Does anyone know how to get station phone numbers please. I remember in the past trying to get hold of a number and being refused. You have to go thru' the central contact point. You are not allowed to call a station directly which seems mad.

Today my son left his bag on the platform at Guildford station. We just can't get a number for the station., If you phone up lost property it goes to a central number and they ask you to call back in 24 hours, whereas a simple call to the station should sort it out quickly.

Guildford Railway Station is operated by South West Trains, see its National Rail pages. That page gives lost property as 020 7401 7861 (0730-1930 Mon-Fri), and the same number is also given on South West Trains' contact page.

I think that railway station phone numbers are a closely guarded secret. I've looked around for Guildford, but unless you want to call WH Smith or Hertz based there, then it's a no no.

Looks like you'll have to wait until tomorrow to speak to someone. It's a good job that it will be a weekday tomorrow, as if it was the weekend, you would have had to have waited until Monday morning (or Tuesday if it had been a bank holiday), that is if you didn't want to (or couldn't) go to the station in person.

Thanks Dave. You seem to have got the same dead end as I have.

Fortunately as it was a Thursday he lost his bag so my son went to the lost property office at Guildford the next morning. His bag wasn't there. That is the only way of contacting the local lost property office. You have to turn up in person. After 24 hours the property is sent to Waterloo. If you want to get it back you have to go to Waterloo to get it or pay postage for the return.

Utter madness.

So if it were a station you didn't visit regularly or weren't going in the next day (say he lost it of Friday), then we have to make a fruitless journey to Guildford (30 mile round trip) just to find out it isn't there, rather than make a call and be told it isn't there.

Or we can wait 24 hours and call the central number who may tell us that they now have it, the bag having made a needless train journey to Waterloo. However it apparently can't make a journey back so we have to collect it or pay postage.

I don't have a problem with this for stuff that isn't claimed quickly, but to obstruct customers from finding out if something has been handed in until it is sent to Waterloo 24 hours later is perverse.

I can think of no other organisation that refuses to give out telephone numbers like this. What difference does it make whether my son speaks to the person concerned on the phone or in person. Why make him make a long trip just to be disappointed.

I know this is not Guildford station, but could it give you any clues?



West Clandon Railway Station, The Street, West Clandon, Guildford, Surrey, GU4 7TE ..........01483 222 728

Keith wrote on Oct 10^th, 2010 at 7:11pm:

Fortunately as it was a Thursday he lost his bag so my son went to the lost property office at Guildford the next morning. His bag wasn't there. That is the only way of contacting the local lost property office. You have to turn up in person. After 24 hours the property is sent to Waterloo. If you want to get it back you have to go to Waterloo to get it or pay postage for the return. Utter madness. So if it were a station you didn't visit regularly or weren't going in the next day (say he lost it of Friday), then we have to make a fruitless journey to Guildford (30 mile round trip) just to find out it isn't there, rather than make a call and be told it isn't there. Or we can wait 24 hours and call the central number who may tell us that they now have it, the bag having made a needless train journey to Waterloo. However it apparently can't make a journey back so we have to collect it or pay postage. I don't have a problem with this for stuff that isn't claimed quickly, but to obstruct customers from finding out if something has been handed in until it is sent to Waterloo 24 hours later is perverse.

An absolutely crazy situation!

As you say, it's the first 24 hours that are crucial, and if you could have spoken to them there and then (when it became apparent that the luggage had been forgotten), then the situation could have been resolved so much easier.

Of course, this is is South West Trains policy, which presumably applies at all its stations and on its trains. Other rail operators that run other stations may have similar or different policies on lost property.

All in all, it's the luck of the draw as to which station you loose your property at and what the operator's policy is.


I suggest you might like to consider one or more of the following:

• South West Trains is part of Stagecoach Group. FWIW, write to its chief executive and co-founder, Brian Souter. See here. CEO e-mail gives his PA's address: glenys.mackreth@stagecoachgroup.com, although the September 2010 edition of the company's newsletter says that Ms MacKreth has retired.
  
• Write to your MP (you would perhaps be best waiting until it is resolved and you have the bag back until you do this).
  
• Contact to your local newspaper about this.

Dave, thanks I have raised a complaint, which I expect to get brushed off.

Sherbert, You do realise this is top secret don't you :-[

[quote author=Keith link=1286484191/0#5 date=1286794506]

Sherbert, You do realise this is top secret don't you :-[/quote]

If that is the case, how come I found the number on www.192.com ::)

Dave wrote on Oct 11^th, 2010 at 10:16am:

South West Trains is part of Stagecoach Group. FWIW, write to its chief executive and co-founder, Brian Souter. See here. CEO e-mail gives his PA's address: glenys.mackreth@stagecoachgroup.com, although the September 2010 edition of the company's newsletter says that Ms MacKreth has retired.

Further to my earlier posting, I notified Marcus Williamson (creator of CEO E-mail) of my findings and he has sourced a new address: rhona.gray@stagecoachgroup.com

Thanks to Mr Williamson for maintaining his list.

Unless you work in the industry or know someone that has an internal telephone book you will not get current railway numbers. Normally as soon as they are released they get changed pretty sharpish.

Anyway just to prove a point.

GUILDFORD
SWT
---
Station Approach, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4UT
01483 465567 (main)
01483 465568 (Passimeter)

M-F 06:10-22:00
Sa 06:10-22:00
Sun 06:20-22:00

Last time I left something at a railway station, I rang the coffee shop located on the station platform and the helpful person there popped into the station booking office and asked someone (it might have helped that I'd bought a few items from them, before getting on the train). Kept me on hold for about 5 minutes while away, and then confirmed that said item would still be locked in the station office on my return next day... and it was!

That was a few years ago; probably wouldn't be so helpful these days.