It wasn't grandma Buttle, was it?

FTFA: Mr Wrigglesworth, a 32-year-old stand-up comedian

With a name like that, I guess your career options are relatively limited...

That'll show 'em!

I just don't understand why that nogoodnic wasn't arrested. The police should have been doing their jobs -keep him off our lawn.

timujin: FTFA: Mr Wrigglesworth, a 32-year-old stand-up comedian

With a name like that, I guess your career options are relatively limited...

shallow. poignant. brief. well done

That Andy Dick sure is a nice young man.

Wrigglesworth . . .

/Approves

They should fire that stupid douchebag conductor. No questions asked.

/not one prone to say such things
//what an asshole

It isn't ignorance so much as it is the willful ignorance of the train employees.

Ignorance is annoying, but willful ignorance is evil.

the real crime here is the fact that it costs £115 to buy the same ticket on the train that can be bought for £11.50. Or that a ticket from london to manchester can be bought for £11.50 when far shorter journies around london cost much more. Or, that there are large armies of nominally well educated and certainly well paid 'regulators' whose sole job it is to set rail transport pricing so that is somehow fair.

in America, a quick lawsuit or two would put some fear of god into virgin. not in england, much less europe as a whole. short of a consumer advocate stepping in to impose some nominal fine after hundreds of complaints are logged, there is zero incentive save for the occasional daily fail article to keep companies from changing their behaviour. i hate lawyers as much as the next human, but this sort of things puts it in perspective.

/ recently flew domestically in the USA after hearing many horror stories / complaining here on fark about it. my conclusion: while one flight was delayed, the overall experience (USAirways) was about a zillion times better than the overall customer service situation at even standard inter-europe airlines, much less discount guys like RyanAir.
// am flying wizzair tomorrow. that one always gives me a chuckle.

I bet the conductor was an angry Pakistani.

/seen my share of angry Pakistani bus drivers in London
//wouldn't be surprised if trains suffer under their iron fists as well

RadioactiveApe

wouldn't be surprised if trains suffer under their iron fists as well

Um, you can't actually "say" that anymore.

When the Muslims takeover the UK, replace Parliament with a council of mullahs and establish Sharia law over the whole bloody country, it will be a relief to see what was a great nation finally put out of its misery!

Reminds me of when I went to Ireland. They gave us a student discount, had us get on the trains, and then they found out we did not go to a university in Ireland and told us 'we were stealing from the Irish Government' so we had to get off and get another full priced ticket..and on the next train too.

My congrats to subby on avoiding using Nanny State in the headline.

The Numbers: My congrats to subby on avoiding using Nanny State in the headline.

At this point, the "Nanny State" is a given if its a Brit paper being linked to.

Yet you just had to go ahead and say it in the thread didn't you.

Bomb Head Mohammed: the real crime here is the fact that it costs £115 to buy the same ticket on the train that can be bought for £11.50. Or that a ticket from london to manchester can be bought for £11.50 when far shorter journies around london cost much more.

Welcome to travel in the western hemisphere. This sort of stuff is old hat around here for air travel. The same ticket that costs $100 as an advance purchase can easily cost $1000 as an unrestricted one-way coach fare.

stevec2usa: When the Muslims takeover the UK, replace Parliament with a council of mullahs and establish Sharia law over the whole bloody country, it will be a relief to see what was a great nation finally put out of its misery!

I think you clicked on the wrong thread to make this comment. Go back to the Daily Mail you'll find plenty of support there.

Not surprising, I was coming home from Luton Airport once, my train from Luton Airport Parkway was cancelled. I was able to get on train finally 45 minutes later. I make my way to Paddington and ask what to do about missing my train from London to Wales because I arrived in Paddington an hour later (slower train). The guy at the ticket counter just told me to get on the train to Wales, I didn't need a new ticket because it wasn't my fault. Not fully trusting him, I wrote down him so I wouldn't forgive. When I got on the train, the ticket inspector tried to get me cough up £62 for a new ticket. I argued with him and told him that the guy at the ticket office told me I didn't need a new ticket and what the guy's name was. He said that he would check on it, and when he came back, he said to me, "Yeah, yeah, it is okay." The British trains are horrible and don't seem to have any logic in the system.

Keep giving government more and more power and this type of crap will become more and more common.

Bomb Head Mohammed: the real crime here is the fact that it costs £115 to buy the same ticket on the train that can be bought for £11.50. Or that a ticket from london to manchester can be bought for £11.50 when far shorter journies around london cost much more. Or, that there are large armies of nominally well educated and certainly well paid 'regulators' whose sole job it is to set rail transport pricing so that is somehow fair.

You think that's unique? I learned a long time ago to check all kinds of flight combinations when traveling because there's no logic to the pricing. Many years ago, I was flying from the west coast to the east coast to visit family. I was dismayed to learn that it would cost a small fortune (well, it seemed like a lot at the time) to fly from LA to NY. I'd picked those cities assuming that it would be cheaper to fly from one major city to another and drive the "last mile" instead of flying to/from podunk locations closer to my end points. Nope. Totally wrong. I saved about 40% by adding two additional legs to the trip. And those flights went through LA and NY. Not only that, the flights between LA and NY were the same flight numbers that cost an arm and a leg without the extra flights.

So, basically, it would have cost me $700 round trip to fly from LA to NY. But I was able to reduce the cost of that flight to just over $400 by adding another flight on each end.

No good deed goes unpunished.

