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It was an enjoyable day on
what is an excellent railway but it was, in my opinion, an event
that was over-ambitious within the time allowed. The class 5
had failed the day before and we heard stories of people being
marooned on its train for three hours (No thunderbird diesel?).
On the day of our visit the timetable was disrupted from the
start when, from what we were told, 34092 was short of steam.
Some of the staff were not only insultingly rude but seemed to
have no idea what was happening. Ticket's (sic) and wristbands
(what was that all about) were demanded at seemingly every
corner. Trains appeared to be running at random and the day ended
when the last train left well before 17.00 hrs. running only
as far as Carrog and leaving us stranded at Llangollen with a
£20 taxi ride to Corwen in order to get home. The poor
weather is nobody's fault and I can accept breakdowns and timetable
interruptions but I cannot accept rude, and sometimes extremely
ignorant, staff. We paid a great deal of money for the day and
in return I do expect a degree of civility from those I suspect
were Betton Grange people - no uniforms.
If there is to be another similar
event then I suggest that staff are briefed on how to be polite
to paying customers, run later trains through to Corwen and maybe
not try to be over ambitious. Notwithstanding all that, the Llangollen
Railway is an excellent venue and we will continue to visit throughout
the year. |
