Is it really so strange?
Aargh.
Last night, on leaving the office, I trundled through Reading and bought some presents. One present for a new baby whose acquaintance I hope shortly to make, and one for her parents. On a rather crowded train, I tucked the large carrier bag up onto the luggage rack thinking gosh, I'd better not forget and leave that there.
I forgot, and left it there. I am an idiot.
As the train pulled out of Ealing Broadway and headed off to terminate at Paddington, I asked a member of station staff how I should go about meeting up with my bag. Catch the next train to Paddington, he said.
Arriving in Paddington about 15 minutes later, the office that handles lost property was closed. It also handles left luggage, and there was a human in it, but in his lost-property-handling capacity he was shut. He let me fill in a form reporting the loss. Neither he, nor any station staff, could tell me whether the train had left again, whether it had been cleared out before departure, or where it might have gone. Or, indeed, what platform it had come in on.
I scouted round the high-numbered platforms where stopping trains to Reading usually hang out; there was a train getting ready to head out again, and I walked through it twice checking the racks. There was another train on another platform which I checked out before realising it was only three coaches, and thus far too short to have been "my" train. I went home.
This morning, I rang Paddington lost property. No, my bag has not been handed in. Yes, the train would have been cleaned before it departed to its next destination or back to the depot. Would it really, given that it had already left by the time I arrived 8 minutes or so after it did? Yes. Even if it was going to the depot? No. And which one was it going to? No idea. Was there anyone who might be able to tell me? No.
I rang the centralised lost property number for First Great Western. If the train had not been cleared it would have headed off to its next destination, and any lost property would make its way to Bristol Temple Meads, and would be on their system by 6pm. I should call back then.
Grr.
Now, I do understand that (a) it's my fault and (b) they can't handle cases on an individual basis. There are systems in place to track lost property, and I have to follow them. I am not a special snowflake, and neither is my lost bag of presents.
However, it is most infuriating. At the time I realised I'd left the bag on the train, it was barely 60 seconds away from me. It would be at its terminus in 8 minutes. I can't quite shake the feeling that a properly staffed rail service ought to have been able to phone ahead, rescue it for me, and save itself the bother of shuttling bags to and fro to Bristol, filling out and typing in forms, tracking things through databases and handling multiple frustrated phonecalls from me. But that's not the way things work in the modern age. I presume that there are vast reams of information somewhere about the routing and usage of trains; where my train went after it terminated at 20:16 must be a known fact. But that information is completely inaccessible to me or to anyone who deals with lost property.
However, more than anything, the thing that bugs me is the complete offhandedness of everyone I've spoken to so far. I'd mind considerably less if they even bothered to sound as if they gave a flying shit whether my bag was ever found. Haven't got it. Don't know. Can't find out. Don't care.
In fairness, the gentleman at the centralised service read "I'm sorry that you have lost your bag" off his script. Although the effect was slightly spoiled in that he seemed to have forgotten the next bit and there was a long silence before it occurred to him that perhaps he should say something else, too.
I don't want the people who handle lost property to lie to me, or to have to go to great lengths to be reassuring. But I would like them to project just enough competence and engagement with their job to suggest that they've done anything with my forms other than put them down somewhere and wander off.
Last night, on leaving the office, I trundled through Reading and bought some presents. One present for a new baby whose acquaintance I hope shortly to make, and one for her parents. On a rather crowded train, I tucked the large carrier bag up onto the luggage rack thinking gosh, I'd better not forget and leave that there.
I forgot, and left it there. I am an idiot.
As the train pulled out of Ealing Broadway and headed off to terminate at Paddington, I asked a member of station staff how I should go about meeting up with my bag. Catch the next train to Paddington, he said.
Arriving in Paddington about 15 minutes later, the office that handles lost property was closed. It also handles left luggage, and there was a human in it, but in his lost-property-handling capacity he was shut. He let me fill in a form reporting the loss. Neither he, nor any station staff, could tell me whether the train had left again, whether it had been cleared out before departure, or where it might have gone. Or, indeed, what platform it had come in on.
I scouted round the high-numbered platforms where stopping trains to Reading usually hang out; there was a train getting ready to head out again, and I walked through it twice checking the racks. There was another train on another platform which I checked out before realising it was only three coaches, and thus far too short to have been "my" train. I went home.
This morning, I rang Paddington lost property. No, my bag has not been handed in. Yes, the train would have been cleaned before it departed to its next destination or back to the depot. Would it really, given that it had already left by the time I arrived 8 minutes or so after it did? Yes. Even if it was going to the depot? No. And which one was it going to? No idea. Was there anyone who might be able to tell me? No.
I rang the centralised lost property number for First Great Western. If the train had not been cleared it would have headed off to its next destination, and any lost property would make its way to Bristol Temple Meads, and would be on their system by 6pm. I should call back then.
Grr.
Now, I do understand that (a) it's my fault and (b) they can't handle cases on an individual basis. There are systems in place to track lost property, and I have to follow them. I am not a special snowflake, and neither is my lost bag of presents.
However, it is most infuriating. At the time I realised I'd left the bag on the train, it was barely 60 seconds away from me. It would be at its terminus in 8 minutes. I can't quite shake the feeling that a properly staffed rail service ought to have been able to phone ahead, rescue it for me, and save itself the bother of shuttling bags to and fro to Bristol, filling out and typing in forms, tracking things through databases and handling multiple frustrated phonecalls from me. But that's not the way things work in the modern age. I presume that there are vast reams of information somewhere about the routing and usage of trains; where my train went after it terminated at 20:16 must be a known fact. But that information is completely inaccessible to me or to anyone who deals with lost property.
However, more than anything, the thing that bugs me is the complete offhandedness of everyone I've spoken to so far. I'd mind considerably less if they even bothered to sound as if they gave a flying shit whether my bag was ever found. Haven't got it. Don't know. Can't find out. Don't care.
In fairness, the gentleman at the centralised service read "I'm sorry that you have lost your bag" off his script. Although the effect was slightly spoiled in that he seemed to have forgotten the next bit and there was a long silence before it occurred to him that perhaps he should say something else, too.
I don't want the people who handle lost property to lie to me, or to have to go to great lengths to be reassuring. But I would like them to project just enough competence and engagement with their job to suggest that they've done anything with my forms other than put them down somewhere and wander off.