First Great Western has most overcrowded trains

No surprise that FGW has the worst overcrowding. See this article

Puntuality and reliablity seem to have fallen off a cliff in the past 2 months.

First Great Western to lose 30 carriages

First Great Western has lost out on 30 carriages dubbed "Boris Johnson's hand-me-downs" to two northern Integrated Transport Authorities in the north.

The company had hoped to receive the carriages next year, to replace 24 that are due to be returned to other train operating companies at the end of June.

Instead, passengers in the Merseyside and South Yorkshire areas will benefit from the carriages, following a decision by the Department for Transport and rolling stock companies that provide them.

Prepare for more overcrowding

Staffing of Oldfield Park Station

I have recently been in regular contact with Mike Greedy of Passenger Focus on the subject of the staffing of Oldfield Park Station. Since the installation of the unreliable ticket machine, staffing of the station has become extremely irregular.

Mike has now held meetings with First Great Western to remind them that they have a franchise commitment to staff Oldfield Park and Keynsham at peaks times. First Great Western have now agreed to recruit staff to man these 2 stations.

Just 8 new carriages for FGW

Only 52 of the 1,300 carriages to be introduced nationwide in 2010 will be allocated to First Great Western, which operates services across the South West and to London.
But the real number of carriages dedicated to the South West will be in single figures.
Twenty carriages are destined for First’s operations in London and the Thames Valley while a further 24, currently on hire from other train operators, have to be returned in 2010.
That leaves just eight new carriages to serve a network which has seen a 15 per cent increase in passenger numbers in the past 18 months.

24th December

0731 15 minutes late

Performance Bulletins

Please subscribe to FGW Performance Bulletins using the link on the right. It makes interesting if depressing reading. What it does make clear is that nearly all the delays, cancellations and shortformings are due to causes within FGW control, such as staff shortages and train failures.

Here is an examle from this afternoon for Bristol

Date: Friday 21 December 2007
Service: Afternoon peak services out of London Paddington and Bristol
Details:
First Great Western is sorry to report:
1430 London Paddington to Weston Super Mare has been cancelled; this is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.
1511 Weymouth to Gloucester will now terminate at Bristol Temple Meads; this is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.
1518 Taunton to Cardiff Central has been cancelled; this is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.
1549 Bristol Temple Meads to Avonmouth has been cancelled; this is due to a member of train crew being unavailable. Replacement road transport has been arranged.
1621 London Paddington to Oxford will now be formed of 5 carriages instead of 8; this is due to an earlier train fault.
1649 Bristol Temple Meads to Avonmouth has been cancelled; this is due to a member of train crew being unavailable. Replacement road transport has been arranged.
1708 Weston Super Mare to London Paddington will be started from Bristol Temple Meads; this is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.
The Information TeamFirst Great Western
______________________________________________________________________

First Great Western say "Sorry". Well sort of...

"UNDER-fire train company First Great Western (FGW) is offering regular passengers a Christmas bonus in the form of compensation for its shoddy service.
Andrew Haines, FGW’s chief operating officer, has said sorry to disgruntled commuters by offering vouchers, worth the equivalent of two days’ travel, to all season ticket holders.
In an open letter to customers on the company’s website, Mr Haines said he knew that passengers “will judge us on our results” and promised FGW journeys would improve soon.
He said: “I know from my own experience just how frustrating it can be when your train is late and I want to say sorry for our recent poor performance and the inconvenience it has caused.
“Signalling and track problems, overrunning engineering work by Network Rail, freight and passenger train failures, trains without enough carriages and crew shortages have all caused problems.
“I want you to know that I am committed to getting these problems sorted.”
Mr Haines said Network Rail would spend £750 million over the next 18 months to make the region’s track and signals more reliable, and promised FGW would recruit an extra 40 drivers and 60 guards to reduce crew shortages.
He also said train reliabilty would be a priority in 2008 as the company’s programme of installing new engines in its high-speed fleed nears completion.
Season ticket holders can claim their free travel vouchers by sending a copy of their ticket to MPR10368: Customer Services, Freepost SWB40576, Plymouth, PL4 6ZZ.
Emailed claims can be made by sending a scanned image of your season ticket to fgwfeedback@firstgroup.com."

17th December

magiccycle wrote

17 December: Update on journey Keynsham-OldfieldPk1656 to Weymouth didn't appear at Keynsham. Suspect that since the livedepartureboards had been reporting the first section of this train (originating in Malvern) as cancelled for the Malvern->BristolTM stage all afternoon; i rapidly concluded that it had been cancelled......with no announcement...1. the passenger (dis)information button gave the wrong time and 'sorry we cannot give train info at this time msg' (as per normal, time hasnt been right since at least BST end?)2. the 484950 text service gave 'no report' on it at 1656, and then just forgot about it altogether when i requeried at 1657.Service, what service?Had to cycle home instead. Bl*** annoying since was late for a nursery pickup. Do you think FGW will reimburse me the £10-£20 latepickup fee? I doubt it - even though i bought a ticket for their service this morning on the way to work.... and hence entered into a provision of service contract with them (surely something like that?)...

14th December

More delays this morning....

More Train Less Strain are holding a brainstorming and planning meeting Saturday 15th December at the am Green Park brasserie.

