Great Western Coffee Shop

The problems of today's society showed very clearly at 04:00 this morning when the TM on the first Paddington of the day (1L05) was confronted by a group of very intoxicated men (presumably who had missed their last train home last night). Local Police had 'nobody available to deal', so regretably the train had to set off - albeit 50+ late. Someone at Swansea forgot to tell this group that HSTs don't stop at Pyle as the pass-com was pulled as the train shot through adding more delay. Not sure where this group of apologies for men got off, but Paddington was reached exactly one hour late.

Sadly I don't think these men missed their train home. They were more likely hoping to catch the first train home considering the nightclubs in Swansea close around 3am. I'm not sure how often and how many people catch the train home after a night out but I know of quite a few people who do as it is cheaper than a taxi whilst also run not long after places close so is somewhat conveniant

Why is it that 5% of the passengers cause 95% of the hassle, and the other 95% are responsible for just 5%?  The trick (in any business) is in evaluating which are your 5% of "squeaky wheels" and passing on that business.

Question, Rogang - I know the railways are able to deny travel to people they consider to be in an unfit condition to travel, but are they otherwise regarded as a 'common carrier' of people.   In other words, can a TOC say "I don't like you - we're not going to accept your business in the future even if you are fit to travel" to people ....

Looking at it from the other direction, surely there's a potential business opportunity to run an 04:00 stopping train, using beat-up old stock and volunteer staff? Get these vermin off the usual public trains, get them home and screw some money out of them at the same time. Result.

I don't think you would get very many 'volunteer staff'!

A similar experiment was conducted in Cardiff a few years ago with very late night buses when the clubs closed. They were more expensive, to cover the costs of additional crew as security, but a lot cheaper than a taxi.

IIRC they weren't successful and didn't last too long, though whether that was because the staff didn't enjoy the experience or whether the fares were too high when compared with a shared taxi I don't know. 

Long term if this problem persists they will stop running the train.  Or more likely start it from Cardiff on saturday morning.

I wouldn't have thought so as a simple way of dealing with this is to have a police prence at the station around this time. All it takes is maybe 2 officers to support staff which should't be too hard to resource in Swansea as they usually have a large number of police in the area, especially on weekends, to deal the usual troubles in the area

There are about 150  - 200 of these passengers so I think a bit more than 2 officers will be needed.  And anyway they wont stop the passcom being pulled after the train has left. 

Yes Grahame - we are a common carrier. As far as I am aware, we have to prove that they are either not fit to travel or could represent a serious threat to public safety. The latter could have applied yesterday, but with the police unable to send anyone to the station, it was felt that the situation would be easier defused by letting them travel - hindsight is a wonderful thing.
The 03:59 ex Swansea is a popular service believe it or not - it provides an 0700 arrival in London ahead of the main rush hour on Mons-Fris as well as quite a bit of local use within South Wales (not sure to/from where and why). Saturdays is a lot quieter apart from the clubbers, although yesterday had at least one retired lady in the same carriage as the unruly group!
Having thought about this a bit more, there can not be many services anywhere in the UK apart from London, where clubbers can stay until the club closes on a Saturday morning and have a train home within an hour!

There is also the connection with the Fishguard boat train - the 3.59 used to be a through Fishguard-Paddingto train which left Swansea at 3.30. Running half an hour later makes a good balance between providng the connection with the 3.30ish arrival and providing a useful early morning service. Do many people make the through journey from Fishguard these days? I'd guess that the daytime service is more attractive to most people than having to make the nocturnal change, unless they really don't want to use up a day travelling.

I know it's easy for me to say from the comfort of my desk, but I would have thought byelaws 5 and 6 have the necessary provisions to remove such individuals:

Indeed but when there are 150 - 200 of these people you try telling them that !

maybee increasing the walk on fairs for this service would sort it after all most of the regulars who use it for work will have seasons or know in advance

Fair point... I had missed the sheer numbers involved in the post above!

03:59 is good timing from Swansea because this establishment (https://www.urmusicnetwork.com/oceana/swansea/) is mostly open until 03:00.

The 03:59 services is very popular with passengers and is well used, There is normally only problems on a saturday morning. I have caught this services a few times especially if i want a day out in London on a weekday as off peak tickets are accepted on it, alsough now i am able to use off peak tickets on the 07:29 Swansea - london service wich gets into London at 10:30.

besides when i last used it on a saturday there were at least  3 police officers on board together with a few ticket inspectors. The drunks seem to only travel between Swansea & Cardiff where another set gets on to go to Newport after which the train is  normally ok then apart from the few who get on at Bristol TM to go to Bath.

besides you should see the 03:30 Swansea - Cardiff sunday service which uses 2 class 153's whcih is very jammed packed.