What a disgusting example of rules and regulations overlapping common sense. What would have happened if this man didn't step up? The whole staff was against this poor woman, that's just awful, and guess what's going to happen to them? Nothing! And the good Samaritan almost got arrested... farked up world we live in.

stevec2usa: When the Muslims takeover the UK, replace Parliament with a council of mullahs and establish Sharia law over the whole bloody country, it will be a relief to see what was a great nation finally put out of its misery!

Yeah, I notice the USA is doing just great right now. Different sh*t, same day.

studebaker hoch: Yet you just had to go ahead and say it in the thread didn't you.

I was worried that without it, we might be faced with a rational debate about private companies passing the cost of their own incompetence on to customers. Fortunately rocket man has arrived to save the thread, and we can go back to arguing about whether this is or isn't anything to do with government screwing the public.

suid: Welcome to travel in the western hemisphere. This sort of stuff is old hat around here for air travel. The same ticket that costs $100 as an advance purchase can easily cost $1000 as an unrestricted one-way coach fare.

For air travel it makes sense. For train travel? not so much. The difference is this: the more planes there are, the slower and less expensive your journey is. The more trains there are, for the most part the FASTER and CHEAPER your journey is due to a variety of network effects (see: Japan). Train systems can typically add (or plan for) capacity much better than plane systems can since it takes much less effort to stick on another wagon or to schedule another train service on tracks that you already control than it is to buy another gate, move pilots around, and so forth necessary for air travel. Sure, maybe some reasonable discount is ok to for example persuade leisure travellers not to take overcapacity morning services..but 10 times? for trains? this sort of insanity is only valid if you start in your mind with the false assumptions that trains are like airplanes, economically speaking.. which they are not.

but, this is the UK, and companies have no shame. this is why i now get a longer safety briefing on, get a smaller seat on, and pay a higher fare for my national express coach rides to london area airports than i do on/for the flights themselves.

About $200 to ride a virgin in England. That's way too much, unless the teeth are perfect.

If ever there was a country in dire need of a revolution,England has got to be at the very top of the list.

My next step will be to read the article, but if the headline is any indication, I would have also accepted either the FAIL tag or sex with a supermodel; sex with a super model would be my first choice.

I'll let you all know if reading the article causes me to change my mind.

bibitte Where do Zimbabwe, North Korea and Chad feature on your well thought out and no doubt comprehensive list?

"Good Samaritan threatened with arrest after organising whip-round for pensioner's £115 penalty fare"

I like to think I am tolerant, and that I mind my own business, but a "whip-round for pensioner's" is a little pervy even by my standards. It's certainly nothing one should do on a public train.

What a bunch of douchebags I can't believe they called the police for helping the lady out. There must be more to the story

He was also charged with bamboozling and scallywagging,

cyber_slacker: It's been hard life

My fail-fu is stroing

\"a"

Iron Chef Scottish: bibitte Where do Zimbabwe, North Korea and Chad feature on your well thought out and no doubt comprehensive list?

Does the list take into account the fact that Brits are all going to be forcibly bar-coded and have cameras in their homes in the next 6 years? It might make a difference.

The Numbers I'm not proud of my actions, but sometimes Fark Nanny State threads need *neutralizing*.

In the upper right corner, I saw a photo of a bear tethered and forced to fight packs of dogs. Unsurprisingly, you'll see in the background sand attractive and successful African-American.s watching it...can we nuke them, now? PLEAAASE?

"So, basically, it would have cost me $700 round trip to fly from LA to NY. But I was able to reduce the cost of that flight to just over $400 by adding another flight on each end."

The Dept. of Homeland Security will soon put an end to this - they'll have no leaving a flight in the middle!

After all, "the system" thinks you are still on that plane! What happens if it crashes on that last leg, everyone will think you are dead and they can't find the body!

TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE in the time of big brother...

Rules are rules, and rules are always right! If this were a tazer thread, the Fark Goosesteppers would be in here in force to defend the infallibility of authority figures and demand that the old lady and the kid were criminal rule-breakers who deserved jail time.

Iron Chef Scottish: The Numbers I'm not proud of my actions, but sometimes Fark Nanny State threads need *neutralizing*.

Well thank god you're around to make sure things don't get out of hand. Otherwise who knows what kind of stupid things people might post.

Is there any relation to Mini Mr. Bigglesworth?

/just sayin.

That will teach her and Wigglesworth too. You don't mess with any authorities. Stay home now and never get out of bed again. EVER

Mr.IF: "So, basically, it would have cost me $700 round trip to fly from LA to NY. But I was able to reduce the cost of that flight to just over $400 by adding another flight on each end."

The Dept. of Homeland Security will soon put an end to this - they'll have no leaving a flight in the middle!

After all, "the system" thinks you are still on that plane! What happens if it crashes on that last leg, everyone will think you are dead and they can't find the body!




That's why you ALWAYS buy excessive flight insurance and make your spouse the beneficiary...to pay for plastic surgery and relocation to another state.

SphericalTime: It isn't ignorance so much as it is the willful ignorance of the train employees.

Ignorance is annoying, but willful ignorance is evil.

Quoth I.

And when Mr. Wigglesworth gets angry people DIE!

I got lost in a country where I didn't speak the language when I was 13. Some random guy gave me $10 to find my way home. Now that I'm 25 all I can say is thanks for not taking me in your car and raping me, weird stranger. Thanks.
/perspective.