Mrs Doctor and I leave a very enjoyable family wedding reception early to be sure of catching the 2227 train from London to Bath.
We arrived at Paddington at 2215: it's CANCELLED. Whaaaattt! No reasons on the illuminated board.
Let's see if some of the uniformed servants can tell us why:
... at the ticket barrier - "no idea";
to some Police officers - "We don't know but it wouldn't surprise us with this lot";
to the bloke at the 'information' desk - "No idea - it's probably due to staff shortages - you know, diagrams...."
Well, that's the best we got.
So we waited over an hour for the last train of the day (notice they don't cancel that one, as it costs a fortune in taxi fares). Once again in this Age of Information, the Senior Conductor had no idea why the previous 'service' had been cancelled, but also guessed it was to do with the staff shortages. The other fascinating fact about this last train is that it was re-routed via Oxford, so it was well after 2 in the morning when we pulled into Bath - an hour later than the normal schedule, and two hours later than we had planned.
The inevitable conclusion is that this is an Operator who knows it is well worth knocking off a few trains in order to reduce 'customer' expectations - and it is much more profitable to knock off the next-to-last than the last train.
I'm used to getting replies from this outfit's complaints department telling me that they're not obliged to give compensation - as if I'm desperate for their vouchers. All I want is a service that I can respect and rely on. But I am writing, and if I get a reply, I'll post it here.
Fingers crossed.
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