Just been forcibly removed from an empty train at Paddington by 2 police officers & the guard. Why you might ask? I was carrying a #surfboard neatly & safely stowed in the bike rack area. But you cannot carry a #surf board on the train that services the #southwest? @GWRHelp why? pic.twitter.com/qjiuHefpgd
— Jamie Monson (@spooksoup) September 11, 2020
In the “You can’t make it up department’ this week GWR called the police and had Jamie Monson forcibly removed from a near empty train. His crime – putting a surfboard in the bike rack.
Yes, more nonsense from the dated watersport hating train company that services the south west of the UK.
Jamie was on his way south when he boarded the train unaware that GWR hate surfboards and sensibly place his board in the empty bike rack.
“There was indeed plenty of room for my surfboard both in the luggage area or in the bike rack… why was I not allowed to travel with a surfboard when there was plenty of room and no reason not to have it on the train?” he asked, reasonably backing it up with,
“Your train was empty, there was room and even with this new rule an exception could have been made on an empty train”
But there is no leeway in the facist rule department of GWR and they were having none of it. Obviously the police have nothing better to do these days so they were called to remove the offending surfboard and poor Jamie leaving him stranded.
You would have thought faced with an empty train, an empty bike rack, empty luggage compartments and a decent customer with a predicament a little common sense and empathy would have come into play and GWR would let him go just this once. But no… Police it was.
Great work GWR!
