Great Greyhound customer service

I am amazed just quite how many visits this site is getting every day and thanks for all the comments - both here and the ones sent privately. I know there are lots of staff checking in as I keep on meeting them on my travels and I'm glad to know you find it interesting.

"Travel's a curse" they say (in Les Miserables) and not always glamorous (he said having recently dragged his suitcase across a windswept provincial runway at 0630 in the dark) but that is our business and we are seeking to transform it in all its various aspects.

I have today had an enjoyable visit to our Greyhound operation starting this morning on the coach from London to Portsmouth. A perfect journey, on time and well delivered, power and wifi for the technology, leather seats and plenty of legroom. Have you tried it yet? Attention to customer service is paramount and when an unavoidable problem beset a Southampton-bound coach the passengers were picked up by a spare vehicle and ferried home, and I mean home!

Yes - we made our way down narrow residential roads and delivered passengers to just where they wanted to get to, and no - this wasn't stage-managed for my benefit! On a door-to-door basis this took no longer than if their planned coach had operated normally. Good customer service involves empowering staff to make local decisions like this and tonight word of mouth will be spreading Greyhound good news in the area.

So well done to Managing Director Alex Warner and his top team at Greyhound, specifically Shaun and David who I left at Southampton Central Station giving out Greyhound information to passengers who have no rail service any weekend in December.

If you are interested in transport and have a few spare surfing seconds do check in at http://www.busesonscreen.net/screen/screen.htm website where the starring and "walk-on" roles of buses and coaches on TV and in films are comprehensively documented. Lots of footage from past decades as well as the attempts by film makers to recreate the past (some more successful than others). I'm adding a link to this site from here so do take a look. I used to be involved in quite a lot of film and TV work and it is amazing to see some of this again all those years later. As you will imagine these assignments took hours or days to make and often then appear only for a few seconds.
Nevertheless film extras are always well-fed so the waiting around wasn't too bad. I think The Great Muppet Caper was the worst - we turned up on Monday and waited until Thursday before we were used. You can still see me in that - I'm the one in the rowing boat in the lake in Battersea Park whilst Kermit and Miss Piggy are riding bicycles and singing......