Brigg Blog gets all steamed up about our town having the worst passenger service in Britain - trains only on Saturdays, three to Grimsby/Cleethorpes and three to Retford/Sheffield.
So we were surprised this afternoon to receive an email from Northern Rail offering us the chance to win two return train tickets to anywhere in Great Britain, if we're prepared to take part in an online survey.
Northern Rail said:
As part of our ongoing commitment to improve our service, we would like to invite you to tell us about your current train ticket purchasing preferences, and what improvements could be made to the ticket buying experience at northernrail.org
As you may be aware, our website has recently been updated so you can now buy tickets for Northern Rail services or tickets to anywhere in Great Britain online.
Additionally, we are planning a new Northern app for iPhone and Android smartphones and would appreciate your thoughts about how we can make this work for you.
The questionnaire is completely confidential and all respondents will be entered into a prize draw with one lucky customer winning two return rail tickets to anywhere in Great Britain.
Thanks in advance, your feedback is important to us.
There hasn't been a person-to-person "ticket buying experience" in Brigg since the pay-on-the-train (Paytrain) system was introduced in the nationalised era of Britain Railways, in the late 1960s, and our station booking office was removed.
It's good that Northern Rail keeps alive Brigg's passenger train links, first established way back in the 1840s. For that we are very grateful.
But we suggest that Brigg rail-users are not all that fussed about "apps" for phones, improved websites or re-establishing a booking office on our station.
All we need is for Northern Rail to please send us a few more humble DMUs, Monday to Friday. Oh, and perhaps a few more on Saturdays, too.
IF YOU'D LIKE TO TRAVEL BY RAIL FROM BRIGG, HERE'S A LINK TO THE CURRENT TIMETABLE
http://www.northernrail.org/pdfs/timetables/20111211/32.pdf
IF YOU ENJOY VISITING THIS WEBSITE REGULARLY TO FIND OUT WHAT'S GOING ON, WE'RE ASKING YOU TO CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TOWARDS OUR COSTS. MUCH TIME AND EFFORT IS PUT INTO FINDING AND PROCESSING STORIES AND PHOTOS. IF YOU WANT TO DONATE, PLEASE SEND A CHEQUE, MADE PAYABLE TO NIGEL FISHER, TO 10 SPRINGFIELD ROAD, BRIGG, NORTH LINCS, DN20 8DD. PAYMENTS IN CASH ALSO WELCOME AT ANY TIME.
1 comment:
When I go down, car-less, to my daughter's place in Greenwich, I get off the train at Kings Cross.
I'm always amazed at the number of Americans and Japanese taking photographs of a brick-wall at Platform 9 and three-quarters. There's something magical about it, but I don't know why!
I then jump on the Dockland Light Railway. Despite it name, which can give the impression that it's a stream of old wooden trucks smelling of fish, it's a state-of-the-art, computer controlled train.
It doesn't have a driver, so everyone battles to be in the front seats to be the 'pilot'.
Fortunately, I've got weight on my side and I can nudge the kids out of the way quite easily!
The train has smartly dresses Train Guardians...who call everyone 'Sir', or 'Madam'....they called me something else once, but we won't go into that.
It's like riding on a big-dipper; one minute you're at ground level and the next, you're looking down on chimneys.
It stops at all the posh places like the expensive shopping emporium at Canary Wharf where all the rich people get off and the poor people got on.
I get off at Cutty Sark - they've nearly rebuilt it after the fire and it should be open again before the Olympics.
Then I have a choice - London cab, a big red bus whose wheels go round and round...or my daughter pops down in her BMW (it's 10 years old and the exhaust is falling off!)
It's really amazing that London has such a fantastic transport infrastructure...there's the Underground and river-boats as well.
But the moral of this tale is that London and the SE get 99 percent of the government transport subsidies and 1 percent is distributed to the rest of the country.
I wonder how much Brigg gets?
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