Feeling strain on cross country train (From Bournemouth Echo)

Feeling strain on cross country train

9:00am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

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I am writing to express my contempt for the way I was treated by Virgin Cross Country Trains recently.

Having booked a ticket from Manchester to Bournemouth, I fully expected to be taken to Bournemouth.

Indeed, when I boarded the TV monitor said “destination: Bournemouth”, and the display above my seat said “Reserved Manchester Picc to Bournemouth” However, somewhere south of Birmingham the guard announced that the train’s destination was not Bournemouth, but Reading.

Later he announced that we would have to change at Reading, take a local service to Basingstoke and then catch a slow train Bournemouth.

Therefore, there were two spells of waiting for connections in freezing cold stations, and I finally arrived at my destination more than an hour late.

I sought out the guard, who told me the reason for the change: they didn’t have a driver!

I asked him what had happened to the perfectly good driver who had brought us this far.

No satisfactory explanation was forthcoming.

No wonder our over-priced, over-crowded, over-noisy and unreliable trains are a laughing stock.

David Preston, address supplied, Bournemouth