An Edinburgh ScotRail passenger was left fuming after being forced to take an 140-mile round trip to retrieve his lost phone after staff "couldn't" return it to his local station.
Daniel McGrogan was travelling from Edinburgh to Livingston North when he realised he left his phone on the train.
The 23-year old spent five hours after a full working day, trekking from Edinburgh Haymarket to Helensburgh Central to collect his lost phone, after ScotRail staff claimed they could not pass it to one of the central stations due to a "liability issue."
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ScotRail claim that lost property is left at the station train service terminates at for a couple of days before being moved to the main office at Glasgow Queen Street.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live the 23-year-old said: "I was on the train to work this morning, and when I got off I realised I had left my phone.
"I kind of frantically started looking for it, before giving up hope of finding it in my bag and tried to phone ScotRail.
"Phoning them was harder than it sounds, customer service said they don't deal with lost and found and gave me the number for Glasgow Queen Street lost and found, which doesn't actually have anyone answering the phone.
"It's just a voicemail, it's also not where the train terminated. I couldn't find any number for Helensburgh Central online, they all lead to customer service or Glasgow Queen Street.
"I then moved on to trying to message ScotRail on Facebook, who again gave me the number for Queen Street (I think that's their favourite station).
"I asked for the Helensburgh Central number, the guy then told me they don't hand out train station numbers that aren't Queen Street.
"I asked if he could contact them, which is when he replied telling me that they usually wouldn't do that during peak hours, but he graciously made an exception.
"The train arrived at Helensburgh Central, and they found it, which was pretty lucky.
"I asked if they could give it to a conductor to take back to Waverley, which I was told wasn't happening, I later found out as they replied to my tweet that it's a liability issue - I don't believe that.
"I also asked if I could collect it this weekend because I was at work, to which I was advised to collect it today.
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"It was really a 140-mile trip factoring in both trains. They had replied to my tweet saying it's policy to not move lost items once they are found.
"It was just less than convenient since I didn't finish work until 16:30 and it's a 4.5 hour round trip from work to Helensburgh and back to Edinburgh."
A ScotRail spokesperson said: “If we find lost property, we do what we can to reunite it with their rightful owner. However, it’s far better not to lose them in the first place.
"That’s why we ask our passengers to take an extra second to look before they leave the train.”
