The Southern Way To Do PR
I flew to Geneva from Gatwick on easyJet on an early afternoon flight, as that way, I got to have a good lunch in Jamie’s Italian in the North Terminal. I always prefer to arrive in a strange place well fed, as I can’t be sure of the food I can get there.
To get to Gatwick, I generally go using the Overground to Clapham Junction and then get one of the many trains to the airport, from there.
Together with quite a few other passengers, I piled into one of Southern’s Class 377 trains. I’ve written about these trains before, and Second Class is so good, I never bother with First. At £6.85 from Clapham Junction to Gatwick, it’s definitely good value, especially as they are well-tabled trains.
But we all piled into a First Class section of the train!
Before the first stop at East Croydon, this was discovered by the ticket collector, who very politely asked us to move on, or buy a simple upgrade. A few jokes were exchanged and I think we all moved, although one guy did buy the upgrade.
I never saw the ticket collector again.
I do wonder though, whether with these trains, the comfort in Second Class is not perceptibly below that in First. The only difference is you have a big table in First and a few signs.
The inspector had handled the situation impeccably and he had warned us about revenue protection officers, who aren’t so pleasant.
I suspect that the whole incident, got Southern a few more returning customers.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] Behimd all of this was my worry, that I’d heard that Swiss ticket inspectors, were rather hard in dealing with supposed fare dodgers. They don’t use the approach I found on Southern. […]
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