Tuseday 23rd Normal crap FGW service resumed
Back to normal crap First Great Western service this morning with the 07:31 36 minutes late.
Everyone had to cram on to the 2 carriage o7:37 South West trains service. Some people unable to board at Keynsham where the press were able to get some good photos of the overcrowding.
This is what happened according a comment posted :
Here is an update on this morning's workings. The 0535 Weymouth to Filton AW (0747 from Bath) was cancelled from Weymouth due to a "shortage of servicable trains". The 0647 Frome to Cardiff(07:31 from Oldfleld Park)- formed of 4 coaches comprising a 2 coach class 158 and 2 coach class 150 instead of the normal 2 x class 143 "bus" units - was delayed to run in the time of the cancelled Filton train from Frome. This train was further delayed at Westbury requiring fitters attention, which I understand was ultimately terminated, although a replacement train may have been substituted from Westbury. The 2 coach SWT 0640 Salisbury Bristol service from Westbury was a little busy picking up passengers waiting for the Cardiff. The 0700 Westbury Cheltenham was replaced by a bus to Swindon (again), and according to the FGW Live Updates, started from Swindon due to "shortage of traincrew due to sickness". The 1600 Cardiff Weymouth (1704 from Bristol)was only 2 coaches and was full and standing from Bath. As usual, it was late in arriving, and lost more time by the time it got to Frome.
Everyone had to cram on to the 2 carriage o7:37 South West trains service. Some people unable to board at Keynsham where the press were able to get some good photos of the overcrowding.
This is what happened according a comment posted :
Here is an update on this morning's workings. The 0535 Weymouth to Filton AW (0747 from Bath) was cancelled from Weymouth due to a "shortage of servicable trains". The 0647 Frome to Cardiff(07:31 from Oldfleld Park)- formed of 4 coaches comprising a 2 coach class 158 and 2 coach class 150 instead of the normal 2 x class 143 "bus" units - was delayed to run in the time of the cancelled Filton train from Frome. This train was further delayed at Westbury requiring fitters attention, which I understand was ultimately terminated, although a replacement train may have been substituted from Westbury. The 2 coach SWT 0640 Salisbury Bristol service from Westbury was a little busy picking up passengers waiting for the Cardiff. The 0700 Westbury Cheltenham was replaced by a bus to Swindon (again), and according to the FGW Live Updates, started from Swindon due to "shortage of traincrew due to sickness". The 1600 Cardiff Weymouth (1704 from Bristol)was only 2 coaches and was full and standing from Bath. As usual, it was late in arriving, and lost more time by the time it got to Frome.
posted by www.loial.co.uk at 12:12 AM
6 Comments:
This is a really useful Blog John, congratulations. I was on the appallinly overcrowded SW train too. Can anyone report if the succeeding GW trains were 2, 3, or 4 coaches.
The More Train campaign hopes to see FGW management and the DFT.
It would be really helpful to set up a very simple log of number of coaches and loading of individual trains in the am and pm ruush hour , so we can monitor the wider situation and get a picture of whether FGW is making any long term imoprovements. Is that something that could be done through this blog site?
Tony
Tony
Unfortunately I can only travel on 2 trains a day(07:31 and 17:04), but if other people post details of number of carriages on other services I am happy to post them.
Next time you travel on SWT pick up their latest in-house magazine, eMotion. You will read about how they are investing in new rolling stock to add to their already modern fleet. 8 coach trains extended to 10 and 10 coaches to 12. Even on the Bristol - Salisbury route they are rubbing salt in the wound. Their immaculate two car 158 units are being replaced with three car units which are currently being completely refurbished. So at least there will be more room on their services. And FGW? Did you know that we have coaches and drivers sitting around all day at key points on the network waiting for trains to break down? That way the service is not shown as cancelled. Westbury, Bath, Trowbridge, Bradford, Salisbury. Check out the car parks at these stations. They've been doing this for weeks and I can't imagine how much it costs. But they still deny that there is a problem. The staff are as desperate as you poor customers. The DfT and FGW must be in on this together because they both seem to deny that anything is wrong! It makes you feel like you are in a Kafka novel.
Here is an update on this morning's workings. The 0535 Weymouth to Filton AW (0747 from Bath) was cancelled from Weymouth due to a "shortage of servicable trains". The 0647 Frome to Cardiff - formed of 4 coaches comprising a 2 coach class 158 and 2 coach class 150 instead of the normal 2 x class 143 "bus" units - was delayed to run in the time of the cancelled Filton train from Frome. This train was further delayed at Westbury requiring fitters attention, which I understand was ultimately terminated, although a replacement train may have been substituted from Westbury. The 2 coach SWT 0640 Salisbury Bristol service from Westbury was a little busy picking up passengers waiting for the Cardiff. The 0700 Westbury Cheltenham was replaced by a bus to Swindon (again), and according to the FGW Live Updates, started from Swindon due to "shortage of traincrew due to sickness". The 1600 Cardiff Weymouth (1704 from Bristol)was only 2 coaches and was full and standing from Bath. As usual, it was late in arriving, and lost more time by the time it got to Frome.
This 'shortage of traincrew due to sickness' is a bit unlikely as 'cover' crew are rostered to sit at each depot to 'cover' last minute jobs. Built in to the roster are regular 'spare' days where no job is allocated. This gives flexibility to fill in for advance sickness. Since the new timetable there has been less work (less trains!) so most depots have some crew available most of the day.
The real problem has been the centralisation of rostering to Swindon in the last week. It was formerly done on a personal level at each depot and worked well. Now it is arranged remotely by people in an office dealing with several depots by fax and phone. It is chaos at both ends as nobody seems to know who is sick or available for overtime. And ther is nobody at the depot to sort out last minute problems. In fact Swindon are unaware of last minute problems! So some shifts are covered twice and others not at all. I don't know who is more frustrated - you or us! This problem is not connected to the lack of trains or the unreliability of trains. However it can be doubly frustrating if you do finally get a train organised and then find that there is nobody there to crew it. It's getting beyond a joke.
A reality show based on a FGW train depot would be a winner - and would have plenty of daytime viewers as so many people will either not have been able to get to work or will have lost their jobs. C4 - are you listening?
Two additional class 158 two car sets have arrived this week from First Tranpennine (one is in the green Central Trains livery). One of these two units (158784) managed to fail on its first day in use with FGW this being the 07:30 Cardiff to Fareham, terminated at Bristol TM??
Oh just for ammusement we have decided FIRST stands for: Flipping Idiots Running Sh*te Trains.
Post a Comment
<< Home