^119 + ^15 taxi 

Surely we can do better than that?

OK

I said I would give you guys another try after the Northallerton fiasco. Also we didn't get much luck with the Lincoln trip, so can we try this one?

I have got to be in Newton le Willows by 12.15 on the 7th of January. Looking on the map, the nearest main station seems to be St Helens. Newton le Willows looks to be a ^15 taxi fare from there. According to multimap it is 196 miles each way. So by my reckoning It will cost me about ^40 in diesel.

I have plenty of time to pre-book so hopefully one of you gents can find me a ticket that will tease me out of my car?

Regards
Nick

It was OK. I had a fairly good run!

I have got to go to Newton le Willows on January 7th. When I have a confimed time I may well come back to you gents and see if you fancy trying to find me a train. Usual conditions apply, namely price and convenient times!

Nick

So all I can say is Nick don't hold your Breath waiting for a reply.
[/quote]

I'm not holding my breath! I have a feeling that just maybe, this case is just a little to embarrassing to even reply to?

Nick

I was thinking about contacting them again. But maybe I ought to leave it just to see how long it takes for FGW to come back to us to address the complaint.

I don't think I deserve any special or priority treatment above anyone else. If FGW think the bad media coverage should push it further up the priority list that should be up to them. I fear that it's been 20+ days already.

I can tell you that I left work at 6pm on Friday and we hadn't had a reply up to then.

Just as an aside. Does FGW really care about customer complaints? The only reason I mention this. Is if I don't like the sevices or prices in Tesco, I can choose to shop at ASDA. However if I don't like the prices or service at my local railway station, who do I go to?

This may be a very simplistic view but it is the way I see it.

Nick

Looks like it's the car then? Believe it or not, I hate driving. But like lawyers and accounts, cars are still an evil necessary.

Because in this instance I had time to plan (which is unusual). I was really looking forward to eating some humble pie and being proved wrong.

I know that you are really keen to get people like me onto the trains, and I do applauad that. But by just looking at this one particular trip to Lincoln, I hope you are able to start to understand why for people like me, using trains is a problem regarding cost and convenience.

Thanks very much for your efforts though!

Nick

I have a meeting in Portishead all day, so going up on Monday is not an option.

It's looking like the car at the moment unless anyone can come up with a suggestion?

Nick

^269 

That doesn't seem like good value to me!

Anyone else?

I could also go from Westbury if thats makes the search easier!

OK Guys

Here is a challenge for you!

I said I would never travel on a train in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) again after the last fiasco. Well I have got to do a presentation for the Lincolnshire police on Tuesday (9th Dec) I need to be there by 9.30am and need to leave Lincoln at approx 15.00. I am intending to drive. HOWEVER, if one of you can find me a reasonably priced train from Bath to Lincoln Central I will take it!

I would look myself but I reckon you guys with your connections will probably get me a better deal!

Good luck
Nick

Thats interesting. They have a backlog of complaints do they? Uhmmmmm.

If we do receive a response from FGW^▸ (First Great Western), I will post their reply.

Nick

Ollie

My requirements for travel that day were made very very clear. Bath Spa to Northallerton! Standard return! Arrive by 12.30! Cheapest!

Also I believe FGW^▸ (First Great Western) refusal to reply to three emails speaks volumes.

Hey, I'm over it now. I have learnt my lesson and I will move on. I will probably keep my eye on this forum though. As I said earlier it's an education!

Nick

Thank you all for your courteous replies

I have to say the past couple of weeks have been a real education me, and the more posts I read the more angry I get. I thought they hung Dick Turpin but it appears he^s alive and kicking, and has changed his name to FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

To find out that I was lied too by not one, but two members of First Great Western is a bitter pill to swallow! I insisted on four or five occasions to both members of FGW staff that there must be a cheaper alternative. And on every occasion both members of staff said that to get to Northallerton by 12:30, I would have to go via London! I am struggling to believe that two members of FGW made the same mistake by accident? I am of the opinion that FGW need to seriously look at the way in which they train there staff!

I believe that Industry Insider has knocked the nail on the head. I am an average punter, and I don^t much care for politics. All I want to do is get from A to B as cheaply as possible. Whether that is by car, bus, train, plane or horse and cart.

I think you have to make comparisons to Europe, because if you don^t you will never know how you are performing or how you can improve. As an average member of the public I cannot understand how I can walk into a station in Holland and by a rail ticket for a 18 euro^s and travel 120 miles. It is so simple and so easy. We should hold our heads in shame if we cannot offer a similar service in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

To answer your question Btline. I did enjoy travelling by train, it was relaxing and I was able to get some work done. However, if I am to be encouraged to use the train again, I need the flexibility to turn up on the day and pay a reasonable fare. I don^t mind paying a little extra for arriving on the day BUT, it has to be proportionate.

Who is too blame? FGW, National Express, the government. I don^t know. But until someone in authority gets a grip of the situation, rail travel for people like myself, will have to be used as a very last resort.

On pure financial grounds I^m not a convert yet. Maybe one day, who knows?

Thanks again for your comments

Nick

Following an email from a couple of friends regarding comments on this forum I thought I should sign up and try to clarify the situation.

