First Great Western to go up performance leagues?

[whole diary]

[northwesterntrains]

They may not need to do much to do that.  Northern Rail's performance is dropping at an outstanding rate.  Cancellations are up from about 6% to 28% in the last few days.  National Express East Coast and East Midlands Trains don't seem to be fairing well either.

[Tim]

There is a yo-yo pattern to performance statistics.  You get poor results, everyone complains, efforts are made, performance increases, the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) decide to do something to rock the boat (new stock, new timetable, new operator, new boundaries etc) and performance pluments, everyone complains, efforts are made, performance increases....

We now have the rediculous situation where SWT^▸ (South West Trains) are cutting staff, a few years down the line they will be recruiting again when they realise that the cuts have caused service standards to slip.

What the railway needs more than anything is stability and it has never had it.

[Electric train]

They may not need to do much to do that.  Northern Rail's performance is dropping at an outstanding rate.  Cancellations are up from about 6% to 28% in the last few days.  National Express East Coast and East Midlands Trains don't seem to be fairing well either.

There has been a lot of hard work put in by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff and NR^» (Network Rail - home page) staff on the GW^▸ (Great Western) to improve performance in the last year, the performance figures posted on the NR intra net show that FGW have gone from low to mid 80% of just over a year ago to around the 90% on the rolling average, where as you mention some others have like the East Coast have crashed and burned

[bemmy]

There is a yo-yo pattern to performance statistics.  You get poor results, everyone complains, efforts are made, performance increases, the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) decide to do something to rock the boat (new stock, new timetable, new operator, new boundaries etc) and performance pluments, everyone complains, efforts are made, performance increases....

We now have the rediculous situation where SWT^▸ (South West Trains) are cutting staff, a few years down the line they will be recruiting again when they realise that the cuts have caused service standards to slip.

What the railway needs more than anything is stability and it has never had it.

Tim your post could be titled "Everything you need to know about why our railways are unable to provide a decent service." 

We won't get stability either... the present government believe in reorganising everything every three years or so, and of course if the Tories get in they'll want to make their mark by, you know, reorganising everything. 

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

on northens performance....didnt they get some of there pacers back?

[northwesterntrains]

Yes they got 5x142s to replace 5x153s that went to or are going to East Midlands Trains.

They also got 3x180s.  Two of which failed yesterday while the third was undergoing maintainence.

[IndustryInsider]

They also got 3x180s.  Two of which failed yesterday while the third was undergoing maintainence.

Demonstrating that splitting up a small fleet of already unreliable trains will make them even more unreliable! At least when they were all on the Oak there was a large pool of parts and specialist engineers to nurse them back to full health through the night ready for the next morning.

[northwesterntrains]

They also got 3x180s.  Two of which failed yesterday while the third was undergoing maintainence.

Demonstrating that splitting up a small fleet of already unreliable trains will make them even more unreliable! At least when they were all on the Oak there was a large pool of parts and specialist engineers to nurse them back to full health through the night ready for the next morning.

Apparently Northern staff have said the 180s they've received hadn't been serviced at all well.  Possibly FGW^▸ (First Great Western) didn't bother as they knew the refurbished HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) would replace the 180s.

[devon_metro]

Most of them have been sat in a depot for months doing nothing!

[Phil]

Most of them have been sat in a depot for months doing nothing!

The Northern staff, or the 180s?!

[12hoursunday]

The Northern staff, or the 180s?!

  Good un that!!

[northwesterntrains]

Most of them have been sat in a depot for months doing nothing!

The Northern staff, or the 180s?!

That'll explain why so many services are cancelled due to a crew member being unavailable.

[Steve44]

What services are the 180s diagrammed for? Also, how many 180s in total are there?

[Don]

What services are the 180s diagrammed for? Also, how many 180s in total are there?

I saw three 180s yesterday morning in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land, one on the Cotswold line, one south of Oxford and a third near Reading. 

Am I right in thinking that FGW have only got three? If so all in service.

[IndustryInsider]

Am I right in thinking that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have only got three? If so all in service.

Yep. All in service yesterday. Helping to make sure that HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s were available to cover all the busiest holiday diagrams to the West Country and South Wales. They remain ideal for that sort of task - yet, as it stands, they will not be here to do a similar job next year, when the single extra HST set arrives from the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line).