Ricardo's train ticket

R and I went to Brighton this weekend, and travelled down together from Oxford on the train. Being an organised sort of chap R decided to buy his ticket in advance from thetrainline.com.

Following instructions on the screen, he chose the Friday 17.45 there and the Sunday 13.40 back. But when his ticket arrived, it was for the 17.38 via Reading and Redhill, which didn't show up on any of the timetables I was looking at.

Anxious to coordinate, I rang up National Rail Enquiries (NB in a splendid bit of marketing, they don't put their phone number on their website, truly there are some stupid people with important jobs in public transport).

No, there wasn't a 17.38 to Brighton via Reading and Redhill. Hang on a minute, I said, I've got the ticket right here in my hand, it's just arrived in the post, and that it what it says. Please can you look again?

His exact words were: 'no love, I haven't got one of them'.

Get this. It turns out the Trainline had sold him a ticket he didn't ask for, for a train that does not exist and which could not be used on the train he did want to catch, or the train after it, or the train after that -- in fact any train via London, which is the only way to get your ass to Brighton before 10pm on a Friday.

So he rang up and asked for a refund, which will take up to 20 days and cost him £5 in administration fees.

Kafka, anyone?

He got a lift back with Miles, I don't blame him. Me, I got the sleeper train to Pitlochry, but that's another story.

joella