Great Western Coffee Shop

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7160445.stm
A hospital doctor is stranded at his parents' house in Devon, after finding out the train service he has a ticket for does not exist.
Pamela Thompson, from Tuckenhay, bought return tickets for her son and his partner over the phone in November.

The couple were due to return to London on the 2002 GMT service from Totnes, but discovered it was not running.

First Great Western has not commented, but National Rail Enquiries confirmed there were no trains until Thursday.

"I'm extremely angry," Mrs Thompson told BBC News.

   
 They've taken the money out of my account, 
Pamela Thompson
"My son is a hospital doctor and has to be back as there are always a shortage of doctors around the holidays.

"I bought these tickets in good faith. They've taken the money out of my account, but they haven't notified me that the train's not running now.

"It's spoilt our Boxing Day."

She said First Great Western was not answering any phone calls, while the family has been struggling to find a means of getting the couple back to London.

"I want compensation and I want to speak to someone at First Great Western," she said.

Most likely Network Rail or The Train Line.

Trains haven't run on Boxing day for years?

Those of us who are regular rail travellers know this ... but it's actually not all that obvious to people who are not regular users; after all, the sales are in full swind, there's a full program of soccer matches and just like a Sunday afternoon everyone's wanting to travel to get back home ready to start w**k again tomorrow!

Hmmm.... would I entrust my health to a hospital doctor who needs to get his mother to buy his train tickets. 

I saw that CrossCountry were running Boxing Day, so they could have still taken the train- by going from Totnes to Birmingham New st and then down to Euston. Or maybe not!

Whoever sold her the tickets should issue a refund for giving false information.

CrossCountry were not running, Live Departure Boards showed as running as the trains hadn't been taken off the system.

Fair play to the train manager the next day, though: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7161767.stm

Once again this is a classic case of bad PR for FGW even though it wasn't their fault. Even when they didnt run any trains they still found themselves in the press.

Maybe - but the article did say it was "bought from First Great Western".

So maybe FGW could attack the article on the basis that it was bought from the trainline or something similar?

If it WAS bought from first great western then they need to hold their hands up!

...every ticket online/phone goes through the national rail database.the same one every toc see's iirc.

So its technicaly national rail's fault.

Have to say I'm a bit old fashioned

I buy mine at the station or on the train!

Mainly because none of the stations I start from (Kiddie, ludlow, WOS) have the nice pick up advance purchase machines

Find it much easier to call in at ludlow station and make my purchase when I do my shopping (supermarket is opposite).

My season ticket I renew at WOS the night before it runs out!

"I buy mine at the station" ... Ah, yes, I remember doing that at Nailsea, in a previous life!  Nailsea is advertised as a manned station: it is not.  The last time there was a human being in our ticket office in the morning at Nailsea was 22 October 2007: I jotted it down, sad person that I am, as it was so unusual.

The alternative method of buying tickets to Bristol Temple Meads at Nailsea is a machine on platform 2: for the benefit of those unfamiliar with our local station, this is a bleak, windswept platform, where any overnight rain unfailingly renders the machine 'Out of Order'.  Even the belated addition of a cover for the machine has not alleviated the problem - it is still 'out of order' more often than not.  Yes, there is also a machine down on the litter strewn approach to platform 1 - which suffers the same soggy fate.

I therefore often have to resort to buying my ticket on the train, or at Bristol Temple Meads if the on-train staff are unable to work their way through the train due to overcrowding.

I think the whole issue of ticket purchasing - whether at stations, on board trains or over the internet (back to the original story in this discussion!) needs to be addressed.  Most passengers are prepared to pay for their journey - but the current system often makes it unnecessarily difficult for them to do so!

They need to do what FGW did at Cam & Dursley after the ticket machine got ram raided. Were they put in a "permit to travel" machine, were you simply push a button and you can get on a train, and even if you dont manage to get a ticket on the train, you can get one the other end, no questions asked.

Thanks, Shazz!

To be fair, I've never had any problems with on-train staff or the ticket barrier staff at BTM - they all just shrug cheerfully and sell me a ticket, on the basis, "Oh, well, if you're from Nailsea, we know there's a problem there ... !"

What the hell is the point of one of them!

Sorry - dont understand why pushing a button and getting on a train makes it ok but getting on without is seemingly not ok

A "permit to travel" is a ticket saying you got on this train, at this time.

As it's far to expensive, and to long to repair all the damage that was done (something in the region of 30k).and an estimated 4 month fix. So until then to make sure passengers dont get penalized, this was given. It basically is there for incase the guard doesnt get round to letting you purchase a ticket, you can do one at the station you get off at. Without having to pay a penalty fare.

The idea of this type of machine is to show "intent" to buy a ticket, for e.g. if you pick up a permit and you are travelling from Cam & Dursley to Cardiff for example, the guard might not get to you before Bristol Parkway, so you change trains and you don't have time to go to the ticket office then you get on the Cardiff train, give your permit to the guard and then he/she knows that you have travelled from an unmanned station, and can sell you the cheapest availiable fare, if you hadn't picked up a permit then when you get on at Bristol Parkway the TM could say "well you boarded at a manned station" (Bristol Parkway) and charge the full fare, OK you could probably explain to him/her where you had come from but the permit instantly prevents any mis understanding. Hope this explains it clearer   ;)

It just seems that bad press seems to follow FGW around all the time. It so easily could have happened to another rail company. This even appeared in yesterday's Daily Mail so even more bad press for a company whose's PR stock is at an all time low.

Real people actually read the Daily Mail these days?  :P

Yes they do thank you Shazz  :)

Now that depends on the TOC, Gatwick Express used to Run Boxing Day, not sure about these days,
and I have a feelig that GEX ran Buses on Christmas Day.