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Do FGW provide a trolley with drinks/snacks on this service any more? In Cardiff when they are giving the announcement for the service they often say "there are no catering facilties available on the train".

Also I travelled on this service yesterday and there was no sign of a trolley between BTM and Cardiff Central.

there are sometimes trolly services, but i think they might have been pulled completely now...

There is little point in operating a trolley service on this service for two reasons, 1 you have little chance of getting the trolley from one end of the train to the other because most services are overcrowded 2 the space in the vestibule area where the trolley is parked during the journey takes up valuable standing space for passengers!

There are trollys on Portsmouth-Cardiff services (I got a cuppa off one yesterday) but it would be fair to say that their deployment is patchy.

Its no major deal it would seem when a trolley is not present. Just shows on the boards as no catering facilities available.

Of course we wouldnt have that problem if they put on extra trains! Even a 158 and a 150 together would be ok if they havent enough 158's.

Over 3 hours is a long time to go without refreshments for those travelling for the duration of the journey.

It's normally the other way around!

Advertise no catering service available when it is.... and the other way around...  ;D ;D

There is a trolly more often than you might think and catering is fairly regular with the odd hiccup. They only stay on as far as Newport where they re-stock, unless due to overcrowding it gets turfed off on route, normally at BTM. Even when there is one on there isn^t always an announcement that it^s there.

You have to get a bit clever and try to spot it as the train pulls in and then make a dash for whichever end it^s at, unless they have just boarded at BTM and it^s crowded and they have used the disabled ramp and they are hiding in the toilets.

Plus they only get stocked with 2 cans of Strongbow, and I get a bit miffed when they have already been sold by Filton.  >:(

Heres something that seems to happen regularly :

Let's say you get on the last train to Portsmouth at (say) Westbury. The service is often shown on the information screens as having catering facilities, but this rarely (if ever) seems to be the case.

A quick look at timetable E shows the last service with a trolley should be the 18.30 off Cardiff. If there^s one on the last Pompey service then something has really gone wrong.

If the screen is showing there is one it must be a system error, although it doesn^t excuse the fact that travellers are going to be disappointed

Indeed. Although you could argue that "Joe Public" should look at the timetable, in practice, they will believe what the information screens tell them.

And who can blame them, especially when this is backed up by station announcements.

 >:(  and you won't find any at weekends as FGW withdrew them because they take up valuable "livestock" space >:(

Is it only my perception, but are these sort of errors now regarded differently when made by FGW. I^m sure that similar mistakes were made during the Wessex period but they seemed to be able to respond positively when these things were highlighted. It seemed somehow forgivable under Wessex as they appeared to be making every effort, but is b****y annoying because it^s First.

This is the hurdle that FGW seem unable to get over, and unless FGW can win the hearts and minds the way Wessex did then they will forever be seen as the huge conglomerate bus company out for a fast buck, kowtowing to DfT demands, with the poor bloody passenger (PBP) a pawn between the two.

Without wishing to divert my comments into another thread, MTLS are the only game in town at the moment that appear to be both willing and vocal enough to be seen to be on the side of the PBP. First washed their hands until recently, DfT continue to do so, no one is really taking Network Rail to task and explaining publicly their roll in the debacle, so it^s left up to us the travelling masses to take it to the media.

There was a quite a bit of debate as to whether another ^Fare Strike^ was an appropriate way to express continued passenger discontent at the seemingless endless platitudes given by FGW that it would be ^better next week^. And in the end in the absence of suitable alternatives another ^Fare Strike^ was chosen.

Also the trolley sub-contractors are also in competition with SWT for staff, who^s trains would you rather walk up and down?

Tramway makes some VERY interesting general points there and already two have us have come back to loo at them ... so I have split the topic.

"Do we regard FGW in a different light to Wessex" - see ...

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1632.0 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1632.0)