Don't get me started on the farking trains. The other week the Virgin guard kicked me off one train because as he had it, there wasn't room for me, my bike and my 4 year old. This despite the fact he was allowing 5 other bikes already onto a 4-bike train, and had singly failed to shunt all the dim foot passengers who were cloistered in the pre-cabin vestibule instead of bothering to go find seats. So then I had a tearful child to contend with as well as a prickfaced guard and an equally inflexible bint at the ticket office.
Another time recently, I was stood at the platform with my bike, and the platform mistress came up to me and said, amiably so it seemed, "you do know it's carriage C for the bike, okay?". To which I: "Well, I do now - thank you very much" (spoken without irony). Then she said, still to all intents and purposes amiably, "Just make sure you let everyone onto the train first, coz it's the Races, see, and so the train's very packed." I made the right noises, but you can bet your bottom farking dollar I ignored that instruction! It's hard enough getting a bike on the train at the best of times, but to be demoted to last man on despite paying the same for my train ticket as any other dick... simply for having a bike.
And Virgin think it's unfair they lost the West Coast concession. Jeez.
