Lost item on a train

On the 1334 Reading-Gatwick train I bought a ticket.

Alighting at Guildford, I realised I had left railcard on the train, or maybe dropped it. I asked could I go back on the train to collect it, to be told no, speak to the station staff.

Station staff tell me nothing to do with them, they are Southwest Trains, I need to speak to First Great Western who operate the Reading-Gatwick train. They give me a number and I call First Great Western. Difficult to understand what she is telling me. She says I need to talk to Southern Trains, as they operate Gatwick which is the terminating station for the journey. And no, the driver cannot be contacted and the railcard dropped off as train passes back through Guildford, and if railcard is handed in at originating station, which is Reading, it will end up at Bristol.

Southern are equally unhelpful. Railcard would go to Victoria, but this would take up to six days.

My phone then runs out of credit. Both companies operate premium rate 0845 numbers, both have waffle to listen to, not content to rip passengers off with expensive rail fairs, they rip them off again on their phone charges.

I now find I am unable to get off the station because I have no ticket. No way am I going to pay again. Station manager is called. He lets me off the station, but says I will not be able to get back on a train as I have no ticket.

Later, one little bit of good news, I find I do have my tickets, but no railcard.

If anyone has any sense, they will see, if railcard is recovered, my name. All they have do do is look me up on their own records, and post me the railcard, but that would be far far to easy.

12:34 Reading-Gatwick Guildford toilet stop

Reading-Gatwick train toilet stop at Guildford

Reading-Gatwick train was forced to stop several minutes at Guildford Station for a toilet break due to non-functioning toilets on the train.

First Great Western who run these trains are a disgrace. The toilets on the trains are dirty, no water, often out of action.

First Great Western lost the franchise to run the West Coast mainline. It is time they lost the Reading-Gatwick route.

Travel and leisure employees most likely to tell lies

Employees in the travel and leisure sector are more likely than any other to lie, according to HR experts.

Almost 30% of HR people working in the travel and tourism sector said they believed they were told more than 10 lies a week.

This places travel and leisure ahead of banking, media and construction as the most deceitful sector, according to a poll by People Management magazine.

According to the survey, 92% of HR professionals in all sectors believe they are lied to every week, and a third say the number of lies they hear is increasing.

Some businesses are using polygraphs to screen staff for drink and drug problems or criminal convictions, or in cases of fraud.

Other lies detected were the employee who claimed to have ‘caught’ Gulf War Syndrome or the accountant who passed his professional exams aged 14.

Robert Jeffery, editor of People Management, says: “We don’t know the exact factors why workers in the travel and leisure sector might be so willing to lie, or whether these HR professionals’ perceptions match reality.

“But if lying is taking place on such a widespread scale, it has a detrimental knock-on effect on all sorts of areas – from employee engagement and levels of trust in the organisation to rates of fraud.”

Published in Travel Mole.

It is difficult to know which are the biggest liars, the criminal banks or the tour companies. Has anyone met a Thomson rep who is not both bone idle and a liar?

My most recent experience was in booking a flight.

Dates and times which were suitable to me were chosen, the flight booked (actually part of a package, included hotel too). A couple of weeks before I was due to fly, the return leg was changed, not by half an hour or an hour, but several hours, the return flight was changed from a day flight to a night flight, no offer of compensation, even though night flights are cheaper, I would be greatly inconvenienced, be unable to get home and forced to spend the night at Gatwick Airport until I could catch a train in the morning.

The letter notifying me had some nonsense that the flights were only a rough guide and they reserved the right to change. This ignores the fact that we have legislation outlawing unreasonable clauses in contracts.

Having checked what flights were available, I decided I had two options. Either add three days onto the end of my holiday, or shift my holiday by three days.

I left it to my travel agent to resolve, with me sitting at her side.

No way, said Thomson, could three days be added to the end of the holiday. No explanation was given as to why.

Holidays tailored for you says the Thomson website, junk e-mail, TV ads and paperwork.

Ok, shift holiday by three days. No flights, was the response. Check your own website!

The Thomson website at the time showed four flights.

It will take five working days. Book a holiday, and it is instant. Try and change, and it takes five working days.

Whilst at the travel agent, the hotel was checked for accommodation, No problem.

Five working days pass, no response from Thomson. A week passes. No response. They are phoned. They are phoned several times over the morning, no response. Finally, late afternoon, a response from liars at Thomson, no can do, no accommodation at hotel.

Again checked with hotel. No problem with accommodation.

