Great Western Coffee Shop

I don't think anyone posted about this at the time (not that I have seen or can find).. But I received this e-mail from First Great Western for the major delays there were getting into and out of Paddington on Thursday

" I am very sorry if you experienced disruption to your journey on Thursday 6 December. Services were severely disrupted due to two major points failures near Southall in West London.

 As a result, three out of four lines into and out of London Paddington were closed for more than two hours in the morning. This severely limited our ability to operate services into and out of London Paddington and had a substantial knock-on effect across our network.

 The evening peak saw similar problems to the morning when, for almost two hours, there was a power supply failure between Hayes and Southall. This resulted in long delays and cancellations for customers arriving at and leaving London Paddington.

 I know this will have come at a very difficult time for you after the impact of flooding to your journeys over the last couple of weeks. The scale of service disruption you have experienced recently is unacceptable and we are working very closely with Network Rail, which owns and operates the railway network including track and signalling, to achieve an improvement in reliability as quickly as possible.

 Quite simply, I want to apologise for the service you have been experiencing. We recognise it's not good enough and we are working with Network Rail to put it right. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience.

Mark Hopwood
 Managing Director

 "

I did see the same apology from Mark Hopwood on FGWs Facebook page and was also a little surprised there was no mention here on the forum.

I considered starting the topic myself, but I think I must have been sidetracked and forgot.  :-\

Interestingly, that statement from Mark Hopwood has apparently been issued in the form of an e-mail to certain interested parties, and in the form of a post on the First Great Western facebook page, but not in any general press release - which you would have thought could reach a much wider audience?

It was also on their website. But cannot find it there now.

Exactly.  :-X

Also..My experience in the morning that day was very strange.. I knew there were problems before I left home but I didn't know the extent so thought I'd head to the station anyway.. Heading for the 8am departure.. I got to the station to no information boards working (always useful ;-)).. As I got on the platform about 7.50 the delayed 7.18 (first stop Paddington) was just arriving.. The front of the train (it was 5 carriages - 3 at front and 2 at the back) was packed to the point that it wasn't possible to get on.. I went to the back just to check there wasn't the odd space back there.. only to find the back two carriages quite empty.. I'd say most people had at least four seats to themselves on average... I don't understand quite how that would have happened as it had stopped at various stops, including Reading, prior to Maidenhead.. So I had a very nice journey in with lots of room and got to Paddington ten minutes earlier than usual!... Very strange  ;D

Not sure of the reason, but well done for checking.  It's not always the case of course, but I've lost count of the times that I've seen people crammed in like sardines at one end of a train, whilst the other end has acres of space!

Well yes.-. I would always check as to be honest I won't get on a train that is overfull like the front of that one was... but at Maidenhead, if there are delays, in my very many years of commuting from there, the back is usually as full as the front..

Yup, I'd agree that is usually the case at Maidenhead.

Which reminds me of a funny story when I worked at Bounds Green Depot, when many KX comuter trains were 6 or 7 coach "straight enders" (ie full width compartments, no corridors, no gangway connection).  We were talking about strengthening some trains, and it was agreed we'd put an extra coach on the end of a couple of sets (in those days there were always spare coaches floating around).

 Whereupon my boss said "don't put them at the end, put them in the middle where the the train's fullest".