Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi everyone,

I came across this website by accident, and upon reading many of the comments posted, I felt compelled to join to introduce myself.

My name is Chris Corbin, I am 22 years old, and I live in Bridgwater. I am currently the First Great Western Customer Panel member covering from Highbridge and Burnham to Tiverton parkway.

I am sure many of you will be aware with the Customer Panel but for those who are not I will explain.

The Customer Panel are a group of volunteers who can represent the views of the travelling public to First Great Western. We are not paid by First Great Western, and are not employees of the company. I can ask questions of First Great Western, and they have to answer me... they do not have to agree with what I say but you get an honest answer from them.

I am concerned with the various events that have taken place recently with which so many people will be familiar (the timetable changes, the rolling stock issues), as I feel it has not been handled appropriately with any degree of customer thought, rather an excercise to control profit margins. However I would say to forum members that it is wise to bear in mind that First Great Western are after all a private contractor, so commercial aspects will be an issue, despite the fact that we might diagree with any decisions taken.

As I have said I do not agree with the handling of certain events, and I am right behind the campaigns that are ongoing currently. Keep up the good work

I look forward to talking to all of you very soon.

Kind regards



Chris Corbin
First Great Western Customer Panel Member
Highbridge and Burnham - Tiverton Parkway

Hi, Chris, and welcome to the forum.

We're very new - "The new kid on the block" - so visibility isn't great yet. However, the board's an offshoot from the Save the train (http://www.savethetrain.org.uk) website and forum that I've been running for some 18 months which concentrates on the TransWilts service (Swindon to Westbury and Salisbury) and has managed to get the service reduction from being a single line on page 52 of an SRA report into something that's been and being looked at as a serious transport issue.

There are many issues that we on the TransWilts in Melksham, you in Bridgwater, Roger in Cornwall,  Penny in Pangbourne and Ivan in South Wales have to raise with the same players - the Department for Transport, First, Network Rail ... and as a result of some requests for space on "Save the Train" we set this up.  To cover lines / sections / services that don't have their own local groups / active boards, and to discuss common issues.  "Save the Train" wasn't quite the right URL or place - there's a big danger there of issues that effect huge groups of passengers - such as Paddington commuters - drowning out the important local case.

I'm 100% in agreement with you, Chris, in working with the operator (and appreciating that they're a private company, motivated by profit).   Without a dramatic shake up of the system - something beyond my personal remit / thought - that's far and away the best way to come up with an appropriate solution for everyone.  I would argue that it's naughty of First to claim completely to be a powerless victim of the situation - I understand they would still have won the franchise with a bid of 1.05 billion rather that 1.1 billion, and the extra 50 million pounds would have given them the money to retain every single cut service for the 10 years duration.  And at the same time, I'm not a Luddite and I'll say I probably wouldn't have WANTED them to have retained certain historic oddities but rather to revamp for the future.    Actually, at the moment I'm rather encouraged by some aspects of a December (2007) timetable draft from the DfT under FOI, and concerned at other aspects.