old (at the time) and stupid enough to leave her railcard at home!! Yeah, i know
pretty dense eh? Yet there has always been something about my situation that screamed LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE! Some parts of the story/truth seem too far-fetched to be the truth. I'm not a liar though - actually i'm one of the most honest people you can meet. Perhaps this is why i have not been able to let go of this for so long, as i've always been a firm believer that the truth will out. In my case it did not. So all i'm going to do now is list the facts, from the top.....
I've held a railcard for years, i use it regularly. I pre-booked my tickets online to save money as i always do. £7.50 with railcard £8.20 without. I opted for railcard as it saved me 70 pence. Looking back i should not have - i didn't need it really, i didn't need a ticket for my son it was just cheaper to use the railcard. Please be aware that i was very skint at the time. Very, very skint.
After the weekend at my mothers i boarded train with my son, (not at night, as some have said - this is a mistake as it was around 3pm)
When the conductor came round i realised i had not got my railcard, so i appologised and started to panic. The conductor asked me to pay the difference. I got my bank card out to pay then realised there was only a few pounds left in my account as i'd bought something earlier in the day. I apologised and asked if i could leave my details and pay later as i had no money at all on me.
The conductor said no, i had to leave at the next stop. I then started to think about my partner meeting me at my destination and not being able to contact him or anyone else as my phone battery ran dead over the weekend.
I started crying, and panicking and begged the conductor to let me stay on the train. I said my partner was meeting me and would have money on him to pay. I said i had no way of contacting anyone, or no money.
In no way was i abusive. At one point the conductor did ask me to stop shouting, saying she was just doing her job. All i was shouting/crying was please, please!! Nothing abusive or offensive - just desperate.
As soon as the doors opened she asked if i would like her to take my bags, to which i said no, please let me stay on. She then took my bags and put them on the platfom, leaving myself and pushchair + child on the train, and my bags on the platform. With precious little time to make a decision i got off the train and knocked on the drivers window, pleading with him to help. He could not.
The station i was detrained at was unmanned - something that should not have happened as it is against FTPE policy. The only phone was a phonecard one that i could not use.
For a while my partner was panicking wondering where we were, as he'd rang my mother who said i went to the station. Then they were both panicking and trying to ring me to find out what had happened. It was not until i found a stranger in the village that i was able to borrow some change to use the phone and put their minds at rest.
To those of you already thinking 'rules are rules, no special treatment deserved etc' well i say fair enough! However a lot of lies were told in this case, in fact policy was not followed - and that's why the staff had to lie. I received substandard treatment in this case. I got treated worse than i was meant to be treated. In the same situation, with a different conductor, anybody else would have been allowed to stay on the train. (man, woman, dog, whoever)
I will continue with the shambolic complaints procedure this afternoon when i get back from work.........
ps.thanks for reading - i don't hope to achieve anything other than give those of you that were interested in the case at the time, my side of the story. Thats all.