Great Western Coffee Shop

Wow, what an awful trip that was. I've just got back in, arrived an hour and 10 minutes later than I should because of a catalogue of problems. It was a relatively short journey too (Warminster - Oldfield Park) which just shouldn't have been this bad. Here's what happened (EK style!)

17:28 Warminster - Great Malvern train arrives 10 minutes earlier than timetabled at Warminster station. Great, because I can sit in comfort and warmth on a comfortable, refurbished 158 for an extra 10 minutes rather than on the freezing platform!
17:33 - Arrives at Dilton Marsh and drops someone off.
17:36 - Arrives at Westbury. We hang around for a while, and I notice the time's getting on a bit. 15 minutes later, the conductor announces that there's a problem with the engine in the front carriage and engineers are trying to fix the problem. Sure enough two men in yellow coats and the conductor are hanging around near the driver cab.
17:55 - The two men leave the platform. Shortly after, the conductor announces that the train has failed and orders everyone off. Oh dear...
17:58 - The train leaves and heads for the sidings. I check the screens. The next train to Bath (Portsmouth - Cardiff) is 40 minutes late. This means the next train is the 18:38 to Cheltenham Spa...brilliant, over half an hour of hanging around at cold, windy Westbury! A train arrives from Bristol Parkway  (a 158 and 152) and I hope the 152 part will detatch and take people to Bristol. It doesn't.
I have to inform people getting to Trowbridge and Bristol that it's best to get the Cheltenham Spa service and not the Cardiff one. No members of staff around nor any announcements except Digital Doris(!).
18:30ish - the Cheltenham Spa service is now delayed by 8 mins. Suddenly the Great Malvern service returns and the annoucements indicate it is running, 63 minutes late. Unfourtunately, the announcements then reveal it's running fast to Bristol. Many already angry and freezing cold passengers who rushed to the other platform are even more uptight.
18:42 - the Cheltenham Spa service arrives and departs fairly slowly, I get back to Oldfield Park at 19:20- over 1 hour 10 minutes late.
What annoys me most about this is the lack of communication at Westbury. No announcements from any staff- and I saw them sat back supping coffee in the staff room. The fact I had to tell people the best way back shouldn't have been the case. Yes, an engine failure isn't FGW's fault but a bit more communication and care and less laziness from the staff would have been very welcome.

It's also worth mentioning that when passing Trowbridge, I noticed on the screens that every train's time was flashing indicating that every train was delayed. A very bad day for all concerned!

I know I it isn't my place to say this, but chances are the staff didn't know what was happening. It is not as though they get told much!

We don't often get told anything either, was a bad day for FGW today, plenty of delays all over!

Yeah, most passengers were very cheesed off...me included I'm afraid!

To Jim: That's true, but they certainly could have done more than they did- make announcements at the very least, or better yet go out on the platforms and inform passengers personally...you can't assume the average passenger knows the best trains to get nor keeps an eye on the departure board all the time, especially when there are more than 2 platforms. The Great Malvern service flashed up again a good 10 minutes before it departed, surely they knew that it wasn't calling at the stations, as it said so on the info screens! To me, it smacked of pure laziness from the staff, especially when I saw them in the office.

I'm probably making a mistake trying to compare them to the exemplar service I read about from the staff at Castle Cary, but still...anyway, I will continue getting this one as my first two trips were very nice :)

Do you mean a 150 or 153?

Oops, 153!  :-[ if only they had moved the conductor and driver onto that one for the rest of the journey and left the 158 at Westbury for repairs.

Left for repairs?? Not sure any of the ex West fleet is ever repaired, just 'bodged' to then again fall apart with the same fault a few days later...

But as it was a refurb 158 it actually has recently been fixed to should more reliable than other things.

Very true. I'm not really that keen on the new decoration...the dark blue seats are nice, but the light blue walls and bright lights are a bit on the stark and cold side for my liking. The one I got today was an ex-Alphaline 158 so not the comfiest, and the heating wasn't working in the front carriage where I was, but it was still on time, and a very nice journey all the same. Well worth the ^4.95 this time round.

O bro dude!
I know how you feel, i end up having to wait around at Bristol for almost an hour on a tue depending what train i get from chelteham down to bristol.

and about you telling people the best way to get home, That happened to me once at cheltenham...talk about know too much for our own good!

^ True, maybe I should get out of my current dead-end-job and do something more worthwhile, wouldn't mind getting paid for telling people which platform to go, which train to get, where to change...!

I'm still going on my Warminster-Oldfield park travel. I got a ^5 refund voucher last week for the time when I was over hour late..it pays to write! However the ticket prices have gone up so I still had to pay 20p for my ticket. Since then, it's been fine. No delay longer than 10 mins, most of the time a Transpennine class 158 but today it was a refurbished FGW 150. Even last friday when there was flooding chaos, I was on time getting back! That's a decent service for you.

*starts tapping foot*

GRAHAM!!!
I keep telling you to apply for that job at Bristol, so go and flipping well do it!