Great Western Coffee Shop

Twas the weekend before Christmas, when all through the West
Not a train was stirring, not even a 142;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore.

Cancellations Galore ...

24 service incidents at present, split down as follows

19 cancellations or short working due to crew shortage
1 short working due to an earlier crew shortage
2 trains with extra stops
and 2 cancelled due to train faults

We had planned to go us to do some shopping in Swindon today, but I'm glad we didn't ..

15:19 Swindon to Westbury due 16:05
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

Always a popular train this one - especially the weekend before Christmas, and it's the first time it was scheduled to run as a train not a bus since 1st December too.  But never mind .... next train (if it runs) sets off at 21:08.

Well what a complete and utter shambles today has been. Maybe FGW can get some new traincrew for xmas.... And then some efficient rostering/resourcing and then maybe a day at work wont be a total nightmare..

Everything was surprisingly ontime in Devon today. I even had the pleasure of a 4 car train. Don't think i've ever had a 4 car to Paignton, vice an HST/Vomit/SWT.

At 18:20 the FGW website has 35 'incidents', 30 are full or part cancellations due to 'a member of traincrew being unavailable'..

This is unlikely to get better anytime soon, as mentioned elsewhere ASLEF are imposing a 'rest day ban' for drivers from the 29th...

20:01 Cheltenham Spa to Westbury due 21:51
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

Ooops there goes the next TransWilts one.  That's the entire Swindon to Melksham service today ....  in case anyone from within the planning section feels that they're "canning" unused trains, here's a picture I took on one of them when it did run the other week ..

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/decsattrain.jpg)

I'm estimating around 170 people crowded onto that 142 .... and that's the number of people who's christmas preparations will have been inconvenienced or worse by just one cancellation ...

There were delays on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line too as I found out to my cost this afternoon. 

Regards the Transwilts, very sad to say that it appears to be a soft target for the planners to axe services as soon as FGW either have a lack of serviceable rolling stock or are short on traincrew.

I think ooooooo sums the whole thing up nicely:

grahame ..since when have the 142s been running from Melksham??? think you meant it was a 143 a much better quality train



Yes, Dog Box - my error. Sorry about that slip.  I have been talking about 142s so much, including the idea of an early morning Exeter - Swindon that would then run the TransWilts all day.  I must have confused the present with the future!  -- Graham

Graham

I think you should send that photo to Andrew Haines and anyone else you think appropriate to point out what potential the line would have if was actually given half a decent (and reliable) service. Also, I presume they had to lay on a coach or taxis to get people to their destination today?

But today has been a joke hasn't it. If you read Andrew Haines' letter of apology, reasons attributable to FGW come at the end of his list of excuses/reasons. Yet as pointed out earlier in this thread, most of today's cancellations are entirely within FGW's control. 

And Cancelations in the morning!

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1289.msg6928#new

And it isn't much better today either:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/LiveUpdateList.aspx

as of 11:45: 16 incidents listed and 14 are traincrew related.

As good as it is that commuter groups highlight the problems they encounter during the week, what about services on weekends where just as many passengers, at times even more use the railways?

This weekend has not been a good one for FGW or its customers.

I recall listening to Alison Forster, former MD of FGW, speaking at Travel Watch soon after she had headed the company that won the franchise.   She was talking about just how many potential customers there are out there for the company - people who don't use trains, but are willing to give them a go.   There are probably a lot of them around this weekend ... but "plenty more fish in the sea" if they happen to get a bad experience, and they probably won't know how to get redress for bad service or bother to complain with Christmas just a day or two away, so it's rather a good time for the service to be intermittent through understaffing as far as the operator is concerned, isn't it?

One of other lines we were familiar with under the Alison Forster regime was the shifting of blame routinely to Network Rail - sometimes justified, and sometimes not.   I was very happy to understand from Dave Ward (new at Network Rail) and Andrew Haines (new at First Great Western) that a more honest approach would be taken.    So it is very sad to see selective quoting of statistics by Andrew Haines to the Sunday Times of today, as follows:


I think he chose, when talking to the reporter about the West in general, to choose the one specific example that would show up Network Rail rather than First as the main culprit in the current problems - certainly Dave Ward was talking very specifically about London - Reading problems at a TWSW meeting a couple of months ago. Naughty, Andrew, and a sad indication that the leopard hasn't changed its spots.

I would just like to say that i am one of the above mentioned traincrew. I am on a long weekend of 6 rest days which take me into xmas( Thurs-Tues). Normally i would be available to work overtime on these days, but at this time of year choose to spend time with my family instead, as do most of my colleauges.Until FGW adresses their stafiing issues this will be the case.

Which brings us back to managers working trains! If the vacancies were filled then none of these problems would happen!

And I dont think anyone would begrudge you and your colleagues choosing to spend time with your families particularly at this time of year. Traincrew issues as far as I am concerned are the responsibility of FGW to ensure enough standby staff are rostered in the event of staff sickness. We keep hearing about new drivers and on board staff being trained up but we have yet to see the almost daily list of cancellations or trains ending short of their destination.

I know that its been said that it takes a year to train up railway staff but its been over a year now since FGW said they were recruiting staff. One can only assume that as fast as they are recruiting, staff are leaving. This is as I say only an assumption looking from the outside and would welcome any comments from FGW traincrew as to how recruiting is going and if there is any light at the end of the tunnel regards seeing the right amount of staff to run the timetable with enough staff in reserve.