Tony Ambrose says

"See you in Green Park station this Saturday at 10:30
Momentum is fast building for us to do something, and FGW is very vulnerable at the moment as anyone will know who currently takes their trains. They are under a lot of pressure from the media and 14 MPs have moved an emergency motion that they have the franchise removed and the FGW trains are taken into national ownership"

Friday 7th December

Trust First Great Western to bugger up your day. I attempted to leave work early and catch the 1638 from Britaol Temple Meads, only for it to never depart. No explaination, nothing, Just didn't move. So evetually decided to cut my losses and catch the 1704.

God knows when the 1638 finally departed, if ever.

Bloody useles First Great Western

Comment on Passenger Focus post

Lee Fletcher said...
I have some questions on this :1) Mike Greedy says that 8 units are going back but Andrew Griffiths (FGW Regional Manager for the Severn / Solent area) says that 10 are going back. Who is correct?2) How can it be that FGW "will have more than enough carriages" if they are trying to divert Bath - bound passengers away from the local services and onto HST's in the evening peak?3) I am most interested in Mike Greedy's "intervention" which (apparently) has ensured that "a ‘spare’ unit will be stabled at Westbury from next Monday onwards to cater for breakdowns or shortages which may occur during the morning peak."Is his obviously growing influence anything to do with the fact that Passenger Focus is funded by the Department for Transport , I wonder?Recent comment from Rail minister Tom Harris :"The Department continues to listen to the representations of Passenger Focus and has invited them to take a greater role in commenting on the specification of future franchises."Wouldnt the next logical step be for the DfT to "invite" Passenger Focus to "comment" on rolling stock allocation?Lee Fletcher said...
I have some questions on this :1) Mike Greedy says that 8 units are going back but Andrew Griffiths (FGW Regional Manager for the Severn / Solent area) says that 10 are going back. Who is correct?2) How can it be that FGW "will have more than enough carriages" if they are trying to divert Bath - bound passengers away from the local services and onto HST's in the evening peak?3) I am most interested in Mike Greedy's "intervention" which (apparently) has ensured that "a ‘spare’ unit will be stabled at Westbury from next Monday onwards to cater for breakdowns or shortages which may occur during the morning peak."Is his obviously growing influence anything to do with the fact that Passenger Focus is funded by the Department for Transport , I wonder?Recent comment from Rail minister Tom Harris :"The Department continues to listen to the representations of Passenger Focus and has invited them to take a greater role in commenting on the specification of future franchises."Wouldnt the next logical step be for the DfT to "invite" Passenger Focus to "comment" on rolling stock allocation?

Leased rolling stock not to be replaced?

moretrainlessstrain posted the following :


Bad news, First Great Western are going for the maximum fare incerase on this line on 2nd Jan. A return from Bath to Bristol TM is going up from 6.20 to 6.80.
This suggests that the fare reduction in Sept was nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt.
In addition 12 coaches of the better sprinter stock are being sent back to the leasing company and then on to Northern rail att the end of this month. These are the coaches that FGW leased in response to the Fare Strike. Unfortunately, FGW only took on a 12 month lease. It is uncertain how or if they will be replaced, as FGW have made it clear they have been unable to find an equivalent replacement.
More Train Less Strain is sensing that appetite may be building for another demonstration early in the new Year. Suggstions so far are another fare strike ( difficult with the barriers at Bath) or rebranding a train as it pulls into Bath or Oldfield Park.
If you would like to be kept informed of plans please email me at: tambrose31@yahoo.co.uk

4th December

Yet more chaos this morning at Oldfield Park as the First Great Western 07:31 broke down at Bath and turned up 15 minutes late at Oldfield Park with only 2 carriages instead of teh usual 4. About 100 people at Oldfield Park were unable to board and had to wait for the 0737 South West trains service(itself delayed by the FGW service). Needless to say that was standing room only too.

There as a First Great Western "Service Deliver Manager" on the platform at Oldfield Park train station who obtained a good understanding of how angry passengers are at the level of service provided.

What with leaflets being handed out by staff at Bristol Temple Meads and Service Delivery Managers turning up at Oldfield Park it looks to me like FGW are preparing for the impact of the new timetable....the omens are not good.

New timetable : FGW warn of overcrowding

The new First Great Western timetable is due to start next weekend and already FGW staff at Bristol Temple Meads are handing out leaflets stateing that local services between Bristol, Keynsham, Oldfield Park and Bath are "expected to be extremely busy"(i.e grossly overcrowded) and advising Bath passengers to "consider catching alternative services", i,e the Paddington services which "will have additional capacity". Why, if they know the local services will be "extremely busy", do they not add the "additional capacity" to the local services that need it rather than the Paddington services which do not call at the local stations?

See the full leaflet here

Services to Weymouth to suffer in new timetable.

Travelling to Weymouth will be more difficult with the new timetable to be introduced in December. The first service to arrive at Weymouth will be 8.05am, but the next will be at 11.05am and 12.06pm, with the first train running only from Westbury.
The only viable late afternoon return train moves back to 5.11pm, and the gap to the next and last departure from Weymouth extends to almost three hours.
The new timetable also terminates direct services from Weymouth to Cardiff which were introduced last December.

Light at the end of the (Twerton) tunnel?

It was not a good week to be travelling to and from Oldfield Park, but there was one cause for optimism. On Thursday and Friday the 17:04 from BTM was 3 carriages. Certainly an odd collection of carraiges(those manual dividing doors REALLY confused us), with some apparently coming from the Trans Pennine route, but carriages all the same. However the down side is that the 17:22 seems to be 2 carriages more often. Lets see what happens next week.