to be really angry with this train station attendant's behaviour!

[extremepie]

I was running a bit late for my train to college this morning, fair enough that is my own fault but I managed to arrive at the platform 2 minutes before the train was due to leave. Train was still at the platform, waiting.

Brilliant, I thought, Ive still got time to get on the train, only when I approached the door the train station attendant guy (the ones with the fluro orange jackets) shouted at me that it was too late and I couldn't get on! There was another guy on the platform who he also wouldn't let on and yet the conductor was not even on the train himself! We're both standing there on the platform, tickets in hand, telling him that we really need to get on the train and the whole time he just shouted at us saying 'its too late' and 'get back from the train' over & over.

Consequently, because of this guy being ridiculous, I missed my train to college, the next one being an hour later. In my defence I was exhausted and had only had 2hrs sleep the night before but I was so upset I went outside the station and burst into tears.

Was there any reason for him to shout at me? AIBU to think he was being ridiculous to not allow me the 10 seconds it would have taken for me to get on the train, especially since the actual conductor for the train was not even on it at the time!!!!

Interesting. I work that line op. Im sorry but you must have been cutting it finer then 2 minutes. Id love to know what station

Y.n.b.u. You get jobsworths people in every walk of life

I had a train experience today!

I got the train from Plymouth to go to Taunton. I fell asleep, only to wake up at Taunton. Jumped up, ran to the door. Doors were locked. I pressed the button to talk to the driver, but got ignored.

I ended up travelling to Bristol, then getting the next train back again. The train manager didn't charge me though. He was nice!

I couldn't get a ticket at the station before the train came a couple of days ago because they can't resource worth a shit and the queue was a mile long and they wouldnt let me on the train to buy one because you 'need a ticket to get on'! Yet the conductor on that train will happily sell tickets to all those who get on from unmanned stations (ie almost every other station on my route!) Idiots.

Happy, I know what you mean, there was one time when the queue was a mile long, only one till open & the on platform ticket machine was broken.

I just got on anyway, they sell tickets on the train! Most people are normal and sensible fine about it but you do get those that are OTT about it :/

What is the point of advertising a departure time of a train if you can't get on it two minutes before it leaves? If doors are locked two minutes before departure, then why isn't it advertised as the 9.58 am train, rather than the 10.00 am if you can't get on at 9.59 am? It's the same with flying. Why sell tickets for a plane based on the time it hits the runway, rather than the time the departure gate closes?

Exactly scholes, hence why I felt I was on time, albeit just, as I was there before the scheduled depature time :/

You actually have staff at rural railway stations? Around here, only the stations in major towns are staffed. Tickets are bought on the train. Arrivals and departures come up on an electronic board on the platform and go from saying "on time" to "cancelled" in a matter of seconds. Even the signal boxes and level crossings are now automated from the other end of the country.
You have to be at our local stations at least 10 mins before the train is due as they put the level crossings down so far in advance of the train arriving and there is no foot bridge. So if you are running late around here then you can't get to the train anyway unless you are stupid enough to duck under the crossing and risk your life

Off, we do at the bigger ones but the really tiny ones have nothing, just a platform with a timetable, no ticket machines as tickets are bought on the train. Those ones are request stops only and run every 2 hours. You kind of have to hope someone already on the train wants to stop at your station if you want to get on as if not they don't generally see you waiting on the platform in time to stop - not a great system really :/

Jobsworth, the country's full of them I'm afraid. They get that bit of authority you see.

OP, he sounds like a jobsworth. Just think about it this way, if he wants to ruin someone's day he be quite a miserable person. You should feel sorry for him, really.

*must be

Oh I do Alpaca, must have a really sad miserable life if he gets his kicks upsetting strangers for no reason! At the time I was just so upset, it was the last thing I needed!

Just don't see why some people don't seem to have compassion for others anymore :/

Ten second delay, if there are 500 people on the train, that's eight-odd minutes, more than the hour you had to wait. And that's before you count the delay to later trains. And as RustyDalek said if they allow that at every station it quickly builds up. And as RustyDalek also said the fact that the conductor could get on does not mean that the other doors were not locked.

So YABU. We all get annoyed when trains are late - we should not make it happen. Get there on time.

I was there on time! There weren't 500 people waiting to get on, there were 2. We would not have delayed the train at all because we got there 2 minutes before the train left, it still would have been able to leave on time if we had got on it, it wouldn't have been late.

The only reason I was running late in the first place was because the bus I was on to get to the station got stuck in traffic by the roadworks. Before you tell me to get on an earlier bus, I couldn't, as they only run once an hour too and I got the first one available after dropping the dc's off at school.

I appreciate that there weren't 500 people waiting to get on the train.

I was thinking of the people already on it - multiply them by your ten seconds and that is a lot of delay to a lot of people who don't know and don't care about the bus, the roadworks, or the DCs.

We get this a lot in London on the Underground where some selfish tosser rushes onto the train at the last moment and then holds the doors for his (usually his) friends (often female). A tube train in the rush hour can be carrying 1200 people; so three seconds delay makes an hour (plus knock-on on other trains) to save two or three people waiting two or three minutes. In Paris there is a mechanical gate which blocks access to the platform as the train comes in, and we should do the same.

Well London is not the rest of the country. Sorry but it winds me up when people moan about the tube - theres another one along every 3 minutes! It's not like that here, that 30 seconds for me means I can make it to college/others can make it to work on time instead of having to wait a whole hour.

Yes, but the delay you would have caused is almost certainly greater than the delay you suffered. It's public transport, the clue is in the name, it's there for the public.

The doors here in our small city railway station with lots of people getting on the train to get a train that leaves every half hour for London tend to close about 15 seconds before departure, perhaps even later - I'm not a regular commuter. Plenty of time to deal with people trying to get on at the last moment. Two minutes, 120 seconds, is far too long and the OP is not being unreasonable at all.

I'm not sure how the OP wouldn't have been causing a delay two minutes before departure, unless the conductor would have had to walk to length of the platform with a large key to unlock and lock the doors to the train.

Reverse It's this kind of story that weighs heavily on a railway workers mind:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9680110/Railway-guard-jailed-for-five-years-over-death-of-drunken-teenager-who-fell-between-train-and-platform.html

Reverse if someone trained in a job cannot tell the difference in danger between someone leaning against a train and someone trying to get on a train waiting at a station then they aren't competent to be in the job.

It sounds like the guard was more interested in causing what trouble he could, rather than in doing his job.

Err, no Andrew; me getting on train = no delay caused. Me not getting on train = delay of 1 hour.

Exactly Scholes, especially since the train was only at the platform for 2 minutes - it doesn't make sense for the train to pull up, lock the doors, then sit at the platform and refuse to let anyone on, then leave. I have been at other stations on the same line and gotten on the train less than 30 secs before departure with no problem before, like you said a lot of people use that line to change for trains to London and since the trains run so infrequently it is not at all unusual to see people jumping on with seconds to spare!

Scholes34 I don't know and you don't know how long it would have taken to unlock the train doors. It's quite possible he would have had to go at least the length of the first carriage and back and there is sure to be more to it than just flicking a switch - and then he would have had to lock it again which probably also takes time.

Lines have to be drawn and extremepie was on the wrong side of one.

extremepie Where did 30 seconds come from? It was 10 seconds when the thread started! If you take my figure of 500 people that is over four hours delay (as ever ignoring the knock-on) - four times the hour you had to wait.

Andrewofgg extremepie Where did 30 seconds come from?

Never mind the 30s, I was wondering where the group of friends and girlfriend came from in your above post!!

Is this a heavily unionised job OP? Train guard at that station? If so, its not worth complaining, is it...