Great Western Coffee Shop

Online at http://gwr.passenger.chat/meetthemanager on Monday 24th July 2023 from 17:00 to 18:00.  Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of Great Western Railway, will be on hand to answer questions and live follow-ups on subjects such as railway reliability and passenger capacity, the damage done by industrial action, and ticket sales and marketing.

The session is in public and everyone's welcome to watch.  Members of the Great Western Coffee Shop Passenger Forum (our online forum run by volunteer passengers) will be taking part in the discussions.  If you are already a member, please log in just before 5 p.m.; if you are not a member, you can register ahead of time. Please register by midday on 24th to ensure your registration will go through before "Meet the Manager".

All posts made during the event will remain online afterwards as part of the forum's ever-growing database, so if you can't make it during the live event, you can read back later.  The initial questions and answers from Mark will be prepared ahead of time, so that the answers given will be researched and authoritative, and Mark will have had the opportunity to "brush up" on any left field topics.

I would like to thank Mark for taking part in this event (it's happening at GWR's suggestion) - a brave move to meet the customers online.  Members of our Coffee Shop team will be present to "seed" questions through the hour, and to step in to moderate the discussions if need be.  There has, though, been no need to step in during previous meet the manager sessions, and I'm sure that all our members will follow the natural guidelines of politeness and the other stuff in the forum agreement, and the event will run smoothly and with a really effective flow of information from GWR to our members, and valuable feedback for them.

Hopefully all those members who regularly post on the forum, especially those who are often critical, will be able to join in?

If I didn’t work for GWR I know I would be front row centre at this one given the state of the industry at the moment!

Indeed.    Initial questions were put to Mark and his team a couple of days ago, as canvassed around all of our members over the previous week or so.  Once a question has been asked on the forum and the initial (prepared) answer has been posted, all members will be welcome to follow up.

I'd like to attend but I'm working.

Hope it goes well and that having given him the questions well in advance, you don't just get a rehearsed "party line" to each of them by way of response.

Also working.
As a side note, 'tea time' is not good for me. It's tea time!

Noted, both. Sadly, there is no ideal time.  There's good news in that the outcome and discussion will form part of our archive to that you'll be able to read  the questions, and how they were answered later in the evening and over following days - and indeed you can (and knowing you, will!) join in.    On past form, Mark has visited again and even follow up over the following week; this year, we are at the height of inputs to the ticket office consultation and between rail strikes and I will understand if such follow ups are impractical.

It has to be said member engagement during the session was pretty atrocious.  From a quick scan of the questions and responses only two regular members (so excluding RedSquirrel and Graham) made posts during the live session.

Very disappointing that so many regulars were either unable or unwilling to contribute IMHO.

Sadly we don't all work 9-5............perhaps early evening in future may attract more participation?

But well done Graham for organising it, was very interesting to read the replies.

Interestingly, you are asking Mark to work into the evening though?

Indeed not.  I certainly don’t. 

Though given the number of retired members, and those who now WFH having a bit more leeway than before, even if just to dip in for fifteen minutes, I would have expected far more than just two.

The questioning was thin, though there were quite a few regular members around.  Perhaps one reason for the very slim follow ups was that the initial answers from Mark were good and addressed the questions in a single shot.  But that's only a part of the answer. Timing is one element.  Member's work patterns are another.   And it seems to be the height of the holiday season; at least here in Melksham none of our key officers was available for the meeting that followed - four absences and a locum clerk (who is very good but of course doesn't have years of background on the project we were progressing) was left holding the baby.

I was wondering about holiday time but we did have one in August going back.

Could the lack of engagement be down to many of us being just a little fed up with railways at the moment?

Certainly my feeling.

For myself, I'm spending a lot more time riding on trains than thinking about them at the moment. Aside from the fact that they always seem overcrowded when I travel (is it just me?), my experience has been pretty good!

My being late for the party was less due to disillusionment and rather more to distraction.....Tempus Fugit while doing the garden.
Must do better next time.

I could have contributed, but did not choose to, because I have two main concerns about GWR services that I did not feel would be addressed.
Firstly the effective lack of catering. I think that the time has come to accept that GWR do not really care about catering, apart from a very token trolley service on some trains. These problems have been well documented on these forums, and a number of promises made. No improvements made though, nor do I expect any.

Secondly, the continued short formation of GWR services. The failed IET project has resulted in many short trains, as I forecast years ago. "Flexible train length" means shorter. New trains means shorter.
Improvements seem most unlikely.
ONE IET is expected to return to service, more than offset by withdrawal of the Castle sets.

Great Western have gone from one of the better  companies to one of the worst, with short and uncomfortable trains, and effectively no catering. Welcome to the future.