Dysfunctional South West Trains and Stagecoach buses

SWT cattle truck

It was touch and go, if I would make the Reading-Guildford train if I walked to the station and caught the train, therefore I decided to catch a bus to Aldershot (problematic as bus service unreliable at the best of times) and catch the Aldershot-Guildford cattle truck. I managed with a few minutes to spare, only to find no train, half an hour wait for next train.

Ticket office asked did I want a single to Guildford. I said no, a return on a rail card.

I thought maybe catch the bus, even though I had paid for the train. I asked the bus driver what time bus arrived in Guildford. His dumb reply: When it gets there. As it was a clapped-out double decker bus and not a very pleasant journey, I decided to wait for the next clapped-out cattle truck.

First carriage I tried, freezing cold, no heating. Next carriage, all the windows open. Third carriage heating, about as effective as a candle.

One of the features of these clapped out filthy cattle trucks, is when they wait several minutes at Aldershot, they do so with all the doors open.

On arrival at Guildford I find I had been sold the wrong ticket, a single not a return, even though I had explicitly stated I wanted a return.

More hassle sorting that out.

I queued at the ticket office, to be told, no I could not change it to a return, it was my fault and the ticket had been used.

I demanded the station manger. Clerk in ticket office refused to get the station manager. I went looking.

No manager, no acting manger, but I did find a helpful supervisor. She said ticked office was in the wrong, wrote out a note, which she said use in lieu of ticket and apologised for how I had been treated.

On return to Aldershot, ten minutes wait for bus at seven o’clock, only no bus. Twenty minutes wait in the cold for the next bus.

Local buses and South West Trains run and owned by Stagecoach.

Richard Branson and Stagecoach have just been handed the lucrative East Coast Mainline.

Tags: Aldershot, buses, Dysfunctional South West Trains, Guildford, Guildford-Aldershot-Ascot line, public transport, South West Trains, Stagecoach buses, trains, transport