Great Western Coffee Shop

I have raised this with Customer Services before but it has now happened for a fourth time so I thought I'd flag it up here.

Each weekday there is a 10:27 to Paignton closely followed by a 10:33 to Penzance. Both call at Exeter St David's but as the first train goes via Bristol it gets to Devon 45 minutes AFTER the second one.

It's a train I have booked different relatives on on a number of occasions and being of a certain age they like human reassurance that they are on the right platform. Each time they have asked where to get the train to Dawlish or Teignmouth and been directed to the 10:33 and told to change at Exeter - even on occasions when they have shown their advance tickets for the 10:27.

As it happens on each occasion the train manager on the 10:33 has accepted their tickets but it causes needless anxiety and an unnecessary change at Exeter. They don't arrive any earlier on the coast either as the connection off the 10:33 is a XC service and they won't board it as their ticket says FGW only so they end up hanging around waiting for the original train to get to Exeter.

I can understand why they get the advice they do because for the rest of the day you would get a Plymouth or Penzance bound train and change at Exeter but not on these mid morning services.

If any Reading platform staff see this please bear it in mind.  ;)

I am reminded of an occasion when I was trying to persuade my elderly mother that it would be easier for her to use the train to go and visit her sister rather than drive.

Straightforward, until I explain that this involved a journey from East Croydon to Barrow-in-Furness, preferably without going via London.

Nowadays it's not easy : I'm being quoted East Croydon - Milton Keynes - Crewe - Lancaster - Barrow. But this was back in the days when CrossCountry meant what it said on the tin : they had a daily Brighton - Birmingham - Scotland train. So I book her onto this, with a same-platform change at Lancaster. Slow but easy.

Alas, as bobm says, she seeks for reassurance from the platform staff at East Croydon. Who put her on a Southern train to Watford Junction ("it'll be much quicker"). From where she's sent to Manchester. Not a good journey. Somewhere along the line she left her case on the train. And, not surprisingly, she never travelled by train again.

It works the other way too ... when Lisa first came to the UK, she was meeting me at Hatton ... got the train to Leamington Spa and she asked there "which train for Hatton?" and they sent her over had her wait for the Brighton train, probably because of a mixture of accent and not believing that a visor would be taking the train to Hatton.  She was well upset when, 2 hours later, she discovered that the train shuttling in and out on the other side ...

Alas, no more Brighton trains from Leamington Spa.

Had a similar one at Euston going to Liverpool LS on an Advance changing at Crewe (boarding a Manchester Piccadilly VT and changing onto London Midland for the last bit). Reason being it was substantially cheaper for little extra hassle.

The guy at the end of the barrier said "you know this doesn't go to Liverpool" having just seen the advance ticket with 2 "reservations" (well one normal reservation and one get this service but no seat one!).

Perhaps there needs to be another category for the customer assistance teams - not blind or disabled but an able-bodied-but-nervous traveller.

I need to get my step-mother from Milton Keynes to Liverpool next month. That nice Mr Branson has ensured that there's no direct trains, so she's faced with a change at Crewe. Suggestions welcomed!

Have a sit down and a pint* in the pub on the station while she waits  :)

Edit: *other more suitable beverages may be available

There is one direct Virgin service from Milton Keynes to Liverpool, although I suspect that a 0610 departure might be a little early.

Changing at Crewe is one option as you say, but there are multiple other options such as Stafford, Birmingham, Stockport, Manchester. Really depends which is least worst and whether price and journey times are factors.