Arriva Trains - 21st century Highwaymen?

Arriva trains have recently won the UK rail franchise previously managed by Central Trains.

In a staggering piece of customer care avoidance which makes most other forms of train service ineptitude pale into insignificance, it has been announced that Arriva trains are going to Penalise, yes, Penalise bona fide passengers not just fare dodgers

The specific example concerns the Liverpool - Norwich line. This policy is applying to other major routes in the UK too.

If you buy a ticket on the Liverpool Norwich route south to Nottingham and then decide during that journey (let's say you recieve a mobile phone message changing your plans) that you would like/ need to progress one station further using a connecting train you will be penalised with a £20 additional ticket price if you didn't buy the ticket for the 'full' journey when you started out.

The reason? "because you should have purchased the connecting ticket at Sheffield sir as this takes you through one of our (arbritary) travel zones."

How utterly ludicrous! which senior manager of this appalling poor organisation allowed this policy (and the idiot who created it) to walk out of his office without sanction?

So, as a customer you have three options:

a)develop 20:20 foresight, deny yourself the choice of responding to changes of plan and inconvenience yourself for the convenience of the train company

b)instead of walking 10 yards to the connecting train walk 500 yards into the station to buy a new ticket and 510 yards back to the waiting (mostly empty!!) connecting train

c) pay £20 for a normally £2.90 journey


Arriva are clearly badly managed, devoid of any customer orientation, lacking in intellectual agility and are an utter disgrace.

They are also totally out of touch with modern social-media opportunities and I would urge any reader to promote this example of Corporate ineptitude at every opportunity