Great Western Coffee Shop

i didnt think that i would ever post something like this about fgw, this morning i WAS on my way to the diesel gala at the wsr and decided that as i drive up every day for work that i would get the train up to taunton and bus it to bishops lyd... turn up at 950 plenty of time to get my ticket for the 1010 service from digby at this point the platform about 20 people were waiting im stood waiting for a while and check my watch to see that the train is 10 mins late a couple of mins later another passenger phones fgw and is told about a broken down train services will resume at 12 and a bus will be running at 10 past so we wait and at 10 past a stagecoach bus turns up.. surprise surprise they wont take the ticket so pay or stay.... 30 mins later still no bus so another phone call just to be told there is a bus you must have missed it another will be there soon, in this instance i was dropped off at the station and only had a tenner on me which i used for the train ticket so i was stranded with a dozen other people including familys with young children and the general concensous was that fgw basically thought we have their money screw em, during my 2 fun packed hours there was no announcements no signs up to advise fo rail replacement bus came to digby and even the stagecoach bus driver started just driving past the entrance to avoid the hasstle you even if you had money you couldnt escape unless you had your car........ and to top it off there was a young mother who was suppost to be taking her son to a class in the morning at 9am in exeter after waiting 30 mins on the station it gets to 830 so she rings up and gets told it will be there soon 30 mins later there will be a bus when i left at 1150 she was still there

why did fgw not have the decency to quickly pop to every station (this wouldnt take up that much time hour tops) and put up a poster sorry no trains until further notice

why did they not provide a replacement bus and if they did why did they not chase it up after so many calls about it being a no show


got my money back after managing to get transport to a manned station where to be fair i got an easy refund, but im very angry about this, not so much for myself even though i did waste one of my rare days off but because of the people trying to get to work and familys going for a day out were just given no decent info or advice what so ever and were left stranded

breakdowns happen and the nature of the line means that if there is a break down it causes major problems but there must be a congincey plan in place???

I was at the SDR Diesel Gala today but had a text from the guard on the failed unit.  142068 suffered a failure to it's main air system that could not be rectified by the crew isolating the main reservoir cock on the affected car and carrying on using the air supply via the MRP from the other car. The low main air governors operated which applied the brakes to emergency thus preventing onward movement. I understand attempts to move it clear were hampered by the severity of the loss of air. The maintainance staff also had difficulties in effecting repairs to the failed unit.

The failure cleared the line at about 11:15 as I understand it. 142068 has been repaired and is now back in service.

yes it was 068 i saw it go threw digby from the bridge, i heard it broke down at topsham so i take it was eather on a single line section eather side of the station or the tracks threw the station are not bidirectional... its not the breakdown thats got me rattled these things happen its not even the lack of replacement bus its the fact that we were eather lied to or the coach driver just couldnt be bothered to call at digby!

I've been involved in a similar incident at Freshford where 1502XX lost air and was unable to move. Was on a Sunday morning when HSTs were being diverted over the Avon Valley. Eventually 158959 was sent wrong line from Bathampton to Freshford to rescue it.

The problem was probably exasperated due to the single line nature of the Exmouth branch; and the number of passengers on Saturday mornings!

Erm .. for what it's worth, I've had a minor adventure, too, involving lost air: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2057  ;)

However, I do agree with relex109 that the apparent lack of any customer service or information from FGW in this particular incident was quite appalling.  >:(

[TerminalJunkie hat on]


I'm sure you were exasperated, but wasn't the problem exacerbated...?!  :P ;)

[TerminalJunkie hat off]

notice my strange use of the english language in order to avoid words that i am unable to spill

oh **it