Now this REALLY pisses me off.

Before I go any further I'm sure most people have seen this weeks news about the next round of inflation busting increases to rail fares due to come into force from Jan 2nd. Now Me and De Wife are off to another gig in London next week and being a tight fisted old sod, I had thought I'd book De Wifes ticket on-line and take advantage of GNER's offer of a 10% discount for all fares booked on-line. As I was on-line I thought I'd check the Web for any interesting articles connected to GNER for this blog at the same time and came across this: -

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1902501

For the benefit of those that can't be arsed to read the article, it seems GNER and other TOC's have decided to apply next years prices imediately to all tickets purchased online.

What a freaking con that is if they've already applied the increases. When I've bought tickets over the counter the cost has been £24.60 including Zone 1/2 underground. Apply the 10% discount and I should be paying £22.14. Visit the GNER web site and you'll find it's quoting £24.70 for the same journey. Not out of my wallet it's not.

The reason GNER offer a discount for orders placed on-line is because it's cheaper for them. Consequently I'm sure they're trying to drive orders on-line by offering the discount and get us all into the habit of buying on-line. However with this gem they make an extra .5% over the existing fares.

IF ANYBODY FROM GNER HEAD OFFICE IS READING THIS, YOU CAN STICK YOUR ONLINE ORDERS RIGHT UP YOUR FREAKING ARSE YOU FRACKIN RIP OFF MERCHANTS. C U Next Tuesday Suckers

Only it doesn't seem to work that way on this site just yet.

Since our friends at GNER have started posting comments, they've asked a number of questions of us commuters/passengers/customers, call us what you will, most if not all of which have been answered. Yet they don't appear to want to answer our questions. For instance, Ive asked how they felt about the proposed industrial action over the xmas period and whether no RP checks and Trolly service is a consequence of staff shortages born from the recruitment freeze. Both of these questions and others have been ignored.

This site seems to have the pottential to be a great debating platform as well as a general life on trains type blog. But it won't be if we only get one side of the story. I think it's only right that they're careful about what they say but that doesn't mean it's fair or reasonable to ignore a question altogether and expect us to lay our hearts and mind on the table. As far as I'm concerned this should be a 2 way thing and I'm sure you can post individual views or comments without running the risk of a visit from Lord GNER and his band of secret thought police.

What about it guys?

Following mondays news that Newtwork rail have made a £747m profit, The BBC are inviting commuters to post comments about their journey and/or what they think about rail travel in the UK generally.

Click the link if you'd like to add your thoughts: -

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=4841&&&&edition=1&ttl=20061129085713