The next Greater Western franchise - learning from the past

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Whom to Support?  I'm going to remain impartial ... but I will comment on what I would like to see from the train operating company that runs the service from 2013.

* Reliable services. Don't mind trains that are a few minutes late, or have a slightly slack timetable, but I certainly don't want to see strings of cancellations, nor services which miss connections, nor services which are so overcrowded you can't / don't get on them.

* Fair Dealing. A train operator that tells you the truth rather than trying to brush things under the carpet, pass blame on to others, or who says nothing at all on the basis that "you won't understand because you don't work for the rail industry".  A train operator who's TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) actually offer the lowest price fares for the journey you're about to make on the first screen of options for that journey.

* Helpful and friendly.  A train operator who makes the customer feel welcome, and which does not intimidate the genuine user, especially the irregular one who doesn't fully understand the system.

* Informative.  Provides information on times and fares in an easy way to use - even for less common journeys, and journeys which involve changing to other operator's services too. And provide good real time information too so that if things aren't running quite to plan, data is at hand to help everyone rearrange their plans as necessary.

* Appropriate Service.  Runs trains at times that the passengers want them, with sufficient carriages to allow most of the people to be seated most of the time, at fares which do not put people off travelling.

* Long term investor.  A train operator who believes that his passengers are also his customers - serve them well and they will come back again (and again), and tell their friends.   Provide a product which is so good in quality and values that forums like his will become fan clubs.

I don't know how to measure the bidders against these criteria, though - personally, I just have historic experience of National Express and current experience of First, as follows:

I started making significant use of the train when National Express increased the service at my local station from a commuter service into Swindon to something which much more suited my needs.   They then offered a service ..
* "pre-Dawn" - ideal for long distance journeys
* Commuter time (morning)
* Middle of the day
* Commuter time (evening)
* a late train
which was a much, much more appropriate service that the commuter one they had started with.

First took over the service above and replaced it with a service ...
* between the predawn and morning commuter service times
* between the evening commuter service time and the late train time.
and these trains fall uncomfortably into a time of the day that they're not all that useful - I would describe this as a far less appropriate service than the one they took over,and indeed it's even less useful than the commuter timing that ran at the time of privatisation.

Information systems have come forward leaps and bounds during the current franchise (under First).  Reliability was horrid at the start of 2007, but has clawed its way up to be much, much better (at least on the TransWilts) today. And the previous franchise had an unimpressive record on this.

Of course, companies and regimes change, so a reliable promise to do something different might encourage me to support a company with a less than brilliant past record (and better the devil you know) - but that requires a trust which at times I find very hard to put into certain elements of the rail industry and local and national politics, based on bitter experience.

StageCoach (and the other potential bidders mentioned too) seem to have a varied reputation, and it's hard to know whether to believe some of the writings which at times look so extreme that - surely - they can't be painting the real picture.

[The SprinterMeister]

I started making significant use of the train when National Express increased the service at my local station from a commuter service into Swindon to something which much more suited my needs.   They then offered a service ..
* "pre-Dawn" - ideal for long distance journeys
* Commuter time (morning)
* Middle of the day
* Commuter time (evening)
* a late train
which was a much, much more appropriate service that the commuter one they had started with.

First took over the service above and replaced it with a service ...
* between the predawn and morning commuter service times
* between the evening commuter service time and the late train time.
and these trains fall uncomfortably into a time of the day that they're not all that useful - I would describe this as a far less appropriate service than the one they took over,and indeed it's even less useful than the commuter timing that ran at the time of privatisation.

Information systems have come forward leaps and bounds during the current franchise (under First).  Reliability was horrid at the start of 2007, but has clawed its way up to be much, much better (at least on the TransWilts) today. And the previous franchise had an unimpressive record on this.

And under National Express you had units seemingly held together by vynils, a bespoke livery for virtually every item of rolling stock and a DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) fleet which was collapsing rapidly. Had NX retained the franchise the  Bath riots would have still occurred as the units would simply have got unuseable causing shortages of rolling stock that way. The units by the way were 'maintained' (a loose description of what was happening) under contract by Arriva Trains Wales in their Canton Maintainance (sic) depot. I think that tells me as much as I need to know about NX and Arriva to be honest.Under First the unit fleet has actually improved in terms of condition and reliability not withstanding their age even if in terms of absolute numbers of units there aren't as many as there were under Wessex Trains. However more of the units work on any given day than was managed under Wessex Trains.

