Great Western Coffee Shop

A signalling problem is causing disruption in the Hayes & Harlington area.
Because of this, there are delays of up to 45 minutes to trains between London Paddington and Reading. These delays will continue until further notice.
Passengers may use:
South West Trains services between London Waterloo and Reading / Windsor & Eton Riverside
CrosCountry between Reading, Oxford and Banbury
Chiltern Railways between London Marylebone and Banbury
London Underground via any reasonable route

Twitter hashtag: #HayesHarlington
To find out whether this will impact your journey and to get alternative options planned for you, please use the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner, or call TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50.
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All lines through Hayes and Harlington are now open. Disruption will continue due to displacement of trains and crew. Sorry for delays.

The First Class Host came through with the trolley several times and made sure we were all fed and watered. So Top Work there Gov'ner!

Isn't that otherwise described as doing their job?

Though, come to think of it, as the CH on the 1630 Paddington to Taunton made no attempt to come through between Swindon and Nailsea tonight, maybe you are right to praise yours.

Oh and to throw the toys out the pram r.e. Buffet. Both members of staff took residence right at the end of coach H between Slough and Paddington once they'd shut up shop! >:(

What is of greater concern to us is their behaviour. After all, it just isn't acceptable for us to have our Catering Crew closing up ahead of schedule, or for negating their duties in any way.

There are times when our crew have to terminate their duties en-route; such as if they have been 'displaced' by earlier disruptions and their scheduled duties now finish part-way through a journey. However, even in that scenario we accept that there's still a customer-focused and professional way of behaving. After all, as a customer-centric entity, we do expect our representatives to remain mindful of just how their actions come across to our customers at all times. So, what you've reported is of genuine concern to us, as there's just no excuse for ineffectual behaviour of any kind.

All complaints of this nature are taken very seriously, and your comments will be forwarded to the Head of Train Crew, for further investigation. As I am sure you can appreciate we have a duty of care to both our customer's and our colleagues so a full investigation will take place before any action can be taken.

We will request a statement from the crew, asking for their version of events, and based on our findings the line manager will make a recommendation. If further action is deemed necessary this could range from additional training through to dismissal. For reasons of confidentiality we do not make any details of our internal investigations, or of actions taken public and therefore I can't advise you of the outcome, but you have my assurance that we will take any necessary measures to prevent this from happening again.

Report them, it's against FGWs 'rules' to shut up early unless they've been displaced by disruption or need to access that part of the train for their duty etc.

Report them, it's against FGWs 'rules' to shut up early unless they've been displaced by disruption or need to access that part of the train for their duty etc.

I am very sorry if you experienced disruption to your journey on the evening of Monday 21 January. Services were severely disrupted due to a signalling failure between West Drayton and Hayes & Harlington in west London.

As a result, from 15.00, for almost two hours, all lines into and out of London Paddington were closed, and from 17.00 only two out of four lines were fully available. This severely affected our ability to operate services into and out of London Paddington in the evening peak and had a substantial knock-on effect across our network, resulting in long delays and cancellations.

I recognise how much the impact of flooding and other delays will have affected all our customers over the past few months. The level of service disruption you have been experiencing is unacceptable and we are working very closely with Network Rail, which manages the track and signalling, to understand why there is a recurring problem in the west London area. My team is giving them every support while they work to establish the root cause of these problems.

I am very sorry you've experienced disruption once again. We know it's not good enough and our focus is on working together to put it right. I am grateful for your continued patience and know we need to give you the service you rightly expect and deserve.

Mark Hopwood
Managing Director

..........pretty much a cut and paste from the last "apology", when is it going to improve?

..........pretty much a cut and paste from the last "apology", when is it going to improve?

With respect, I don't understand why you think writing to us will provide an answer to your question.  Clearly Mark Hopwood is not in a position to deal with the issues as they are beyond his influence, other than complaining to NR which he states he is doing (constructively).  Can he withhold payment to NR?  In fact does he actually pay them anything physically?     ???   I thought not, the way the finance is arranged.

FGW is supposed to be the NR customer but I don't think it has the power that I have,or you have, TG, over our suppliers. 

One of the railway magazines suggested that Network Rail need to send someone with real weight and credibility within their ranks to specifically oversee the Great Western route.  Given the current disruption, and the massive programme of improvements over the next 7 years, that seems like a very good idea to me!

Dave Ward (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=703.0).  ;)

Mrs GTBE was on the 1736 Padd - Oxford this evening, coming home to Pangbourne.  Because of the Acton aftermath it was about 20 late at Rdg, whereupon it was announced that it would run non-stop to Didcot and not stop Tilehurst/Pangbourne/Goring/Cholsey.

Now the only people on the train at Rdg would be for those stations.  So they were all turfed off and had a 30 minute wait at Rdg for the late running 1856.

Not the best decision I suspect - yes I know I don't know all the facts etc. But I think it supports my point above.

 Mrs GTBE is now well in to her second glass of wine.....   

I think there are two separate issues here.  One is the fault that causes the closure or reduced capacity of one or more running lines in the first place, the other is how FGW responds to this and runs the best possible service it can - and keeps the passengers informed.  How well FGW responds comes down to its resources in Control and elsewhere.

As disucssed elsewhere, FGW has cut back on train crew supervisors and other key posts and probably doesn't have the necessary resources to deal with major disruptions as well as say, Thames Trains did a few years ago.  What they manage to run, and what information they get out to their own staff and the passengers, will probably be less than what they could have delivered if they had sufficient resources.  So FGW need to be careful about putting all the blame for passengers' disrupted journeys on to NR.   

I think you will find Patrick Halgate is the RMD for GW  (RMD Route Managing Director)

That will be so "the train" gets to it's final destination on time.. As for the passengers, they are less important... Hhm maybe that is why wine was invented? ;-)

its an interesting question: which is more important, the morning or evening peak? I tended to the idea that passengers would be more upset about delays in getting home, rather than delays in getting to work!