A few days before due to fly, having checked situation with hotel, try again. Same response from Thomson, except this time they embellish the lie, their area manager had gone to the hotel in person and checked, there is no accommodation available.

On arrival at the hotel, I again check the situation. They tell me yes accommodation and it would have been no problem to have changed my stay. Had area manager checked? No area manager had checked, not even the rep had checked.

I decided to take it up with the rep, and ask to see the area manager. Except I never see a Thomson rep, others ask me have I seen the rep as they have not seen a rep either.

On my last day, I am in another hotel and spot a Thomson rep. I ask would she please either using her mobile connect me through to the area manager or please give me his or her number. She refuses.

On my way home, I decide to try at the airport, only I find closed.

At my hotel, at least one person had the same problem of flight changed at short notice and was none too pleased.

At the airport whilst checking in, I ask others were they aware of the flight change? They say yes, they knew when they booked. Thinking must be last minute booking. They say no, had booked some months ago,

On my flight back, with an additional hour delay, I talk to my travelling companion. For her it was a sore subject. No way would she have booked this flight had she known it was going to be a night flight. Unlike myself, she had been given no notice of the change of flight times. The first she knew was when she arrived at the airport to find she had several hours wait for a flight that had been changed from a day flight to a night flight.

Austerity Continues: Privatization of Greece’s Rail Underway

Greek government made the announcement on Monday as it fulfills the troika-imposed bailout conditions.

Metro Acropolis Station

The privatization of Greece’s rail system is set to begin in June, the Greek government announced on Monday, as it continues to mete out the austerity including privatizations the troika imposed as a requisite for receiving bailout funds.

Writing “Greece on the Auction Block,” the International Business Times explains that the Hellenic Railways Organization, referred to by its Greek acronym OSE,

owns and maintains the country’s rail infrastructure except for the Athens rapid transit lines. It consists of about 500 freight and passenger routes on 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) of railways. [...]

Greece initially unveiled plans in 2011 to privatize €15 billion ($19.3 billion) worth of state-owned assets by the end of this year and €50 billion by 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal. [...]

The country lowered its privatization goal to €19 billion by 2015, and then lowered it again in December to €11 billion by 2016. Last year it raised only €1.7 billion in the sale of state-owned assets.

Agence France-Presse adds that the Greece must raise 2.6 billion euros through asset sales this year.

“The privatization of Trainose is now on track,” Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis said in a statement.

“The procedure will begin in June…and in a short space of time we will have a very different landscape in Greek railways,” Hatzidakis added.

The austerity measures have been widely denounced by Greeks, prompting national strikes and protests.

– – Andrea Germanos, staff writer Common Dreams

Originally published by Common Dreams.

I have not used the Greek railways, but on a recent trip to Athens, I did use their Metro, and it was impressive.

It is not a question public money good or bad, it is what it is spent on, is it well spent, not creamed off.

Assuming it was public money that went into the Metro (I was told it was), then it was money well spent.

In the street, outside the Temple of Zeus on a main thoroughfare, I saw frequent buses, trams, bendy-buses and trolley buses.

I used the Metro a couple of times within Athens, two stops, for a little over a euro. This was a minimum fare and I could have gone further than two stops.

To the airport it was 8 euros. For comparison, a bus from the airport was five euros.

What we are seeing is the usual IMF imposed fire sale of national assets at knock down prices.

Germans are complaining: Why are we helping these lazy people and they are not even grateful.

You are not helping Greek people (or Cyprus people). German banks lent money. In doing so they took a risk. They are now expecting you the German people to bail them out.

Greeks should say no to the fire sale of their railways. Interesting it was shoved through whilst eyes are on Cyprus.

Greece and Cyprus should leave the euro. It has been a disaster for both countries.

Two Unsuspecting Guys Take The New Renault Clio For A Test Drive

A quite clever car commercial.

Nightmare of Heathrow Terminal 5

Flight Athens to Heathrow uneventful, apart from a strong head wind little bumpy. The food was very good, better than on the streets of Athens.

Was of the plane within minutes of arrival, into the nightmare of Heathrow Terminal 5.

— to be continued —

Trip on the Metro

Metro Acropolis Station

A trip, two stops with a change.

Started at Acropolis Station, very surprised to find statues, the exist station also had bit of Ancient Greece.

It is not a question public money good or bad, it is what it is spent on, is it well spent, not creamed off.

Assuming it was public money that went into the Metro (I was told it was), then it was money well spent.

The cost for two stops was a little over a euro. This was a minimum fare and I could have gone further than two stops.

