Last Tuesday - 23rd January - First Group's Great Western franchise excelled itself in placing revenue protection above Service Delivery.
OUTWARD journey - my new 'IET' train (short for INEPT) arrived at Bath Spa around 30 minutes late due to 'train late leaving depot'. Evidently early morning departures are beasts to manage.
RETURN journey - at 4.40 pm I find myself shuffling out of Bath Spa's gateline ticket machines - I feed my ticket into the machine as one should - it fails to open. A character called 'Adam' in GWR regalia accosts me outside the station after first letting me through and accuses me, in public, of not having put a ticket into the machine. He's watched by a pigtailed teddy-bear faced colleague who clearly put him up to this.
"Are you accusing me, Adam?"
"No - but I'd like you to step back inside"
"I'm not going to do that. So what are you going to do?"
"I'll be looking at you next time you come through"
Thanks, Adam, for the courtesy. Yours might not be in the most rewarding job in the world, but that's no excuse for taking it out on me and making a poor experience of the First Group on this day even poorer.
Shameful.