Melksham had a better service yes, but then a large number of Wessex trains key personnel lived in Melksham which adequately explains that.

And Abellio seem to be repeating the trick of putting in a low bid and parking up half the units to make the books balance. I'm told their operations director has no UK^▸ (United Kingdom) experience. Sounds a bit like Connex Mk2^▸ (Mark 2 coach). I wonder if their local rail user groups have started their own version of Coffeeshop yet..

[grahame]

... a large number of Wessex trains key personnel lived in Melksham ....

Sorry - I still don't recognise that picture of Melksham.   I've lived here since 1999, taken a user interest in the train service every since and a more active one from 2005, and the only Wessex / ex Wessex Managers I've seen at the station have been here to visit on railway business and (in all three cases) lived in other counties.  However - I'm willing to be proved lacking in knowledge, which is why I invited a clarification.

No actual data other than Westbury drivers telling me that they stopped and picked up various manager types at Melksham each day.

Ah - I think I may be beginning to see the picture here, and a picture I can recognise.

Melksham is a town with extremes.  At least twice in the past ten years, we've had the most expensive street in Wiltshire (average cost of houses sold on the street in the year), and we've also had two of the five most deprived wards across the county.  We also have some very good local industry, with worldwide repute and a good import / export record.  Indeed, I think the three Queen's Awards to Industry on the Bowerhill Industrial Area may be a unique concentration of such awards.  Three big companies that I know of are in transport business, and one of those is a leader in rail technologies.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it means that we get a lot of "Manager types" visiting the town to visit businesses.  And we also have a number of "Manager Types" who work in Swindon, Oxford, London, and so on - to Swindon, the journey takes the best part of an hour if you drive yourself, but it can be done in 25 minutes by train.  So - with a service that fitted their needs, and a many of them being tranport industry related (but NOT, you'll note, with any commercial interest) the service was popular with the business traveller.   Many was the time in the five years up to December 2006 that I met people off the 09:12 arrival with its excellent connection from London, or dropped off people for the 17:02 departure.  And, thinking back, it was notable that the clientelle looked distinctly like senior mamagement.

So - I think you're right, SprinterMeister - that the Westbury drivers stopped and picked up manager types, and it would seem that was to the extent of it being notable.

However ...

You don't need to have too many managers living at a location in order for a franchise to lay on a train service it seems.

I think that's a false conclusion to draw, now that we've established that the manager types concerned were notable in their proportions, but not related to Wessex trains and I also can't accept the following conclusion as it's based on what I believe is an incorrect piece of initial data.

Melksham had a better service yes, but then a large number of Wessex trains key personnel lived in Melksham which adequately explains that.

And yet - even if some (any!) Wessex Managers had lived in Melksham, the case for the Swindon to Southampton service was a strong one.  The Park report, published in 2000 (I may be a year out) did a great deal of work on an hourly service from along the whole of that route, and I don't think it's any co-incidence that the new Wessex services introduced in 2001 ran to ... Southampton.

Two trains an hour, Trowbridge to Southampton, would have been an attractive proposition. And it would be to this day - imagine the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) train from Romsey / Eastleigh / Southampton Airport / Southampton to Salisbury carrying on to Swindon.  It fits in well with the current MVA business case, and sorts out some real issues like the inefficient locals from Westbury to Warminster and the complete lack of services at time they're needed from Salisbury and West Wiltshire to Chippenham and Swindon.

So - the $64,000 question - why did the previous TransWilts service fail?  I'm not sure that it did.  Jacobs in 2004 recommended that the current franchise have a train every 2 hours between Swindon and Westbury, based on a 0.8% growth; sadly the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) / DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) took that out when it specified the franchise - a political decision, I think. But actually the annual growth turned out to be over 10 times that, resulting in a service which was pretty darned busy when the last 17:44 from Swindon ran in December 2006.  And that's quite remarkable when you note (I agree with you, SprintMeister) that the trains were not exactly reliable.

Anyway - I'm a long way off topic here. The summary is that the TransWilts has a much better service up to 2006 based on proper evaluation, and that by technical evaluations it should have continued.  And with all the growth in the area (another 2000 homes just added here in the latest core strategy revision), an appropriate service should be restarted at the first possible opportunity.

[grahame]

Ah - I think I may be beginning to see the picture here, and a picture I can recognise.
So - I think you're right, SprinterMeister - that the Westbury drivers stopped and picked up manager types, and it would seem that was to the extent of it being notable.

