Congratulations, First Great Western, you dismissed a woman - and just lost a regular customer.

[Bidisha]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bidisha/first-great-western-_b_3839118.html

It pleases me that this is (a) in the etiquette section and (b) has attracted many knowledgeable of train timetables.

I miss LJ :)

SorryRobotHamster - that was a bit curt of me.

OrangeClouds - my dh reads the All Stations BR Timetable in bed. He has vintage timetables, so he can compare journey times in times gone by with current journey times. He remembers this information and is happy to pass it on to anyone who wants to listen and some who don't. Finding the website that tells you all the timing details for all trains on the UK network for the past week made him so happy.

I am such a lucky woman.....

Got to love all the secret trainspotters popping up.

Haven't read the article (having read the responses first, thank you for suffering so I didn't have to). Personally I worry about the OP's self-esteem if she feels the need to canvas opinions here.

jealous face

Bloody hell.

Three comments to make about that piece:-

You really like a comma, don't you?

Please do get to the point a bit more quickly, thank you.

Do (and I never say this) GET OVER YOURSELF.

Duchesse - is willingly and persistantly being married to a train spotter better or worse than actually being one?

Thanks OrangeCloud! He is available for weddings, birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs.

What bloody bollocks playing the "it's because I'm a woman" card! And all that bane-dropping? Shameless!

Rather she means but doesn't want to piss off her audience by saying "I'm an IMPORTANT person who mustn't be treated like the rest of the travelling public"
Plus train guards notoriously chippy, have FAR worse tales to tell than that little one

Name-dropping, obviously

My dh has the traintracker app and looks at it daily.
We live overseas and he hasn't been on a British train in years

I travel on FGW every weekday (except when I get time off fo good behaviour and take holidays). I travel first class so I can be guaranteed a seat. The guards I speak to are unfailingly polite (they were equally polite when I used to travel in standard class). One thing I haven't seen demonstrated is their pyschic powers. Usually if I want to ask or tell them something I use words rather than just staring at them. I find that works amazingly well. Maybe the OP should try that next time?!

nancerama It's certainly not unheard of. :( But it's not the norm. The scheduled time is half an hour and the norm is about 35 minutes. Not an hour.

Thanks. Bookmarked it. Just the right kind of boring to send me to sleep. Better than sleeping pills. Managed a couple of paragraphs and felt myself drifting.

Why didn't you say anything at the time to the group? You would think that someone who claims to be a broadcaster and outreach worker specialising in specific areas of social injustice, human rights and international affairs, would be a lot more vocal, not someone who instead prefers to bore their readers.

Wow, that was one of the worst pieces of writing I have ever seen.

So a major stealth boast and then the worst thing thats ever happenend to you on a train is the guard didnt tell some over entitled idiots to shut up? And HuffPost printed this shite? Nothing deep about how FGW treat wheelchair users?Or their overpriced fares? Or on saturday afternoons how police are needed to stop the football crowds abusing muslim women? Or the dirt and overcrowding?
No, your ego felt snubbed on one journey so you wont be travelling FGW because presumably you are wealthy enough to have an actual choice and can afford a car or a chauffer or something.
pffft

Rereading my post at the beginning of this thread, I now feel it was far too measured...

I, too, am married to a closet trainspotter - not so much the timetable porn type, more into engines etc. I was married to him for years before I realised the depth of his obsession knowledge

Twisty, hear, hear!!!!! All that is worth fighting FGW over. Not this

and like bisjo, when I use FGW between Bristol and Paddington, on 90% of occasions the guards have fetched me free coffee and I travel in a wheelchair and cant get it myself. They dont have to do that you know. They always check I'm ok.
Course, I cant use the loos and Paddington staff forget the ramp and leave me on the train but some good humour and politeness and things are generally ok. And a cup of freebie coffee.

Too right, twistyfeet

Is no-one mourning for the West Country's loss, now that Bidisha isn't going to be lowering herself to use FGW's services any more? How will Bristol cope?

Hey, Twisty why don't you pitch your story to Huffington Post? Seriously!

Sorry, I may be a bit slow today but - your point is what?

You're a journalist you say? People pay you to write that sort of thing do they?

how to show respect to a woman, like me

Good lord she sounds like a self important, entitled idiot.

I can't for the life of me figure out why this has been tagged "everyday sexism".

Actually, I also can't for the life of me figure out why the author was so apparently proud of this whiny piece of crap that she decided to do a bit of shameless self-promotion on here. Are there MN rules about linking to your own stuff?

Is the article actually a joke? The 'most astounding thing' happened on FGW and that was it? Sense of proportion needed, or is some gag going right over my head?