Network Rail!

I just got on a train from Morecambe to go (eventually) to West Drayton, which goes Morecambe, Lancaster, London Euston, tube to London Paddington, West Drayton. It's a four hour journey, sigh. But not the end of the world. The service from Morecambe to Lancaster is a little local service that goes from Morecambe to Lancaster, stopping at Bare Lane on the way. It's £1.80 for a single. The train station is very bizarre in that it only opens at seemingly random times across the day, and the ticket price from Morecambe is the same as from Lancaster (no idea why!), but here's the kicker - there's no Fastticket machine in Morecambe. Which is utterly and completely backwards as far as I'm concerned, really. Normally it's not a problem - I get my ticket online, print off my confirmation email to show them I've purchased a ticket from Morecambe, and they let me off with that. Which is fine, works ok for me. Once, a man did warn that my confirmation email wasn't technically valid, but they normally let me off!

This morning was different though. This morning I got on the train having forgotten to print off my confirmation email, which was stupid. Prepared to buy a ticket, I explained my case to the ticket inspector, who told me that my email confirmation wouldn't have been valid anyway. She cited that people do the same from Grange Over Sands, which is a £9 fare (!!), and that loses them revenue when they purchase their ticket online and pick up their ticket in Lancaster. Her next line should go down in history.

"We're losing revenue."

Well, that just did it for me, really. I managed to control myself, thankfully, but that just really made me feel like I was living in lalaland, because it means one of two things: either a) Northern Rail really aren't part of the central train booking network, which is just stupid, or b) this woman had the worst grasp of how the train revenue and booking systems work in the UK, and she WORKS for it, or c) both a) and b), which is also scary, and implies that Northern Rail are money-grabbing bastards and want to sting you when you've already bought a ticket online because they don't make enough from the online central booking system. As it happens, she told me she'd let me off, but 'in future' I should buy my ticket from Lancaster instead of from Morecambe, and pay extra for the ticket from Morecambe. Which is just daft, really.

THEN I got to Lancaster, and went to pick up my ticket from the Fastticket machine. Despite having done this journey lots, just once before I've purchased my ticket online and when I got to picking it up, what came out was a ticket that said Not London on it. Which is just annoying. This time I checked it REALLY carefully, and made sure that it displayed the tube journey. So I was most irritated when what came out had the dreaded words on it - Not London. Well, I marched up to the ticket office and got an excess (which I was charged 2.20 for, seemingly random!!)

Drives me mad! I am travel cursed. I've been afflicted with delays, cancellations... everything. It doesn't matter what it is, I'll get afflicted by it. Which is funny because I have massive faith in the train system in the UK, despite being continually damaged by it! In this case I am cursed with what I like to call the Lynch curse. I have an aunt (who is a Lynch) who, despite working for an airline and being the person I know in the world that travels the most, she still manages to get something happen to her every time. They've broken her guitars. They've lost her luggage. They've delayed her. They've cancelled on her. They've stranded her.

And yet she still goes somewhere fancy and foreign at least once a month (or maybe less - but it seems like that much! Which is cool). So maybe part of the curse is still having faith in the system. Hmmm. At least she's never cross with the booking system, but then, she did work on the booking system design team!!