LETTERS
BR care
Sir: I am pleased that Wendy Cope (Tele- vision, 28 October) should go outside her brief and comment on British Rail and their present advertising. The divergence between how they regard themselves and how they are is so wide as to be sinister.
Last week we travelled on the 13.30 from Edinburgh to King's Cross. I mention in passing that the man in the ticket office laughed at our referring to the timetable, as trains at the weekend never match their avertised times, 'Engineering works, in- nit?' He referred to his own almanac. In the event even that was wrong, as we were diverted through March, Ely and Cambridge in carriages of such squalor that BR's advertisement appears like some glimpse of a hopelessly idealised future.
At Newcastle we were joined by a man on crutches, who appeared to be partially paralysed. He asked the guard (or Senior Conductor as they are now called) if he could check that there would be a wheel- chair to meet him at King's Cross. The guard disclaimed all responsibility and said he should have sorted that out from Newcastle. He said that he had attempted to, but doubted whether the employee he spoke to understood. The guard shook his head and wandered off. He did reappear after Doncaster and said that he had passed on the message to staff there and they would in turn contact Kings Cross.
Predictably when we eventually arrived at King's Cross there was no wheelchair to meet him. I ran down the platform and found a man with 'Customer Care' embla- zoned on his cap, shunting a wheelchair piled with a lady's luggage. I told him about the man in our carriage. 'I'm dealing with this lady, then I've got another. Tell him I'll be back. I'm the only one here.'
I ran back and found the man strugging along the platform on his crutches. As we made painfully slow progress along the platform I asked him if he had to travel much. He said that he did as he was a barrister. Did he always have this prob- lem? 'Yes, nine times out of ten the wheelchair fails to appear.'
We finally reached the barrier. The Customer Care man re-appeared with a grin as fatuous as his title. Should I have punched him?
David Mills
115 Gloucester Place, .London W1
Previous page
