Railway Sounds

Hi guys,

Just to let you know I did receive an apology from the NYMR.

Hello Martin,

Having read your posting, I was compelled to respond. The Railway take a great pride in offering an enjoyable day out for everyone, and both our paid staff and volunteers alike are generally delighted to help out in any way they can. I was saddened to read about your experience and would like to offer sincere apologies on behalf of the Railway.

Obviously in this instance we have failed you – and I can assure you that the individuals concerned will be dealt with. With your permission, I would also like to use your posting as a real example of ‘how not to do it’ with the aim of making all staff understand the impact that their behaviour can have.
I do hope that you will have an opportunity to visit the Railway again when hopefully your experience will be much better.

Kind regards,
Helen Webb, Retail and Customer Services Manager

I’m happy to accept fully that apology unconditionally. It’s not been my aim to seek a refund, yes the day cost us in excess of £125 but ultimately the NYMR is a good railway and they deserve our custom and support and I don’t wish to refuse them that in these difficult economic times on the basis of an unpleasant experience with a number of their staff, neither do I wish to blag some free tickets from them (couldn’t afford to get up there again till next year anyway!)

Unfortunately I also received a rather impasdoned comment from one member of the LNER Coach association who accused us of having no respect for his coach. He also went on to say that we refused to cooperate with the Guard. So an apology from the NYMR and accusations of disrespect from the LNER Coach Association?

Needless to say neither is true and we only questioned the rules – we did not purposefully ignore or break them.

You can read all the comments here

Following those comments and Helen Webb’s apology on behalf of the railway I sent her this email:

Dear Helen,

I’m sure we will return in the future. I was a bit rushed earlier so didn’t have the time to respond as best as I could.

However my family and I gratefully and unconditionally accept your kind apology. Please also know that it has never been my intention to seek a refund neither will I accept one if offered – the NYMR is a wonderful railway and deserves our support and custom, especially in these difficult economic times.

Unfortunately Mr Melton of the LNER Coach Association doesn’t seem to be so willing to let the issue die. As well as suggesting that we might have felt the rules did not apply with respect to his coaches (where in fact we simply missed the notices due to the weather and trying to get the girls to warmth and shelter) He’s now also accused me of having no respect for his coaches (Despite one of our family members having donated to his cause in the past)

Additionally he tells me the guard tells a slightly different story in which we refused to cooperate. To this point I must object, yes we may have questioned the rules and even pointed out that it seemed incongruous that wet dogs were permitted where pushchairs were not. However once the guard made his position clear (in a manner that we found rude) we obeyed them, did not proceed into the Gresley Coach and returned to the buffet car.

Mr Melton also tells me the guard is somewhat upset at the whole incident, needless to say so were we, we came to you for a nice day out, not an argument! However I am sorry that he is upset and we do sincerely apologise if we made his job more difficult than it should have been due to our not spotting the notices. I hope that this unfortunate incident can only serve to improve customer relations, not worsen them. Additionally I hope that the guard in question is not reprimanded in any way as I am fully aware he may be a volounteer and hope he continues to support your railway, rather as your earlier comments suggests that some guidance is given on how to deal with similar future incidents.

I really do hope that this will be an end to the matter, if Mr Melton has nothing better to do all day than comment on my blog and accuse your paying customers of having a lack of respect for his coaches i hope I can presume that this is not also the stance of the NYMR.

Yours Faithfully,

Martin Paling,

The irony of all of this is that I very rarely complain, I’m one of those quite British types that will “just let it pass”

Hopefully this will be an end to it now and I can get back to posting sound clips and photos – It was never my intention to hijack this fantastic community to carry out full fledged warfare!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 pm and is filed under Railway Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.