Great Western Coffee Shop

Any ideas?  NRES is indicating train but I dont exactly trust it

train...

Train.

As Willc explained yesterday, note A in the pocket timetable 'Rail improvement work may affect this train. You are strongly advised to check before travelling' will mean that any changes should be shown on the NRES site and will definitely be displayed on the engineering section of the FGW website at: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4505 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4505). There's nothing mentioned there yet as it only goes up to late January and, as Will also pointed out, there is no planned major work on the redoubling starting until well into the New Year.

Let's hope when it is affected a more suitable replacement bus service is provided than the ridiculous 3h15m to Worcester and 3h45m to Malvern as shown in the error ridden (as usual) National Rail Timetable!

Just got this from FGW....

"There are no new overnight possessions affecting trains. The worked that was planned will now be done either in non disruptive periods (overnights) or during blockades.

The next significant blocks will be June / July 2010 followed by Spring 2011 although these are not confirmed yet.

Unclear about completion date, when the 2011 possessions are clarified, this will become clearer. "

But once you've gone wandering off down the lanes at dead of night to get to Charlbury, Shipton, Kingham and Honeybourne, then that's actually a realistic timing if you're only providing one bus to do the job. Even the non-stop Oxford-Moreton replacement buses in the summer were allowed an hour just for the run straight up the A44.

Logically, you should provide an additional limited-stop bus to get people to Worcestershire but with the current cost-cutting at FGW, I wouldn't bank on it happening.

That was my point, Will - and as any replacement bus services will be paid for out of the redoubling budget I don't see why the excellent service provided during the summer blockade shouldn't be demanded by FGW again. It'll never be as quick as the train as the roads aren't suitable, but those timings are frankly outrageous.

One bus for Hanborough, Charlbury, Shipton, and Kingham. One bus for Moreton and beyond. Staff at Moreton to arrange taxis in the unlikely event of anyone coming from Hanborough to Kingham stations for beyond Moreton. Bearing in mind the traffic will be much quieter at that time of night, you could realistically time the non-stop Moreton bus for 45 minutes. That'd give a much more respectable 2h20m journey to Worcester, 45 minutes quicker.

Not unless you're speeding you won't manage 45 minutes, especially in a coach. There is now a 50mph limit most of the way from the edge of Oxford to Moreton - hence why the train wins hands down for travel from the Evenlode Valley into central Oxford.

Even in a car, driving right on the limit, you're looking at 50 minutes, once you factor in the 30mph bits through the towns and at Enstone. I'd like to think there would be two buses but they've never done it in the past for any other closures for tamping work and the like, so I'm not banking on a change of habits.

So what has happened to the February half term blockade that was advertised? I note that the Redoubling FGW web page can no longer be found on FGW's website.

Ian

Hmmm - don't remember that one....

Well, I will bow to your local knowledge, but if they were allowed an hour with summer daytime traffic, I'd have thought a few minutes could be shaved off late at night.

Anyway, even allowing an hour, you'd still save over half an hour on the through journey. I remain of the view that whether that's been the way it's always been, or not, FGW should be obliged to provide a better replacement service for its customers. There have been murmorings of it being unfair that passengers for a rail ticket should not get some form of discount for being forced to get a bus, and I think along with that being looked into seriously there should be clauses written in to franchises stating that (unless in exceptional circumstances) replacement bus journeys should take no longer than twice the time the train they're replacing takes.

Just not possible on long trips with multiple stops....

I've just demonstrated how it is possible by using two coaches rather than one, on a long route by road that is very poor. Most replacement buses cover much shorter routes. Don't just dismiss it out of hand. There should be some form of regulation to protect passengers interests in this respect, and as it currently stands I don't think there is any?

Why should there?

They advertise the service in advance, you pays your money & takes yer choice.

Oh, they have also provided compensation too....

Well, what do other people on the forum think? Should there be any regulations on rail replacement buses in terms of the time they take and some kind of refund on the purchase price of a ticket?

On the one hand (as ChrisB puts it) 'You pay your money and take your choice' - all changes are advertised in advance in one way or another and it is on you to check and plan accordingly. On the other you find that you have to make a late evening journey from Oxford to Worcester at short notice and you have to pay the full rail fare of some ^15 and find that the usual train at 22:52 arriving at 00:16 is now a bus at 23:01 arriving at 02:15 - some two hours later, 3h 15m for a journey of some 50 miles as the crow flies.

I'd agree that regulation is needed to ensure sufficient buses are provided & no one ever gets left behind, but I can't support running buses for half a dozen people that only *might* want to go fast to Worcester on any given day on the last service....

FGW ran fast buses during peak times - indeed, I praised them for the inventiveness of their service during the last blockade - as did many people.

But during late evenings?No, sorry. They advertise well in advance.....and what about all that CO2 being put out unnecessarily? The cost of them at that time of night, coupled with the few in number actually using them? Uh-oh, sorry.

I like the idea of having staff at Moreton sometime after midnight to arrange taxis for anyone arriving from Hanborough, Charlbury etc to continue on to Worcester!

No, come to think of it, I don't like the idea at all!

Could you even rustle up a taxi at that time?

Remember this would benefit Moreton, Honeybourne, Evesham, Pershore, Worcester and Malvern passengers equally. I estimate usual loadings for Moreton and beyond on the last two trains would be around 40 and 25 respectively - with around half of those travelling to Worcester or beyond. I am basing these estimates on what TM's who work the trains have told me and what I've seen with my own eyes. Some may be put off by a bus - no matter how fast it was - but that's more than used many of the ghost buses that ran during the summer blockade, which if anything was a bit over the top, though welcomed.


The best way would be to pre-book one from one of the 24-hour taxi firms in Evesham. If you don't want to go to the bother of having a staff member there, then you agree a rate with the company and specify that they wait for the bus. Then they must confirm with FGW control that it's OK to leave (or OK to go back to base if there's no takers). This is not beyond the realms of possibility. Or, you just run the stopping bus through to Worcester to avoid the need of any taxis - though of course the global warming risk would be HUGE  ::)

To be honest, the additional cost (given the extraordinary amount of money FGW and NR throw at taxis and buses a year anyway) is barely a factor.

On the contrary, I would think that the enormous amount of money thrown at taxis and buses each year was a major factor. Any commercial organisation would do it what it could to reduce unneccesary costs, particularly in hard times. Which brings us back to the cost versus customer service arguement!

You'd have thought so, wouldn't you? With a taxi bill of well over a million a year, and God knows what on buses, my point was that two extra buses and an extra taxi for a few nights when the two late trains aren't running would only be an extra drop of water in a very large ocean. Especially if that additional cost was claimed back off on NR.