Customer Services Manager
Central Station
Belfast
BT1 3PB
31st July 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been living in Northern Ireland for just over four months now and have been a regular user of your train service since this time. I hope you will treat this letter as one of inquiry rather than one of complaint.
Having just migrated from mainland Europe (Bordeaux, France to be precise) where the train fares are significantly less expensive, I am having some troubles being able to comprehend most of your basic policies. I am aware that the prices here are not as robust as the likes of London, but I still feel slightly defrauded and confused.
I would be greatly obliged if you could clear up a few issues. Specifically I have been frequently using the Bangor to Belfast line. First of all I find it a breach of basic human rights that Translink determines when their customers have to buy all monthly and weekly tickets. Surely it wouldn’t be too strenuous to enforce a 30 day/7 day ticket, were the customer can use a monthly ticket 30 times rather than as many times as they can within a designated month before it expires. Just like the system operated on the buses? The current system is very inconvenient and seems immoral and cash hungry.
Secondly; why is it a third extra to travel before 9:30am? I am aware that it is advertised as a third off after 9:30am, but this doesn’t make any sense to me. Prior to this time I am also confused about the 10p difference between a single ticket, which is £4.90, and a return, which is £5.00…
Another inconvenience is the Sunday time schedule, why has this particular day of the week had its schedule massively reduced?
On one occasion coming home from Belfast my train was delayed, and altogether that day I suffered a total of two hours forty minutes delay. Subsequently I missed my husbands last night in the country before he left for business back in Bordeaux. I used the “delay repay” form and was refunded £2. This, to me, does not justify the few hours taken off my life.
I am sure you will be able to provide me with some simple explanations to these few queries I have raised. I am also interested if you have received any similar letters to mine before. I have asked my friends and colleagues, who have been living in this country all their lives about these issues and, although they concur, none of them can put my mind at ease. I could have written a good deal more but I think I have managed to condense my main cogitations into these brief points/ questions.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincèrement,
Agathe Bouëdo