Earlier today I booked a couple of goes of assisted travel via the app. I really like using the app. It’s not 100% what I hoped it would be but it’s much quicker than phoning and I never get different routes or trains pushed on me due to being faster like when I ring. You book, it gets sent to the train operator to approve and along the way you get at least three emails per booking.
I wandered off to a podiatry appt right after booking, didn’t think anything of my booking just figured I’d come home to a full inbox.
When I was out “Sandra from passenger assistance” left me a VM asking me to call about my booking. She didn’t say if she was from the app (which us called Passenger Assistance from Transreport) or the train company (who also have a passenger assistance team), give me a phone number or say which booking it relates to. I figured maybe they were confused because I booked two identical journeys for two different days next week. But I was also worried it meant there was an issue with tomorrow’s journey (which I booked a few days ago).
Then I was sat in my podiatry appointment worried that I might have to cancel either my lunch tomorrow or one of my other trips, one of which is for a covid booster. And the head of the podiatry service was sat in assessing the podiatrist. Who gave me a lot of advice on managing my lymphoedema which anyone who actually considered me as a person should have realised I’d never manage (and given that he asked if I have a carer who lives with me and I said my only care need is compression, that I have no help to do)
I got home and managed via twitter to find out that she had to be from GWR. Called them, listened to a recorded spiel about how much easier using the app is. Got more annoyed because I’d tried the damn app. The record message said “up to a 15 min wait” but it was hardly any wait. Did various security questions to confirm I am in fact, me.
Only for the man I spoke to to tell me she’d wanted to make sure I knew that the local stopper service I’m booked on is non-reservable but I’m NOT TO WORRY because there will be a wheelchair space, they’ll make sure I get to it and I WON’T BE ABANDONED unable to get to it.
Seriously?! I’ve been using assisted travel since I was a teenager, I travel at minimum once a month and the local trains are always non-reservable. I only ever use the local stoppers out of Didcot. I was like “is that it? I knew that.” The guy I spoke to said it’s a new policy and sounded as bemused as I felt.
Because I wasn’t actually worried about travelling until Sandra left me a really vague voicemail and managed to worry rather than reassure me!