Just for the record, I am the individual who paid ^327 for the ticket to Northallerton. I felt the need to try to try and redress the balance, as there was a little more to this story than was reported.

I should firstly tell you that my job does require a great deal of travelling, all of which is usually done by car. However on the 10th November at 8.30pm I received a call from the North Yorks Police requesting my assistance. I needed to be in Northallerton by 12.30 the next day. I went upstairs and packed my bags for the trip, and at 9.30 called my boss to ask if I could, on this occasion take a train as I had only just got back home after driving all the way back from Holyhead in North Wales. He approved the trip, and by this time it was 10.30. All I wanted to do by now was get my head down for some shut eye.

I got up at 4.30 the next day and made my way to Bath station hoping to get an early train out, I arrived at the station at 5.30 and asked the ticket attendant for a standard day return to Northallerton. When he informed me that it would cost ^327 I thought it must he must have made a mistake. He rechecked the price with a colleague and confirmed that that was the correct price. I informed him that I needed to be in Northalleton by 12.30 at the latest, and I asked for some cheaper alternative trains. I was informed by the ticket attendant that the only way that I could get to my destination by 12.30, was to take the London train, as neither the off peak train via London or the Bristol train which involved 4 changes could not get me there on time.

My situation by now is as follows. I am stuck at Bath Spa railway station with no computer or any other means of checking that the information that the ticket attendant is giving me is correct. Having committed to helping the police and not wanting to let them down I was faced with no alternative, other than to pay this ridiculous fare. I didn^t want too, but I had no choice!

I would also like to say that I did not go to the press. When I took my expenses into the office the next day, I had to explain why I had spent so much on a train ticket. In disgust, it was our company secretary who forwarded the tickets to the Bath Chronicle, not me! She did this because First Great Western refused to reply to our emails justifying the price of the tickets. I later received a call from the press asking it they could send a reporter to photograph me and the tickets.

After it was published in the newspaper. I then received a call from Points West News asking me if I had heard that First Great Western had put there prices up a further 6%, and would I mind telling them my story as it was appropriate following the price increase. I agreed, but as you can imagine it was heavily edited and it left out certain facts like ^did I try to get a cheaper fare?^.

So to answer some of the criticism

Relex109, You are probably a decent person normally, but to describe someone that you don^t even know as ^Dumb^ or ^Stupid^ seems a little harsh! Of course I wouldn^t buy a tv without comparing prices, but then again I wouldn^t normally put myself in a position where I had only 15 minutes to decide which tv buy. As I have said, in this particular case I had no choice! 

Phil. You talk about learning a lesson. Well guess what? I have. And that lesson is to use the car. My job rarely affords me the time to book tickets in advance because most of my work is at very short notice, so I guess the for me the train in not a practical solution.

Dog Box. I didn^t want to go via London! The ticket office told me I had no choice if I needed to be in Northallerton by 12.30. Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong? I had no way to check at the time so I had to trust the man behind the ticket counter. You also commented on the trip being a round 700 miles because I went via London, as I said I wasn^t my choice. There wasn^t an alternative for that time of the day!

Vacman. Last Tuesday I was in Amsterdam and finished my work earlier than expected. I went to Schiphol airport to get a flight to Bristol. I booked it at the airport and it cost me ^79! Whilst I am on the subject of Holland. I went from Rotterdam to Amsterdam also last Tuesday. I paid for my train ticket on the day at the station and I was charged 18 euros! That trip took 1 hour 40 minutes and was approximately 120 miles. That was also at peak time! I think it puts UK^▸ (United Kingdom) rail fares into perspective.

John R. Your absolutely right you don^t have to be an expert to ask if there is anything cheaper! I did ask, and there wasn^t. Maybe I should have called at 10.30 the night before, but should I really have been charged ^327 for not calling 7 hours earlier? I don^t think so.

Finally, its all very well working out how much the real cost of a car is when you take into account tax, MOT, insurance etc. But if you own a car anyway you are paying these costs whether your car is in the garage or on the road so surely you may as well drive?

As you have probably guessed, I am not a rail user. In fact I probably haven^t used a train in the UK for 10 years or more until last week. Judging by the amount of posts that you guys make you all seem keen rail users, and you obviously know your way around the system very well. Unfortunately I didn^t, but should I ever need the train again which is looking very unlikely I would but much more careful.

However, to get back to the real issue. Surely there can be nobody on this forum who can genuinely put their hand on their heart and say that ^327 for a standard return ticket to Northallerton is good value for money? Irrelevant whether or not you buy the ticket on the day! For this reason alone I don^t regret agreeing to going public about this matter. Even if some people think I was dumb or stupid. Who knows, if my story goes some way to bringing about a more fair and logical approach to rail fares, then it may just have been worth it.

It was not my intention to court controversy, but as an ordinary member of the public if I am to be teased out of my car there has to be an incentive. But from where I am standing I am struggling to find one at the moment. If I am to use trains for business I need to be able to go to a station at short notice, buy a ticket and jump on the train. Just as I do in Holland.

Do the forum members ever think I will be in a position to do this in the UK in the future?

Thank you for your time, and I hope you can now understand how I came to be in this bizarre situation.

Nick