Swanage May 2019 “Oh no, that's not the ticket”
01/05/19 04:30
I travel on a lot of trains. Maybe you have noticed that? This weekend I drove to Swanage, a town on England's south coast, to travel on trains hauled by diesel locomotives. I used to do a lot of train travel in the early 80s, so much so that I appeared on TV, radio and in the newspapers for my exploits. The railway here is what is called a 'heritage' or 'preserved line', ie it was closed by the state owned 'British Railways' and is now operated by an independent company for tourists. Here, once a year, for enthusiasts like me they operate the line for a few days using diesel rather than steam locomotives. It is a very popular event and I had booked accommodation some ten miles from where I needed to be. The evening before I set off to Swanage I checked where I could park and how much it would cost. I had been here before so whilst I had little doubt about the location I wanted to know the cost and discovered it would be £8 for the day. Ouch, that's a bit expensive in this age. I used Google Streetview to find an alternative but all the nearby roadside parking appeared to be for local residents only and the images showed it was fully utilized during the day. I accepted I would have to pay that to leave the car there all day.
After a long drive the next morning I found that half the car park had already been taken up by the local 'Friday Market'. This was not looking good but I didn't have any other options but there was just enough space left to park alongside the handful of other cars and I walked over to the machine to pay the fee. There were five different rates, depending on how long you wanted to stay and you selected the rate by pressing a button which rotated through the price options. First press offered 1.5GBP, then 3GBP and so on until 8GBP for the full day was displayed. That was what I wanted so I selected that and then looked for how to pay. A choice of credit card or money was offered so knowing that cash might be useful later in the day I used my credit card and the machine spewed out a ticket. As I walked back to my car I glanced at the ticket and it looked like I had only paid for an hour rather than all day. I stopped, starred at the printed paper, I HAD only bought one hour and paid 1.5GBP. How had that happened? I had checked the machine before paying to ensure I had selected the right amount but now it was the wrong amount. I turned and glared at the machine, what should I do now? The options were to go back and pay another 8GBP or see if I could find somewhere to park on a nearby road. I was not at all happy but decided that paying another 8GBP was not reasonable and went back to my car and drove off. Less than 400m away I found an empty and FREE roadside parking space where I could stay all day!
Looking back at this I was certain that I had selected to pay 8GBP but what was actually chosen was the minimum payment option. I actually didn't need to pay, there was ample free roadside parking and I used that for the next two days of my stay here.
After a long drive the next morning I found that half the car park had already been taken up by the local 'Friday Market'. This was not looking good but I didn't have any other options but there was just enough space left to park alongside the handful of other cars and I walked over to the machine to pay the fee. There were five different rates, depending on how long you wanted to stay and you selected the rate by pressing a button which rotated through the price options. First press offered 1.5GBP, then 3GBP and so on until 8GBP for the full day was displayed. That was what I wanted so I selected that and then looked for how to pay. A choice of credit card or money was offered so knowing that cash might be useful later in the day I used my credit card and the machine spewed out a ticket. As I walked back to my car I glanced at the ticket and it looked like I had only paid for an hour rather than all day. I stopped, starred at the printed paper, I HAD only bought one hour and paid 1.5GBP. How had that happened? I had checked the machine before paying to ensure I had selected the right amount but now it was the wrong amount. I turned and glared at the machine, what should I do now? The options were to go back and pay another 8GBP or see if I could find somewhere to park on a nearby road. I was not at all happy but decided that paying another 8GBP was not reasonable and went back to my car and drove off. Less than 400m away I found an empty and FREE roadside parking space where I could stay all day!
Looking back at this I was certain that I had selected to pay 8GBP but what was actually chosen was the minimum payment option. I actually didn't need to pay, there was ample free roadside parking and I used that for the next two days of my stay here.