I should like to nominate Great Western Railway and Cross­Country as worthy recipients of the 2017 Reggie Perrin Mem­orial Award after a comedy of errors on Monday morning.

Arriving at Totnes to travel to Teddington, the Exeter stopping service was running late and passengers were advised by station staff to catch the CrossCountry service immediately behind, as this would be the first to arrive at Exeter.

As we watched the GWR ‘train’ lurch off into the distance, the platform information board suddenly burst into life and the CrossCountry train that had been on time was now also just as late – blast!

Piling onto the train, the train manager informed us that his train was scheduled to follow the GWR train into Exeter.

Would we still be able to catch our connection from Exeter to Waterloo? Apparently it is not his job to advise on other train companies’ services, only the train that he is responsible for.

Arriving at Exeter, the Waterloo train was still on the platform. I ran like a demented bear of little brain and I arrived at the doors just as they were closing.

I explained to the ‘train manager’ that the connection from Totnes had been delayed. Which connection is that? I explained we had been advised to catch the CrossCountry service by Totnes station staff.

Unfortunately, he said that as the CrossCountry service was not a scheduled connection, we would have to wait an hour for the next service and locked the doors.

Approaching the station staff, I asked about options to minimise the delay in getting to Teddington but, as my ticket did not include travel through London apparently, I would have to wait an hour for the next Waterloo service.

I suggested that changing at Reading from the Paddington service might be an option.

Oh yes, good idea, these are the connections you’ll need to make which reduced the delay from an hour to 25 minutes.

I do wonder whether David Nobbs, the originator and scriptwriter behind Reggie Perrin, wrote this morning’s screenplay or is it just continuing incompetence?

Alan Bennett

Station Road, Loddiswell