Beach saunas, wild swimming, and a plush hotel in Devon – it was the perfect holiday retreat for Mariella Frostrup.
That was until the journalist encountered Great Western Railway – and was forced to spend a two-hour journey sitting on the train floor by the toilets despite holding a first-class ticket.
Returning from her wellness break, the 61-year-old splashed out on a pricier seat, but was met with a packed service from Tiverton Parkway to London Paddington.
Ms Frostrup shared a selfie sitting on the floor, wedged next to the door of the train looking sullen.
She wrote: ‘New lows for GWR. A first-class advance ticket buys you a seat on [the] floor outside the toilet in a train where it’s standing room from front to rear.
‘I’m getting back in my car.’
Mariella Frostrup pictured sitting on the floor during her train journey from Tiverton Parkway, Devon to London Paddington
She spent the two-hour journey on the floor despite having a first-class ticket
Mariella Frostrup’s series of tweets after she was made to sit on the floor despite having a first class ticket
When Ms Frostrup confronted the train manager, she told him: ‘It’s really disappointing.
‘For once, I paid out for a first-class ticket and I’m so tired of this completely unprofessional service.’
He empathised with her, told her to seek a refund, and added: ‘It’s not just unprofessional, it’s inhuman.’
A first-class single ticket typically costs more than £100 for the two-hour service. Documenting her miserable journey on X, she wrote: ‘Standing room only, even in first (class).’
‘Is [this] photo proof [for] GWR that I’ve just sat on the floor from Tiverton Parkway to Paddington despite holding a first-class ticket?
‘I’ve just been told (after queuing at your Paddington ticket office for 15 mins) that I need to write and request compensation. Could you make it any harder?’
It was quite the turn of events for Ms Frostrup who had been visiting the Yeotown Health Retreat.
She thanked the wellness spot for a ‘joy-inducing time’, adding: ‘I’m lucky to have found a place that restores my equilibrium and puts me on the right path over and over again. It’s my irreplaceable luxury and I leave Yeotown calmer and quieter inside my head and stronger and fitter in my body.’
Mariella Frostrup pictuted at the Yeotown Health Retreat she had been visiting
Passengers queuing to get onto a train at Paddington station (file picture)
People walk past a Great Western Railway train in Paddington Station (file picture)
Asked about her return journey, she told the Mail: ‘Luckily I’d been doing yoga so sitting cross-legged for two hours was less of a strain. I spent these four days getting tranquil and in touch with my more zen sentiments.
‘But instead when I got to London, I was in absolute agony from sitting on the floor and I was more stressed than when I left.’
After posting about the ordeal online, users were quick to jump to her defence.
Former Labour MP Dame Joan Ruddock responded: ‘Just about the worst rail company in UK – travelling four times with them next week – dread.’ Another person said: ‘One might assume that booking a ticket came with a guaranteed seat?’
Someone else said: ‘Probably cheaper to drive, fuel and park than the cost of the ticket.’
Ms Frostrup has been a regular commuter to London from her Somerset home, but said she is now increasingly opting to take a car because the railways are ‘incredibly unreliable and incompetent’.
A spokesman for Great Western Railway said: ‘We are really sorry to hear of the customer’s experience.
‘If you have reserved a seat but are not able to sit down, you are entitled to compensation and we will follow this up.’