Lost property - a bit of a hot potato?

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

As we cover the railway network throughout the South West on this forum, we unfortunately have to accept that not everything in the system is perfect.

Here is an example: "The consumer magazine Which? has said staff at a number of London train stations are failing to return passengers' lost property." (BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page))  This story has also been picked up by the Daily Mail and the Metro, among others.

There are of course two sides to every story, and such headline-grabbing articles in the press do not necessarily include all of the details.  For example, who is to say that the cash in the planted 'lost' wallets was not removed by a third party, before the lost property was actually handed in to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff?  On the other hand, the stories do show the need for anyone handling 'lost property' to be very careful with their record keeping.  That may be the main lesson to be learned from this investigation. 

For the video report from the BBC, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7687717.stm

For the Daily Mail story, see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079814/Lost-property-Only-items-returned-station-staff-pocket-rest-says-consumer-watchdog.html?ITO=1490

For the Metro story, see http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Say_goodbye_to_rail_lost_property&in_article_id=368577&in_page_id=34

[Ollie]

Time for a blog posting me thinks..

http://www.iworkforfgw.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=141

[Super Guard]

I had a host of views when I saw the original report, but I think Ollies blog has covered them all.  I'll add that all money gets paid in at our ticket office, and the necessary paperwork is stamped and then sent to the Bristol LPO with the wallet/purse etc.

It bothers me that anyone would think taking a ^20 note or any lost property would seriously be worth risking your career over.  It may go on somewhere, but I am sure not as much as the media will hype it 

Although if this story makes people more careful about taking their belongings with, and as a result we then don't have to deal with as much lost property, then bravo to the media!  (Tongue in cheek obviously.)

[Btline]

Which: Tell us something we don't know!

You never get property back from the Birmingham office. Luckily, I have always managed to get it off the train (by phoning another station or a friend on the train) before it reaches the central office. Unfortunately friends of mine (who did not get it off) have never seen their things since.

And now, "Which" reveal breaking news that some London stations don't return all property!!!!

And I wish the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) would use the British term "rail(way)" station, not the American "train" station.

[John R]

Which: Tell us something we don't know!

I'm sure the general public don't appreciate this, and it will have come as a surprise to them. So if Which? has highlighted something which results in action being taken to improve matters then they will have done the public a service. Remember when Heathrow was Thiefrow because of light fingered baggage handlers. Unless I'm mistaken things appear to have been reasonably cleared up there, becasue management took action to identify the culprits. They only did that because of bad publicity.