Not so Great

I have the great misfortune to have to use First Great Western (what a misnomer! neither first nor great... just a miserable excuse mainly) on my daily commute to the big smoke.

Never mind that it costs me (well my company, but that's hardly the point here) £33.30 per day (or £91.00 per week depending on the demands of the week) but I have to stand on every single journey. I last had a seat in February and before that? I can't remember such is the infrequency.

Truth be told, what really smarts, as a paying customer, is the amount of passengers they insist on cramming on to the cattle trucks*. Hence I have got to know many strangers much better than either if us would have probably prefered. My favourite part of the whole experience though is the poor customer service that only ever entails apologising to those poor souls in first class who are denied the drinks trolley because the rest of us are blocking the way.

I was therefore particularly amused to read the following letter of complaint via Devil's Kitchen.


*Sorry, carriages. OK so at least the older HST trains have windows that open - yesterday I made the mistake of getting on one of those three carriage jobs in which you can't open the windows. I think I now have an insight into how dogs die in hot cars.