Great Western Coffee Shop

Has it occurred to anyone else that FGW have not published any news on their website since 5th June (welcoming the Cotswold line announcement). Have they got rid of their PR Department, or is there just nothing interesting or positive to say? (Would have thought forthcoming service improvements in the South West would be worth an announcement, or a press release saying how good loadings are on the Severn Beach line, which would then get some more publicity for the improved service.)

   

I agree, John: the FGW website is sadly lacking in many areas - items of good news being one of them!  ::)

There is a lot that FGW could put on their website, in terms of positive advertising - even their past sponsorship of a scouts excursion, for example (see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3473.msg26938#msg26938 )

Why are they apparently so reluctant to do so?  ???

Yes, I forgot about that one. They should have used that (at the risk of getting lots of requests from similar organisations!) There's much more to be positive about these days, but maybe their PR team still have the bunker mentality which must have been prevalent pre-Haines.   

I have heard that FGW do not want to post news like that (the sort of bigging themselves up news) until customers are getting a frequent decent service.

Hmmm.  On the Melksham line, that could be a very long time indeed ...............  ::)

So I wonder does that mean that they are not yet satisfied with the level of improvements they have delivered, and are looking to do better. That's encouraging, given how far we've come. I'm not suggesting they report spin, but factual stories about improvements should be encouraged.

What happened to that newletter they used to publish every month?

I'd like to see their performance figures but cant find them!

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=265

I'd like to see more news from FGW but they aren't the only TOC not providing regular news on their websites. They don't put Customer Matters on the website anymore which I thought was a good way of keeping everyone informed about whats happening on the network.

SWT is good at keeping passengers informed of rail related news on its website and in its magazine emotion.

Talking of TOC magazines...I thought FGW's previous publication Reach was a good magazine, not something I can say about their current publication sadly.

Totally agree. The "Forward" initiative was a good one, as well. I was sad to see the back of that.