Sweeping it under the carpet

Oldfield Park station has been without a ticket machine for 2 months and is staffed only irregularly. So, arriving this morning I was pleased to see a member of FGW staff on the station. Maybe today I could buy a ticket before I boarded the train and would not have to join the long queue at the barrier at BTM.

The ticket office was shut, so customers asked the man, who was swepping up rubbish, whether he was selling tickets. To which he replied Yes, but he had to finish sweeping up the rubbish. This drew an amused and frustrated reaction from those wanting tickets, since with several dozen people of the platform it seemed that selling tickets ought to take priority. But no, he continued sweeping and then eventually...VERY slowly, opened the ticket office and prepared to sell tickets. By which time my train had arrived and it was too late. Excellant customer service FGW!

1707

What IS going on with the 1707 from Bristol Temple Meads?

Reduced to 2 carriages since the timetable change it is regularly late and for the past 2 nights has been joined to the 1722. Tonight there was confusion as the dricer announced the first stop was Bath. We got off, thenn we got on again. Unlike last night the combined train did not call at Keynsham, so not sure what happened to those passengers.

The evening service from Bristol Temple Meads has degraded significantly since the December timetable change

Station manned at last

It looks like First Great Western have completed their recruitment process and Oldfield Park Station was manned for the first time in months on Friday. This SHOULD be a permanent arrangement.

I am still awaiting feedback from Passenger Focus with regard to the loss of a carriage on the 1707 from Bristol Temple Meads. Since the December time table change this service has been 2 carriages only, instead of 3. This has resulted in a lot of overcrowding of the "How the hell am I going to get off this train at my stop?" type.

Tuesday 6th January

Chaos this morning due to a loss of power and signalling problems between Bath and Bristol.

The only information available at Oldfield Park(because the station is unmanned in contravention of FGW's franchise commitments) was that from the automated information system. This very helpfully told you that "no trains were scheduled to depart from this station in the next 99 minutes".

I gave up and got the bus. Single to Temple Meads was £4.60 by the way.

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.

18th December

1707 15 minutes late leaving Bristol Temple Meads due to having to adopt 2 carriages from the Bristol Parkway service.

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?)...

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?

Update from Passenger Focus

The additional carriages leased in to ease the capacity problems created by the timetable change last December are being returned to Northern Rail at the end of this week. Eight units are going back but FGW have leased in an additional 12 units to replace them so they will have more than enough carriages to service the new timetable which starts next Monday.

I have been concerned at the amount of short-forming of trains that has been occurring in this area over the past couple of months and have taken this matter up directly with the new Chief Operating Officer in the company. He is fully aware of the issues affecting our part of the route particularly the Cardiff/Portsmouth short-formings which have a significant impact on cross-Bristol routes during peak times. As a result of my intervention, I am hopeful 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. This will provide the facility for the ‘spare’ to in-fill if there are problems with the allocated train heading towards Bristol.

I have also managed to persuade the company to strengthen its contingency plan in respect of stopping High Speed trains at Oldfield Park and Keynsham during the morning peak IF local services have failed and passengers are left stranded at those stations. This contingency has been used a lot more this year and I will be monitoring its use as the new timetable unfolds.

What would be extremely useful for me would be if you could report back occasions where you have been left stranded at Oldfield Park due to the cancellation of a local service and then suffered the frustration of seeing a High speed train flying past on its way to Bristol. A short e mail would suffice and would then allow me the opportunity to make an early challenge to the company as to why the contingency plan was not used.(Note : readers please post a comment on the blog and I will forward to Passenger Focus)


Sometimes they may decide not to stop as there may be another local service a few minutes behind it. This is fine as long as there is sufficient capacity on the following train to pick up the total number of passengers waiting at Oldfield Park. If there are occasions where this happens and passengers are left behind then please let me know asap.


Mike Greedy
Passenger Focus

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.

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.