You’ve Got A Ticket To Ride, Part 2

(My brother moved to Scotland several years ago. It is quite a long and expensive train journey. About an hour or so away from the station I need to get off at, someone comes along to check the tickets. I hand her mine.)

Ticket Lady: “Um… I’m sorry, but this ticket was to get off in Edinburgh.”

(She hands the ticket back to me and just walks off. I look at it and realise my mistake. I’d bought the ticket from a machine at the train station and must have been thinking of where I needed to change when I chose “Edinburgh” as a destination. For at least ten minutes I sit there silently panicking. Eventually, she comes back. I’ve pulled the last £20 out of my purse to pay for a new ticket to get to where my brother lives, and I explain my mistake. She takes my ticket back to examine it again.)

Ticket Lady: “You’ve already paid £112 on this ticket. To be fair, one to [Destination] won’t cost much more. I will write a note on the back of this explaining that you dropped your ticket while boarding. Give it to whoever is on the ticket barrier at [Destination].”

(I was a little shocked. She even wrote down what must have been her specific employee number to authorise it in case they questioned it at the barrier. She moved off, but I saw her again on the platform when I got off. I thanked her again, and she waved it away as if it was no big deal. She had well and truly made my day. Just a small act of kindness goes a long way! I managed to treat my nephew and brother with my final bit of cash, so she was truly a life-saver. I wish I got her name or even made a note of her employee number; she deserved more than a “thank-you.”)

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