Not the same managers same time every day though. Surely there are limits to how many days you'd stay overnight in Melksham, much less make a career out of it...?
 

... And we also have a number of "Manager Types" who work in Swindon, Oxford, London, and so on - to Swindon, the journey takes the best part of an hour if you drive yourself, but it can be done in 25 minutes by train. ...

We call it commuting in these parts 

I understand that the 2001 Census showed more Melksham -> London commuters than Westbury -> London, and current data held by the local transport planners here shows a high proprotion of cars parked in Chippenham Station car park have originated from Melksham.  Rather backs it up further.

[The SprinterMeister]

We call it commuting in these parts 

I understand that the 2001 Census showed more Melksham -> London commuters than Westbury -> London, and current data held by the local transport planners here shows a high proprotion of cars parked in Chippenham Station car park have originated from Melksham.  Rather backs it up further.

So why is there no actual regular interval service Westbury - Swindon via Melksham then?

All those ex NX / Wessex managers must have moved. Or changed jobs. 

I know what the service is like, quite a feat of endeavour learning that route on service trains. Bit of a leap required at Trowbridge.

[eightf48544]

Is one of the rpoblems with trying to run a regular service over the line the fact that it is sinlge from Thingley to Trowbridge so once a train is on the single line the next train to pass blocks the main lines at either end.

Thus any problems with a train on the line would cause disruption on the main lines. Now I would argue that with a properly run railway a failure of either  infrastruce or rolling stock should be rare and therefore not a consideration in the service pattern.

However, part of the British tradition is to "spoil the ship for a hapeth of tar".

Just another thought for grahame maybe if it's going to a long franchise a requirement should be that the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) does Evergreen 5 and installs double track at each junction and maybe a Penryn loop at Melksham and then runs a regular service.

[grahame]

You're right, 8F ... there's a the single line issue, and other factors too. 

1. Single line (as already mentioned) Thingley Junction to Bradford Junction
2. Freight needing to use the line
3. Irregular (not clockface) services, especially around the Westbury area
4. Major operation points at both ends of the line - this is not a junction to terminus service
5. Intermeshing with multiple significant main lines (to some extent this is a rewrite of other points)

Some of these are both a headache and a blessing.   The line would not have survived through the 1970s if it weren't for freight trains, and the major operational points at each end are also a huge town and a city - which makes for people flowing at peak times in BOTH directions and makes the economic case an excellent one.

I'm all in favour of adding robustness in the form of double junctions at Thingley and Bradford, and perhaps electricifcation and resignalling is a good time to do that - it has been mentioned by people far more involved in the rail industry than I am. And doing that with a long enough double "lead" to be able to have a train waiting to get onto the single line clear of the main line, or coming off the single line clearing it but waiting for the main line.

I would also be very accepting of a passenger train schedule that allowed an extra five minutes between Thingley and Bradford J, as a way of mitigating the transfer of late running between the West of England main line, London to Swansea services, Romsey to Salisbury trains, Swindon to Cheltenham trains, Bristol to Waterloo services and everything between.

A loop in the middle - gosh - wouldn't that cause southbound delays to be transferred to northbound services and vice versa?  I would much prefer a signalling system (ERTMS^▸ (European Rail Traffic Management System.) to the rescue?) under which 2 trains could follow each other.  And - who knows, beyond current planning consideration, even redouble.

It would be much easier operationally if the TransWilts lead to a station with a layout like St Ives, Falmouth Docks, Looe, Newquay, Gunnislake, Exmouth, Barnstaple, Severn Beach, Marlow, Windsor and Eton and others. But the traffic / connection opportunities would also be so much more one-end-centric.

[ChrisB]

Another problem is a lack of stock at times there ought to be a service. And of course, the micromanagementr of the stock by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) won't provide FGW^▸ (First Great Western) with any extra to run these services....

[eightf48544]

The loop at Melksham would be in addition to the two double junctions so should increase capacity. Agree ERTMS^▸ (European Rail Traffic Management System.) or something similar would be good.

Electrification and the reinstement of the North curve at Bradford would be even better. You know me string the wires everywhere. Even over Brunels bridge at Maidenhead. Sorry another rock and pond.

As for lack of stock then if the trackwork is paid for by the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) then any extra stock needed would be aquired by the TOC as well.