No ticket.....

[Afghan Dave]

A friend of mine suffers from a medical condition which - she says - makes it uncomfortable for her to travel on trains and she - allegedly - needs someone to help her on and off at stations.  Recently she was getting off a train and none of the platform staff would help her.... they said she should have booked assistance in advance!  She stood in the door, holding up the train, and in the end some guy pushed her out!

OK, I've gotta ask... what "condition" lets you get travel on a train but not get on or off?

Is it of the type that can only be diagnosed by a Shaman or Crystal Healer?

[FELINEGUITARS]

A friend of mine suffers from a medical condition which - she says - makes it uncomfortable for her to travel on trains and she - allegedly - needs someone to help her on and off at stations.  Recently she was getting off a train and none of the platform staff would help her.... they said she should have booked assistance in advance!  She stood in the door, holding up the train, and in the end some guy pushed her out!

OK, I've gotta ask... what "condition" lets you get travel on a train but not get on or off?

Is it of the type that can only be diagnosed by a Shaman or Crystal Healer?

Being in a wheelchair?

[Philly Q]

A friend of mine suffers from a medical condition which - she says - makes it uncomfortable for her to travel on trains and she - allegedly - needs someone to help her on and off at stations.  Recently she was getting off a train and none of the platform staff would help her.... they said she should have booked assistance in advance!  She stood in the door, holding up the train, and in the end some guy pushed her out!

OK, I've gotta ask... what "condition" lets you get travel on a train but not get on or off?

Is it of the type that can only be diagnosed by a Shaman or Crystal Healer?

Being in a wheelchair?

No wheelchair.

She suffers from something called fibromyalgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibromyalgia) and is also epileptic and hyper-sensitive to electric light..... when we go to a pub she always asks someone to move so she doesn't have to sit in view of a light.  :|

I'm sure it's a real condition, but most of the time she seems to get around OK.  I've seen her jog across the road when a light's changing, for example.  I don't want to be unkind, but I think situations like the train incident are largely attention-seeking.

[Afghan Dave]

Just read up on fibromyalgia and it appears to encompass a range from "I'm really in a bad way, but I don't know why" to "I'm just an a$$hole who will moan to my doctor until I'm taken seriously and diagnosed with something"

Tricky...  :?

I'd just try to avoid the lot of 'em for fear of saying something out loud I'd regret and being an a$$hole myself.

[Philly Q]

Just read up on fibromyalgia and it appears to encompass a range from "I'm really in a bad way, but I don't know why" to "I'm just an a$$hole who will moan to my doctor until I'm taken seriously and diagnosed with something"

Tricky...  :?

Well..... yes.

She also claims to have badly injured her knee a few years ago by tripping over a tree root and being thrown 36 feet through the air.  Think about it.... 36 feet.... that's well over the world long jump record, even downhill with a following wind.  But she insists that was the distance.  :?

I should stop now.

[Dmoney]

A friend of mine has that too.
I went to visit her a while ago and she couldn't walk too far and kind of sat quietly at times. mostly cos she doesn't want to admit when it affects her. But at a gig we went to she got so bad from standing up for ages than she pretty much collapsed and I had to carry her outside and sit her down where she basically lay on the floor writhing in agony. It was pretty hard to watch knowing I couldn't do anything about it. I just kept people away from her so she didn't have to deal with people gawping. I'd say its a pretty real thing for some people at least.

As for public transport,  I use it all the time. since the bendy buses in london have gone there seem to be a lot less nutcases on the buses I get. I feel if public transport was a bit cheaper, and companies put effort into making trains and buses safer as well providing a slightly more reliable service, then lots more people would use them. Sadly they won't. Because train companies are staffed by the lowest form of humanity on the planet.

[Roobubba]

Because train companies are staffed by the lowest form of humanity on the planet.

So THAT'S what Ringo and Macc-tw@t are doing these days...

[Philly Q]

As for public transport,  I use it all the time. since the bendy buses in london have gone there seem to be a lot less nutcases on the buses I get.

I think that's true.  There seem to be fewer loons and oiks on the trains too - I think maybe because most stations now have ticket barriers(?)

[Dmoney]

The loons hang out outside the stations.

[nfe]

I've been given a wrong ticket before and done exactly the same as the young guy, only I was sober, just sat and refused to move and the conductor was quite reasonable. He didn't feel the need to goad other passengers until some big prick decided he could be a hero and inflate his ego by assaulting someone smaller than himself.

[MrBump]

Whether or not the fella had a genuine reason, the point is that blaggers DO exist, and are frequently found on my bloody train!

I hate to be a hater, but fare dodging on public transport is very, very common, and being someone who is held to ransom by my ONLY train company, I really begrudge someone trying to get away with a commute that I pay many thousands of pounds a year for, for free.

Fare dodging is stealing, and an anti social behaviour.  Like using violent or abusive language on trains.  I hate that too.  I take my kids on the commute sometimes, and I'll happily tell a group of blokes to tone the language down.  And I get the kind of looks that would probably stand up in court. 

But I don't care.

It's anti social.  We shouldn't tolerate it as a society.  And I think it's up to us individually to point out when people are in the wrong.

Because there IS right, and there IS wrong.  It's not a matter of perspective.

</rant>

[Afghan Dave]

Bump what "The Bump" said... Spot on! PDT_003

[nfe]

Whether or not the fella had a genuine reason, the point is that blaggers DO exist, and are frequently found on my bloody train!

I hate to be a hater, but fare dodging on public transport is very, very common, and being someone who is held to ransom by my ONLY train company, I really begrudge someone trying to get away with a commute that I pay many thousands of pounds a year for, for free.

Fare dodging is stealing, and an anti social behaviour.  Like using violent or abusive language on trains.  I hate that too.  I take my kids on the commute sometimes, and I'll happily tell a group of blokes to tone the language down.  And I get the kind of looks that would probably stand up in court. 

But I don't care.

It's anti social.  We shouldn't tolerate it as a society.  And I think it's up to us individually to point out when people are in the wrong.

Because there IS right, and there IS wrong.  It's not a matter of perspective.

</rant>

All absolutely true. Doesn't mean likely-cowards (one wonders if he'd have gotten involved if the youngster was anything other than a skinny child) should assault little people to feel good about themselves. I really hope the vigilante arsehole gets charged and the conductor loses his job.

[Madsakre]

What usually happens is that you have to wait for the police to arrive if the person dont wanna leave the train. the conductor cant force a man off. I think that people have waited for quite a while there. Might explain the camera phone in the first place. the big fella just did everyone a favour by throwing that idiot out of the wagon.

I tried that too where i missed my plane for work because of some $%&#ing idiot kid, making trouble.

[tomjackson]

The trouble is the train companies treatment of passengers nowadays has got so poor that in some cases what they do is worse morally than a fare dodger.

I've been held against my wishes on a train that broke down for 2 hours, no apology, nothing.
The train was 100 yards from the station. 

The last train I got was on Monday, the one that was supposed to stop sped past and we had to wait 50 minutes in the cold.  There was no warning or announcement, the electronic sign simply changed and our train vanished.
When we got to Manchester we had to get a ticket as the station we got on at had no conductor and neither did the train.  So 60 people had to queue up while one guy issued tickets.  We asked him why there was no conductor before and got the stadard answer ' it's not our company' and blamed somebody else.  We asked him why there was only one guy with a machine and he said he was the only one trained.  So after being 50 minites late we had to then wait for 15 to get a ticket.

All part of the train experience and I'm not excusing non payers but sometimes I feel like I'm the one that has been robbed