Nanny State: Sorry, we can't sell you food, we're afraid you'll choke to death

Viper007Bond

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233380/Sell-sandwich-Sorry-choke-saystrain-steward.html

A train steward refused to sell a passenger an egg sandwich . . . because he might choke on it.

Chris Haynes had gone to the buffet car after the crew announced that everyone on board would get a free soft drink as compensation for the train breaking down.

After suffering the long delay and a lengthy queue to be served, Mr Haynes was understandably hungry.

He saw some egg sandwiches on sale behind the bar that looked appetising, but when the 58-year-old came to order he was astonished to be told he couldn't buy one.

Mr Haynes explained that he was not trying to get a free meal and was happy to pay, but the steward again told him that he could not sell him a sandwich.

Recalling the bizarre exchange yesterday, Mr Haynes said: 'When I asked the man why not he said it was for health and safety reasons.

'I told him I didn't understand how health and safety came into selling a hungry stranded passenger an egg sandwich on a broken-down train.'

Mr Haynes said that when he asked for an explanation a second time, the steward replied: 'Don't you see?

If the train has to be evacuated you could choke to death on the sandwich.' Mr Haynes, a bar manager himself, said: 'I've never, ever heard anything so ludicrous in my life. There was a queue of people behind me and they all looked shocked.'

The grandfather, who is about to emigrate to New Zealand to run a tour company, said he was astonished by the steward's reaction to his simple request.

'First Great Western were quite happy to give out free drinks but weren't prepared to sell egg sandwiches for health and safety reasons,' he added.

Mr Haynes had been travelling back to London from a day at Newbury-Racecourse in Berkshire when his packed evening train came to a standstill less than half way into the journey.

First Great Western run a special service to Newbury Racecourse on race days.

The train last Saturday, carrying racegoers from the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury Races, eventually arrived at Paddington Station two and a quarter hours late.

'Everything was going well until we broke down somewhere around Reading,' Mr Haynes said.

A spokesman for First Great Western said yesterday that she was not aware of the incident. She added: 'It is not our policy to refuse to serve customers on these grounds.'
 
I call bullshit.
 
So why do they have these sandwiches in the first place?
 
I'm pretty sure The Daily Mail are at the forefront of tabloid fiction, the trick is to go with stories that could almost be true (if epically silly) but at the same time aren't important enough for people to look into. I want them to get Dan Brown on the payroll, at least then the articles wouldn't lack proper drama.
 
I'm pretty sure The Daily Mail are at the forefront of tabloid fiction, the trick is to go with stories that could almost be true (if epically silly) but at the same time aren't important enough for people to look into. I want them to get Dan Brown on the payroll, at least then the articles wouldn't lack proper drama.

Added to that, you have to bear in mind that First Great Western are the worst company ever existing in the history of the universe.

I'm surprised that the train man didn't try to stab the passenger for daring to even ask for a sandwich.
 
Isn't the rails private in UK?

What seems to me is that no matter what you do with the railroads, privatise, nationalise, they're still bloody crap.

(Yup, I loathe traveling on railroads. I once sat for 500 miles in the back of a Hyundai Sonata with four tyres beside me to avoid traveling by rail, and I would still pick it any time over rails. Eh, it's all relative..)
 
The UK rail network is an interesting case.

They used to be cheap and crap.

Now they're really expensive, but actually not that bad.
 
The UK rail network is an interesting case.

They used to be cheap and crap.

Now they're really expensive, but actually not that bad.

And only cost the taxpayer four times as much as in the British Rail days. Private sector efficiency at work, there.
 
Isn't a free and democratic country supposed to be one where the people can get together and tell the government to shove it when the latter does something idiotic?

And the relevance of this is?
 
The UK rail network is an interesting case.

They used to be cheap and crap.

Now they're really expensive, but actually not that bad.

They used to be cheap and okayish. Now they're expensive and awful.

Compare the UK's rail system to our neighbours - France, Germany, even Spain.

The UK's railways are much more expensive. The first ?1,000 train ticket ($1,600) was revealed the other month. The UK's railways are slower. The only high-speed rail in the UK was built by the French. It is both cheaper and faster to fly than it is to take the train between UK cities, which is not the case elsewhere.

Where is the problem? In the UK, trains are run by a number of privatised companies for 10-year lease periods. As the UK companies only have 10 years to run it, they have no motivation to improve the product (by introducing new trains, speeding up journeys or trying to build new track) and just end up increasing fares. End result : our railways are creaking, sagging, poorly maintained and dying to be ripped up and replaced with a proper high speed rail system. Worse, some lines (such as the East Coast Main Line) demand the train companies pay for access (ECML paid ?3 billion), which just means the company goes bust quickly.

