Great Western Coffee Shop

An investigation is under way after musicians were told to buy ^107 train tickets for cellos they had placed in seats on a First Great Western service (link below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6588209.stm

The musicians who boarded the train in Plymouth on Sunday refused , saying the ^50,000 cellos were too valuable to be left in the guard's bulk item carriage.

The ticket inspector called the police but did not ask the group to pay again.

The eight musicians said the cellos were too valuable to be left unattended on their journey to London.

When the police were called , one musician said she would give up her seat for her cello.

First Great Western said: "This group did not make prior arrangements with us for their large and valuable items, therefore the train manager was entirely correct to charge for seats being used.

"Our conditions of carriage clearly refer to size and weight of luggage allowed in the carriage."

Good on him, seats are for backsides, not luggage. If I have had a bad day, I will go up to someone and ask them to shift there goodies if I want a seat!

I believe (I was told this by the Guard who worked that train) that a complaint was put in about the shambolic way in which the British Transport Police dealt with that situation, there were several by-law offences involved and they refused to back up the guard, who, quite rightly refused to move the train. Seat's are for fare paying passengers NOT for luggage.

Thats so typical, these days!