A BBC reporter put a note on Reading Cycling Club's Facebook page asking if anyone had been impacted by Great Western Railways (GWR) policy change, where bikes now had to be booked onto Cross Country trains...at that moment I was trying to plan my journey to and from Kirklington, to the north of Oxford, on the Wednesday, and I was having to specifically avoid Cross Country trains, as I didn't know what time I would be coming back, so it definitely struck a chord with me.
I replied, and after a couple of emails and phone calls I found myself meeting Ben Moore, a BBC correspondent, outside Reading Train Station to do a news story about it. I had been booked on to trains to and from Paddington by GWR's Press Office, and Ben was going to film and interview me.
It was all going well until we found out that the booking system was down...it then got worse when the train manager refused to let me onto the train in quite an angry and aggressive manner...all on camera, and while the station manager was desperately trying to call the press officer. After delaying the train for 10 minutes (bloody cyclists) it left without us. not the best demonstration of the ease of travelling on the trains!
We eventually got to Paddington, briefly irritating passengers in a Quiet carriage (we'd completely missed the window stickers), and I made my own way back while Ben interviewed the press officer.The final edit actually makes me look less gormless than I was expecting! Shame he got my name wrong :-(
The final news story can be seen here