Great Western Coffee Shop

Twice a week, a catch the 21.39 Chiltern service from Gerrards Cross to Bicester North, which then leads me to a bus from Bicester to Oxford, and a bus from Oxford to Abingdon.  All in all, this is quite a reliable route for me, i've never had a problem until last night.
The train is often delayed slightly because of the preceeding Aylesbury train is sometimes quite late.  This service departs at 21.33 and because it is a slower service, it can sometimes mean that my train runs slower as far as High Wycombe, which happened last night, slightly later than normal at 7 minutes down leaving GX.  It wasn't a problem until I got to Princes Risborogh.  The train had stopped here for quite some time, and i was beginning to wonder until the driver announced there was a technical fault with the unit (a 168), and he was trying to deal with it.  2 minutes later, he announces that the train will be 'terminating here, this train is out of service due to a fault'.
Ok so trains have faults, i'm not disputing that, i'm just shocked at the lack of information. There was no advice given for any further services, and the boards weren't displaying anything, only the delayed train that ended up terminating.  I just thought that out of all TOCs, Chiltern would be the last one to deal with a matter so poorly.  I ended up having to go to High Wycombe and staying at a friends, because i would miss the last bus home by waiting for the later train (which, at this point, nobody had any idea when this was!) It was just a horrible night too, bam smack in the middle of a thunder storm.  Sorry for my rant, im just a bit dissapointed and at the time, quite annoyed as i had to be at work at 9 this morning for a 13 hour shift,  ended up leaving at 6am!  :-[ sorry, rant over!

Very unlucky to have such an experience with Chiltern. :o

I suppose you will be looking forward to the Chiltern service to Oxford, to make your journey simpler...

My one and only experience of the sainted Chiltern's performance during disruption was absolutely dire. It was during flooding a little while ago when I ended up marooned in Banbury, and the (really quite senior) manager on duty did not want to know, nor would she give me a copy of the conditions of carriage so I could point out her obligations to her.

Oh most deffinitely, i was completely suprised, as they're always so effeciant.  The new service will be fantastic, however, i'm in my last year at Uni in high Wycombe this year, so it's a tad too late lol. But i do intend on moving to the Gerrards cross/Denham area at some point, and will always want to go home to see my mum! =]

 This is why I get annoyed sometimes when they refer to rail user's as 'customers'

 If you went to a restaurant and paid for a meal, to be told the cooker had broken down - you will not get your money back.
 If you went to the same restaurant and the floor was dirty, seats ripped and stank of piss.
 
 Point is you would take your custom elsewhere, we do not have the choice.

 Apologies, rant over.

I was looking at Barry Doe's excellent franchise map at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_map/maps/trainoperators.pdf the other day, and it struck me that there's a glorious array of colours and operators at Crewe, and at Derby and York.  At Doncaster, and Brighton and Glasgow - all the homes of former homes of major railway centres.  Contrast that to monochrome, monopoly Swindon.

Whilst there are advantages is having close operation between various trains on the same line (a West Fleet unit fails at Westbury and the 125 that terminates at Frome forms an all stations service to Bristol rather than running empty), I do wonder if the Greater Western Franchise went one step too far.

Mind you, even with competition you don't have it all ideal.   I once stood on the platform at Swindon before the current franchise was awarded, and asked a member of the team there for the Melksham train.  Ignoring the Wessex train standing in the bay platform, he advised me to get on the [First] train to Bath and catch a [First] bus from there. Shocked me a little. He was, need I tell you, a First employee  ;)

well henry your choice is take the bus ,drive or get a taxi so there are alternatives

 
 If Steve44 had been able to use one of the alternatives he would have completed his journey safely.
 
 

Link not working, try this: http://www.barrydoe.plus.com/railmap13.pdf