Great Western Coffee Shop

10th July - announcement shared in public on our site
15th July - closing date for questions from members to our team for us to then select from
18th July - starter questions to the GWR team so they can prep initial texts
24th July - “Meet the Manager” takes place.  1 hour,  with BobM and Mark Hopwood in the same location and two other moderator remote
By the end of July - follow ups on any issues which were not answered “on the night”.

Previous events have run (formally) from 5 p.m to 6 p.m., with six questions seeded at 10 minute intervals or slightly less so that there’s a good spread and a chunk of time at the end for the final question to be fully dealt with and a summary. It’s been good to see Mark sticking around a short while thereafter too.

These occasional events provide excellent interaction between customers and service suppliers (GWR) for our mutual information and benefit. The format allows for difficult issues (and there are a number around at the moment) to be addressed in friendly way with real questions and answers rather than an oratorial competition - as passengers, we really appreciate that. The question has been asked if we should run a zoom session instead but, no, the format works well and we should stick with what we know; that does not stop us adding something else in the future.

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This has been in the "offing" for a month now, at GWR's suggestion and the moderator team's welcome acceptance.   Please send me questions by personal message; I will share them with the moderator team and between us we'll come up with a good selection for the evening.

Just ideas - but topics you might like to include in your questions include
- Bus and rail integration during disruption
- When will we have more modern local trains
- Staffing levels / train levels / still short
- Global warming and environment changes - less reliable railway?
- Staffing at Stations
- Changes to ticket purchase facilities
- Promotions and fare deals
- Community Rail cuts and loss of originallity
- Who decides what - DfT or GWR?
- When will the strikes be over?
- Day travel cards
- and it's traditional to have a final lighthearted question

A big THANK YOU to GWR for suggesting this, and to Mark for his willingness not only to take part but also suggest it; a long, long way from a manager who hide in an inner sanctum, and we really appreciate it.

Bump!   .... Question deadline formally set for today - HOWEVER in practical terms anything received during the weekend is likely to make it.   Please email or message me question - prior to 06:00 on Monday (17th)

11 questions with your moderator team, looking to select half a dozen of wide and diverse interest to put to Mark

A dozen different questions received and your moderator team has come up with what we hope is an appropriate selection to discuss on the night. The questions and running order proposed have been sent to GWR so that they have an opportunity to research should they need to do so ahead of time.