NRES can often be
wide of the mark
Carnforth station is described by I H
Winchester as "disgusting" with peeling paint, no toilets,
no waiting room and a dark dripping subway smelling of urine after he was forced to change
there during a recent journey.
The journey itself was on time but the information from the National Rail Enquiry Service
was poor.
First North Western 156421 arrives at the shabby Carnforth station with a
Barrow-Manchester Airport service on May 21 1999. TONY MILES |
ON Saturday December 11, I made the journey from
Harrogate to Barrow-in-Furness. The week before I rang 0345 484950 twice to ask for
journey times; I asked for a return time from barrow between 16.30 and 17.00. On both
occasions I was told there was no train from Barrow which would connect for Leeds around
the time I had indicated.
On arrival in Barrow, I checked with the ticket office who told me that there was a train
at 16.45 to Manchester Airport; if I got off at Preston, I could catch the 18.14 to Leeds.
This is ample proof for a claim by a recent edition of the BBC programme Watchdog
that the National Rail Enquiry service cannot be trusted to give the right information and
that customers would get better information from train operators or local stations.
I have been making the journey to Barrow regularly for the past 1� years. Unfortunately,
I have had to change trains at Carnforth and I have seen the gradual decline of the
station into the disgusting place it is today. No toilets, no waiting room, vandalism
peeling paintwork, a dark dripping subway which smells of urine and a very slippery slope
down to the subway, which is a hazard to the young and able bodied; let alone the elderly.
How Railtrack can ask customers to wait at such a 'dump' I do not know.
On a more positive note, all the trains I caught that day ran on time!
I H Winchester, Harrogate, Yorkshire.
This article is from "RAIL" magazine, January
2000)
This article is copyright , "RAIL"
magazine and may not be reproduced, without prior permission from "RAIL"
magazine.
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