Very clean, very impressive.

Breakfast at Wetherspoons

tea and fresh-squeezed orange juice

English breakfast

Food at Wetherspoons is not good. Opening at 5am, and serving until noon, breakfast at Wetherspoons in the Gatwick South Terminal is the notable exception, a full English breakfast, in my case, complimented with fresh-squeezed orange juice and tea. The tea was pretty awful.

Bed for the night

bed for the night

Thanks to Thomson changing a day time flight to a night time flight, stranded at Gatwick overnight.

Wandered from terminal to terminal, North Terminal to South Terminal on the shuttle, then back again.

Gatwick is a disgrace, its one redeeming feature that it is nowhere as bad as Heathrow.

Very few seats, I thought there would be more in the South Terminal, but no, more in the North. This one of the busiest airports in the world. I do not know what is the current ranking, but it used to be No 3.

A wooden bench the bed for the night. People laid out on the seats, on the floor, the flotsam and jetsam of international travel washed up for the night.

At least it was quiet, you could hear every little noise. By 3-30am it started to get noisy.

Few trains run from Gatwick at night, London Bridge, Victoria, Bedford(?).

Wetherspoons opened at 5am. Breakfast!

Long train journey

A very long train journey.

Friday evening is not a an evening I would pick by choice to travel to London as many people visiting London for the weekend, and so it proved to be, only it was far worse than I expected.

I had to catch a connecting train Lincoln to Newark to pick up a train to London Kings Coss on the East Coast Main Line. Could not move at Lincoln Station for people and their luggage. Long queue to buy a ticket.

On the train standing room only. But bloody ridiculous, a train of only one carriage, for which we pay extortionate rail fares.

The train to London running late due to signalling problem somewhere around Stevenage, or between Stevenage and London, but not too long to wait.

Platform very crowded, lots waiting for London train. A very long freight train goes through, travelling at a surprisingly high speed.

Everyone piles onto the train. I luckily manage to grab a seat. Even luckier a seat next to an attractive chemistry student from York University. She is reading an autobiography by Guy Gibson. She had given up reading her notes on mathematics for chemistry.

I pop to the buffet and get a tea. Annoyed to find they are still selling Starbucks coffee.

Train grinds to a halt. The freight train has broken down between Newark and Grantham. Freight train moves, we move, freight train breaks down again, we stop. Eventually we get going again. Now running about 50 minutes late.

I suggest to my new found friend a cluster of sites she may wish to visit in Lincolnshire. Petwood, former Officer’s mess for the Dambusters, with a bar as it was, and a many old paintings. Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre run by the Panton Brothers where they have one of the few surviving Lancaster bombers, the Bell Inn and Thorpe Camp. Not part of this cluster, I also suggest the Dambusters Inn at Scampton and the village church which has a number of graves from RAF Scampton.

As the train is pulling in to Kings Cross, a very unusual announcement. We are told as the train is 50 minutes late, were are entitled to compensation of half of our rail fare and to have our tickets and papers ready and we would be handed forms to claim compensation. A little before there was an announcement if an hour late, can claim full rail fare. It was like flying, I almost expected an announcement have your passports and visas ready.

This is all very new to me, and it seems to everyone else on the train.

As I walk along the platform, I ask one of the train crew, where do I get this form and is it for the journey to Kings Cross or the entire journey. He directs me to an Information Centre.

I see no one handing out compensation forms. I go to the Information centre. They give me a claim form and tell me, yes, we should have been met off the train with claim forms.

Getting through Kings Cross is a nightmare. What was the front entrance is blocked off. What was the outside, is now covered over. No Idea how to find the entrance to the Underground.

I ask a police officer. She directs me behind some shops. Why no signs?

I ask her where she is from? She is from Portugal. Do I have a problem? No. Just surprised we are employing foreigners as police officers. I ask her to name a well known writer in Portuguese. She does not know. Paulo Coelho? Yes, she does know.

When I arrived at Kings Cross, up the escalator and straight into the station (or would have been if there were signs). This time, I walk miles.

Travelling on the Tube, not very busy, most seemd dressed for night out.

Anther train from Waterloo.

Finally reach destination station a little after 11pm.

A long journey. From door to door, a little after 5-30pm to 11-15pm.

Synchronicity: The following day I spent a cold afternoon in Farnham. Walking into the Oxfam Bookshop, as I walked in the door, on display Dambusters, a book on the Dambusters raid. Not only that, as I walked further into the shop, a DVD and a book on display on the Lancaster, the heavy bomber used in the raid.