BR 超貼心的英國國鐵／鄭恒隆

1994-97年: 民営化

Under the process of British Rail's privatisation operations were split into over 100 companies. The ownership and operation of the infrastructure of the railway system was taken over by Railtrack. The rolling stock was transferred to three private ROSCO's (ROlling Stock COmpanies). Passenger services were divided into 25 operating companies which were/are let on a franchise-basis for a set number of years, whilst freight services were sold off completely. Dozens of smaller engineering and maintenance companies were also created and sold off.

Since privatisation the structure of the rail industry and number of companies has changed many times, see History of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to date.

日本語

旅遊的滋味----超貼心的英國國鐵

搭乘火車前往英國中部的柯芬特里，此處仍保留多棟15世紀的「都鐸式」建築。

今天的品嘗者／鄭恒隆

在國外旅行，信用卡遺失是旅行中最大不方便的事。我在英國旅行購票時信用卡「失而復得」的親身經歷，讓人對「英國國家鐵路公司」（British Rail）的貼心服務深感佩服。

抵 達倫敦Euston地鐵站，我購買火車票準備前往中部的柯芬特里（Coventry），售票員好心提醒6分鐘後就有一班火車，因此在匆忙刷卡購票後，就直 奔月台。火車行駛大約15分鐘後，一名女查票員親切問我是否刷信用卡購票？原以為是查票，她看我掏出車票，又再問一次是否刷信用卡購票？我回答是，她就要 我檢查信用卡是否還在？

掏出皮夾一看，信用卡果真不見蹤影！問了我的卡別和發卡銀行後，她說，我的信用卡遺忘在售票亭，接著問我是否會回到 倫敦？或轉往別處？我表明5天後會返回倫敦，她就用電話和站務人員聯絡，然後遞了張寫著一串數字的紙條給我，告訴我不用擔心，站務人員已將我的信用卡「封 存」，等我回到倫敦車站，只要出示密碼就可領回信用卡。

附帶一提的是，英國火車分快車和慢車，有時抵達時間僅相差30、40分鐘，票價卻相差一倍。另外，千萬不要當「觀光客」在遊客詢問櫃台購票，因為票價比排隊購買貴上5英鎊，大概是酌收「專人服務費」吧？如果利用車站裡的購票機，又比排隊買票便宜。