Great Western Coffee Shop

I would like to detail a nightmare journey a relative of mine endured on Sunday 9/11/08 from Plymouth to Paddington.She was waiting for the delayed 1810 Plymouth/Padd(diverted via Yeovil) which then showed as arriving 1821.At 1821 the PA announced the imminent arrival of said train simultaneously followed on the screens by an amended arrival time of 1845.At 1835 the PA announced the train was 8 minutes late despite it already being 25 minutes late.Eventually it arrived at 1850.There was then a further delay in departure due to an ailing Voyager in front,the train eventually departed at 1900 for its nearly 5 hour journey to Paddington.The train arrived in Paddington just after midnight with many passengers onward travel effected including my relatives(Londons tube and buses were also disrupted).Eventually after a further hour wait at Paddington FGW arranged a taxi to take my relative and her 3 year old son to Westminster.
 She now says she will not use the train again and will use the coach in future and despite being a life long rail enthusiast I cant blame her.
  Despite the recent improvements on FGW there are signs appearing in my neck of the woods that all is not as well as I thought on FGW.

I think the simple answer is that travelling on sundays in winter should be avoided like a barge pole. Its overcrowded, late and slow.

And in the evening (where a Midnight arrival is possible), although travelling at a different time might not have been convenient for her.

unfortunatly mistakes were made and hopefully they will be learnt from, the anouncement boards were the same at honiton and on my iphone i can view departures from stations the one i was waiting for was up there three times with different stops one delayed 2 on time of corse the 2 on time didnt exist i presume that as three trains had been logged on the system got confused? there seemed to be alot of delay a train to let the other one catch up abit if they just let the delayed train stay delayed and let the ontime go ontime this mite not have happened

By the sounds of it the arrangements at PAD could have been a bit better organised, and the CIS system as a whole is being looked at by FGW, even though it is still restricted by the info it receives by Network Rail.  I can also confirm that a number of staff are looking at "Communication during disruption", so I rest assured I will pass your comments on to my colleagues who are doing this.  FGW are working to try and improve things in these areas.

I am unable to check at present why the train was 50 late from Plymouth, but the single-line on the Yeovil line is just chaos as soon as trains start getting out of sync.

OK, FGW hat off, personal opinion on:

While a 50min delay is not nice on top of 5hr journey, the flailing Voyager, weather conditions, and need for diversion via Yeovil really does not fall at FGWs feet.  I am actually quite impressed that the expected journey time of 5hrs was actually kept to there abouts!

However, I fail to see how any "life-long rail enthusiast" would ditch the railways at the blame of FGW, for a life-time of traffic/coach/M5 misery for what appears to be a 50minute delay and what could have been better organisation on arrival at London  ???

Given the fastest coach journey (Nat Express) is 5hrs 25 mins, and some are considerably longer, then the reaction does appear a bit far-fetched.

It reminds me of the letter in the local paper (local being Nailsea and Clevedon) a couple of years ago from someone complaining about the appalling wait they had to endure at "Lulsgate Airport". Appears that they had to queue for about 15 mins at security, and some other minor inconvience, probably that they couldn't park their car within 1 minutes walk of the terminal entrance.

Indeed, it was so bad that they vowed never to use Bristol again (10 mins drive from home) but always to use Heathrow in future. Never mind the extra 3 hours (including delay contingency) travelling time to get there, and the fact that the queues would likely be far greater (this was long before T5, which on my limited experience, now works reasonably well).

I often wonder whether they did use LHR next time, but I suspect from the letter that they hadn't been on a plane for the previous 20 years, so maybe next time hasn't happened yet.  ;D
       

To be honest, I don't understand why she has ditched the 3 hour train journey for a 6 hour coach journey!

What is it with us British about never giving anything a second chance? Surely she must realise that the service is OK most of the time?

coach for over 2 hours nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo even if the train delay was double atleast you can get up and walk around, go to the buffet

It was my relative who said she would not use the train again.As for me "a life long rail enthusiast" I will continue to use rail as my preferred mode of transport despite the problems that will inevitably arise from time to time.Given the limited resources at its disposal FGW does quite a good job in general.If only the government would stop trying to get blood out of stone with its punative franchise agreements.There is no shortage of money it seems when it comes to bailing out banks and building societies while FGW is forced to cram more and more people onto already overcrowded trains.If only FGW were a Bank!

My apologies, I misread your quote.  I seriously don't think though that under 'normal' circumstances the coach would ever beat the train from Plymouth though.

Agree but given that she lives 1 station from Victoria station on the circle line and her return journey to London is always on a Sunday with its disruptions,the coach journey to/from Plymouth which is in reality close to 5 hours is for her a realistic alternative to rail particularly in the frequently disrupted Winter Timetable period.