Great Western Coffee Shop

Please don't laugh, this is a genuine request for information.

I am orgainising an event in Swindon next week, and amongst the many international visitors attending is an American lady who has already proved to be a little, shall we say, demanding.

She's intending to arrive in Swindon by train, and would like me to confirm that there will be sufficient porters there to meet her off the train and convey her and her "large amount" of luggage to a nearby taxi.

Quite frankly I'm hoping she'll cancel as she's already causing everyone headaches (demanding the the air conditioning in the b&b she's booked into be scrubbed before she arrives caused a wry smile for a start - air con? I'm not sure such refinements have reached Swindon yet!), but I want to be able to politely explain, hopefully backed with some regulations, my theory that there haven't been porters on British station platforms for at least 40 years now.

I assume Train Despatch Managers aren't allowed to carry luggage out of the station to a waiting taxi?

In fact, is there anyone around to help people with heavy luggage these days, or do health and safety regulations prevent it?

No - staff can't these days.

But look at this video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vLA7Q-pPQhQ&feature=related

How long ago was it? They carried luggage then!

London Paddington has porters. But when I went through Swindon the other day there was no-one I could see who would be able to do it.
Suggest she book assistance?

Thanks, Ollie. Is it even possible to book assistance?

Yes, assistance can be booked by phoning up First Great Western. Phone customer services on 08457 000 125.

Great! Thanks!

Yes, thanks, Ollie and Tom!

Hopefully, if Phil's particular request has now been answered, may I now pose a related general question?

Has anyone else noticed that the size and weight of a suitcase is usually in inverse proportion to the size and weight of the little old lady using it?

Seriously, I've been astonished at BTM sometimes to see some dear little old ladies struggling with HUGE suitcases.  Hence my gallant offers of help - with mixed results: 


Do these dear little old ladies perhaps remember rail travel in their younger days and they just assume there will be a porter to carry their case?  And then they just struggle with it themselves, when they aren't approached by 'Mr Porter' as soon as they enter the station?

Is there perhaps an opportunity here for FGW to be more 'customer-centric' and have staff available who can look out for such situations - and simply produce a trolley for the suitcase - without such a service having to be booked in advance?

I have said this before, wheeled suitcases should be banned if you cannot comfortable lift them yourself.

It is ridiculous the number of people dropped off by taxi, who wheel their suitcase into the station and then struggle to carry them upstairs, or on escalators. Then to carry them onto trains, just to block the vestibule or gangway.

I fear the art of packing light has disappeared from society!

fgw do ask station staff to look out for customers having problems with luggage and to help them whenever possible and to do it with a smile ;D

But for dispatch staff, there job is dispatching trains, not in some booked assitance cases where you get asked to practically bottle feed them!

Sorry Jim, I disagree, my great uncle who has a heart problem and finds it very hard to walk in hot or polluted places. When he travelled from Southall-Camborne last year for the first time he needed help getting around Paddington, he could lift his suitcase fine but just couldn't get around easily. After getting off the stopper from Southall it took him 20 minutes to get to the Assitance office. When he got there he got in a trolley and he got took straight onto the train to Camborne. If it was not for the assistance he wouldn't have made it, and he doesn't have a physical disability.

Hows this for a bit of nostalgia I can remember when you could send your luggage in advance of your holiday to have it delivered to you holiday destination. and when the holiday were over have it sent back home all done by good old BR, That was usably from Birmingham to Weymouth By Br Western Region and they had trains that went direct in the Holiday season. That was from the Midlands Now I'm showing my age.

That was still possible in 1980 when I started at University. It was ridiculously cheap (a couple of pounds) to have a big trunk sent from Cardiff to Soton so long as you had a train ticket. So cheap in fact that the service lost a lot of money and was stopped a couple of years later.

This thread includes one or two posts rather critical of old ladies lack of "travelling light" skills. I guess that most of the population travels heavy these days - they just bung it all in the car.

When the railway is sagging under the weight of peak time commuters, and resorts to absurdly cheap fares at other times in an attempt to fill its trains then perhaps its time to look at why rail is so profoundly unattractive for many journey purposes and to do something about it.

Sorry Conner, and any others didn't mean to upset you there.

I must just point out, that this is not the attitude that i share to all booked assistance, there is just 1 or 2 who I personally think are very fussey when it comes to it.  And yes it's good to serve with a smile, however at a station such as Westbury, there just doesn't seem to be enough staff to do everything, so there, and at some other stations, if your not served with a smile, that could be why.