Great Western Coffee Shop

One Saturday afternoon last year, after walking alongside the Thames from Maidenhead, I was on a Henley train to Twyford, where I was going to change for Tilehurst.Two youths got on at Henley, one of whom put his feet up on the opposite seat, something that always annoys me. At Shiplake they belatedly realised that it was their station and jumped off - the feet-on-seat one leaving a bag behind. By the time I'd realised that, the train was on its way.

Cautiously I explored the bag's contents for ID, but found none - just a couple of bags of crisps and sweets, a £5 note, a light coat and house-keys.

At Henley I showed the bag to the driver, who said "that was very good of you" and asked me to hand it in at Reading. (Why not Twyford I don't know - I think the station is staffed on summer Saturday afternoons?)

The train I caught at Twyford was going on to Tilehurst (some services terminate at Reading, necessitating a further change). I didn't want to break my journey, and as the train approached Reading looked around for a passenger who might help. There was a young priest opposite and I said to him "You look just the sort of person who might help me". A look of horror swept across his face. "Can't you tell the guard," he asked, after I'd explained the situation and asked him to hand the bag in. "There probably isn't one on board," I replied. "Why not press the emergency  button," he said (!!!).

We'd attracted an audience of passengers about to get off at Reading, and one confirmed they'd seen the two lads get off at Wargrave. Reluctantly and gingerly, the priest took the bag.

Later, an ex-British Transport Policewoman confirmed that I'd done the right thing but I wondered ... perhaps if I'd left the bag on the train, its owner might have realised that it was shuttling back through Shiplake and have had the nous to retrieve his property.

Marlburian

Just about any member of staff should be able to take care of lost property and put it into the system, surely. Slightly surprised at you being asked to hand it in an another station but then you did your honest best without having to cause a delay to your own journey at Reading over something that was not your responsibility and concern, and which you had concluded was probably not a life-and-death or emotional type loss for someone.

With lost property, getting it back to people quickly and before it's out-of-area is far better than letting it get logged into a system which sends it to a central point - be that Bristol (GWR), Waterloo (SWR) or train termination dependent (Cross Country).   We have expert members here who know and can help with the GWR system (thank you) but the return rate is - I understand - sadly low and it can be so much better with immediate help.

Two shining examples of staff helping in recent weeks. 

A young lady, visiting Melksham for the day, left a bag on the train and realised after it had left for Westbury;  a group of us were handing out new timetable leaflets and she returned to the station a few minutes later.   As the train was coming back up and she had just enough time, she awaited the train to check.  Efficiently, the bag had been handed in at Westbury but the train manager gave her a direct contact for the staff room at Westbury, and she was able to loop via Westbury at the end of the day and pick up the bag.

Another young lady (sat opposite me) - on the last day of Virgin trains from Glasgow to London - dropped a gold chain on the train - didn't realise it was lost until the train manager did a special announcement telling us it had been found and asked whoever owned it to stop him as he walked through; young lady did so, describing the chain in such a way to clearly indicate it was hers.

Shining examples ... though all incidents in this thread show the high effort needed to get things - often of little value - back to their rightful owners.   Also the value of having a reasonable sprinkling of customer facing staff around, which takes us off into another thread ...

GWR can be termination dependant.  A few years ago we were returning from London on a S Wales train, changing at Parkway for Yatton.  My wife left her bag on the GWR train.  We had to collect it from Newport as it had been handed in at TfW station.  At least it was Newport and not Swansea.