End result : rubbish trains. The UK needs to admit our current railway system has failed, renationalise all the railways, build dedicated high speed track up and down the country, and make the fares less ridiculous.
 
Have you use the UK rail network much recently teeb?

All the journeys i've been on in the past year have been precisely on time using rolling stock less than five years old (much of it brand new).

So as I said, i've found them expensive but not actually that bad.
 
The railways are certainly not as bad as they are made out. However, if I can fly from Manchester to London cheaper than I can get there on the direct train that runs from the station near my house every hour, something must be wrong.

Will - the rolling stock was paid for by the taxpayer, in the form of massive subsidies. IIRC, Virgin gets more in subsidy to run the WCML and X-Country than British Rail got in total. And we paid for the track to be upgraded to run them.

Teeb - We can't renationalise the railways. John Major admitted that when they drew up the plans for privatisation, one of the major motivations was doing so in a way that it could never bring it back into public hands.
 
Have you use the UK rail network much recently teeb?

All the journeys i've been on in the past year have been precisely on time using rolling stock less than five years old (much of it brand new).

So as I said, i've found them expensive but not actually that bad.

Yes, yes I have. All the time. I moved house with them, complete with two large bags of junk - from France to Glasgow, in fact - and got a cross-section. In fact, let me describe that journey for you.

Bordeaux to Paris on a TGV, which left and arrived on time. It took 3 hours to do the 367 mile journey - technically only a third of the distance was true high speed - and it was comfortable, the seats were cosy, I had a power socket, and I travelled first class. It cost me ?40. Paris to London on the Eurostar, which is a great service if booked in advance. The only problem is having to go through passport control due to the UK's irritating refusal to join the Schengen thingummy. London to Glasgow on a train designed 30 years ago. A 400 mile journey that the timetable says should take 5 and a half hours. However, we spent the first hour sat in Kings Cross station, going nowhere. The WiFi didn't work, nor did the buffet car, so there was no hot nor chilled food. I paid ?67 for that ticket in standard class. Granted, the seats are comfy, but that's because of the 30 year old design, and they've not had a chance to ram passengers in like sardines (see : Virgin trains).

I've also had the great misfortune of having to use Worst Great Western's services (the most complained-about railway company in the UK, if memory serves) several times. Horrible, horrible experience. The only positive UK train trips I've taken have been on the First Scotrail Caledonian Sleeper, a train which by design travels slower than most (so you can sleep), gives you a bed, and a lounge bar.

I'm not knocking commuter trains (such as the ones in the Greater London network or Glasgow). It's the UK's long distance trains that are not up to scratch, especially juxtaposed against those on the continent. Back in the 60s and 70s there was a choice. You could build a dedicated high-speed rail system or you could just improve what you had. France chose the former, we chose the latter. And it's today's railway passengers that suffer for that.

High speed rail works, too. Air travel between Paris and London has halved since Eurostar opened.

Teeb - We can't renationalise the railways.

We just have renationalised NatEx East Coast...
 
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We just have renationalised NatEx East Coast...

Actually, they just handed it back.

"You know that train service we said we would run? Well, we can't be bothered any more. Byeeee!"
 
Actually, they just handed it back.

"You know that train service we said we would run? Well, we can't be bothered any more. Byeeee!"

"You know how you subsidise the West Coast Main Line to the tune of ?1.4 billion, yet made us pay ?1.5 billion to run the East? Yeah, sod that."
 
My uni's culinary department stopped handing out its extra food to homeless people for liability reasons; so the food that couldn't be donated properly (basically bread) had to be tossed...it ws ALOT of food
 
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"You know how you subsidise the West Coast Main Line to the tune of ?1.4 billion, yet made us pay ?1.5 billion to run the East? Yeah, sod that."

In any other business, a deal is a deal. Just handing back the keys doesn't get you out of it.

Actually not quite true. Banking is the obvious other one.
 
I've never really had a huge problem with the UK rail network, most of my use has been on First Scotrail and GNER up here though - their trains seem pretty modern, clean and on time.

They're bloody expensive though and at peak times are overcrowded, the journey from Aberdeen to Glasgow on a Friday evening is never fun and I don't usually get a seat until 1 or 2 hours in to the journey. For that they charged me over ?50 return the last time I used it - not good value.

For longer journeys I'd just fly, far less hassle, more comfortable and cheaper than trains.

I think it'd be wise to bring British Rail back, privatisation has only cost us more. It's cheaper to drive in a lot of cases.

edit: and stop linking to nonsense Daily Fail articles, they're the biggest name in right wing whiner gutter press.
 
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