AN OPEN LETTER TO ARRIVA TRAINS

Anyway… I see that you have decided to decline my application for the refund of an unused ticket as a result of illness on the basis of your terms and conditions, viz ‘Advance tickets are non-refundable’.

This, I assume, is something Arriva’s directors have conjured up out of thin air (shame they can’t do the same with their trains) and essentially amounts to ‘We’re happy to sell you a ticket but if you don’t use it through no fault of your own we keep the money, you get nothing – on your bike, sucker’. A bike, incidentally, is invariably faster and more reliable than an Arriva train.

This means that after years of enduring late trains, overcrowded carriages, no buffet service, stinking toilets and even in some cases no trains at all (get on the bus, pal), Arriva still manages to kick me when I’m down (as opposed to standing interminably on a freezing cold platform) and filch £80 from my pocket when I have ‘flu and am unable to use their distinctly second rate service.

All par for the course in this country these days of course – money grabbing bankers, corrupt politicians and third world train services are something that we, the ludicrously tolerant public, just seem to put up with these days.

I realise that this letter will serve no purpose other than to waste your time and mine along with a small amount of ink, but perhaps if a few more customers were to let you know what a pathetic joke of an overpriced service Arriva offers then maybe your directors would do something about it?

Then again, probably not…

Yours etc.