Great Western Coffee Shop

I travel down first class today from BAW to PNZ and had a very pleasant journey and filled with excitement at travelling on the sleeper back tonight ! Only 57 Tintagel Castle decides it can't provide EMT for the births so the up Night Riviera is cancelled. Some 45 mins late, we're all transferred onto an HST which, I assume would normally berth overnight in platform 1 at PNZ! I'm now the next 7 hours in First Class with a family of 3 children lights glowing like Blackpool luminations and there an expection that I might be able to sleep? It is 2256 and we're just leaving Redruth! Grrrrr!

Thank godI chose the 13th even though I lost a pencil case and phone as on speaking to unofficlal sources - you never get anything back from OOC

604 is a heap!

I'm very sorry to hear about your disappointing experience, bigdaz, on what should have been a happy half-term holiday.

Chris.  :o :(

57604 is Pendennis Castle.
Tintagel Castle is 57603.

Is that a heap too   8)

Some 45 mins late, we're all transferred onto an HST which, I assume would normally berth overnight in platform 1 at PNZ

No, all trains go to the depot for overnight servicing and cleaning, ready for the next day! Lucky they must have got another one for the morning... :)

Credit where credit is due, the sleeper coaches arrived into Pl 4 at PNZ at c19h30 and led by a class 08 shunter.  57603 arrived about 20h00 and the problem was very quickly picked up on an there must have been 4-6 fitters on site trying desperately to remedy the problem.  :)

But most of all, praise must go to the on-board staff and duty station manager.  They empathised and did everything in their power to do what was necessary.  The Duty Manager was on the phone to control asking if we could take the HST, the stewards were then handing out pampering packs, offering complementary refreshments by the bucketload!  ;D

I DIDN'T sleep well   :( - although, that said, I vaguely remember seeing Liskard and didn't wake again until we stopped at Swindon (  :o surprising as I thought we would be booked on the Berks and Hants) where there appeared to be a crewing change at about 03h15.  We then arrived at Reading at 3.45am where we waited for our 05h13 departure.  (This again  :-\ confused me, since Reading on this service is a setting down point, why couldn't we motor on to Pad and done with it - surely it wouldn't have been exactly that busy or full at silly'o'clock in the morning?)

On arrival at PAD we were STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to go and have breakfast in the 1st Class Lounge - and very nice it was too!   ;D

The on-board staff also handed out the compensation forms so that we could apply for our refunds!  ::)

Well I guess with the age of the 57s there will be occasional problems. Just a shame that it's not economically viable for FGW to have a stand-by Thunderbird or Class 67 down in the far south-west.

As to the route you took, the Night Riviera can and does go via many different routes - perhaps the HST substitution was also behind the Swindon crew change.

Top marks, by the sounds of it, go to all the staff involved. I trust a letter/email will be winging its way to FGW Towers, both to highlight the disappointment at not being able to sleep horizontally (!) and to praise the staff response.

In Dawlish mid afternoon today and the sleeper plus Tintagel Castle were dragged to London by Pendennis Castle.

 

I hope that was a good sign, as many of the people booked on last night's UP sleeper were also again booked on the down sleeper tonight!  I am just wondering why and Tintagel Castle was not able to do it on it's own!!

Looking at CCLDB you arrived at RDG at 03:52 and 0452 at twyford. So must have left RDG slightly earlier!

It also got a very interesting routing on the system as well.
Normal to Taunton and Bristol TM
then Dr Days Jnc, Bristol PW, wotton basset jnc, Swindon.
Arriving into Pad at 0535

However I suspect it didn't go that route as the system is reporting as "no log" between Taunton and WTNBSTJ.
will have a look on TRUST later and see if that enlightens me.

The Sleepers don't have a crew change at Swindon.

They pick up London & Thames Valley Traincrew who live in Swindon to avoid them having to drive to work.

Especially when Staff Car Parking is going to be severly limited at Reading with the rebuilding works.

Thats good of FGW, a SSO to pick up staff. Theres a special code for that in the WTT.

The Swindon stop for staff pickup happens quite frequently depending on the route the Sleeper takes.

FYI Exeter is the only TM depot that signs sleeper stock.

I have been lucky in that i have never had any problems when i have used the  fgw sleeper service.

Every time i have used the service i have arrived in London paddington at 05:20-05:25.

 As for the routing the 1st time i used it the trains was routed from Taunton to Westbury then via Melksham to Swindon & Reading where we arrived at 04:22, When i last used in in March 2010 we went direct via the Berk & Hanst and arrived into Reading at 04:00 where we waited til 04:45

I'm a bit puzzled - how do said LTV staff get to work if/when the sleeper runs via the Toot and Bunny? Do they get notice so that they can make other arrangements, or do they just catch a different HSS service at a similarly ungodly hour from Swindle-um?

Toot and Bunny? Are you any closer to discovering the origin of this phrase, blakey? The only online reference of any note I can find is a previous coffeeshop (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6380.msg62999#msg62999) post of yours.  ;)

They drive just as they have to for any other shift which does not fit into the scheduled train service. Its just a bonus for them when the sleeper calls and saves the petrol but there is no guarantee.

What crew change?

Exeter HSS drivers sign all routes from Exeter to Paddington including the SR as far as Yeovil Jn / Castle Cary. As already pointed out Exeter HSS train managers are the only ones that sign sleeping cars / LHCS.

Oddly I don't even get that one coming up in Google! Probably said this before, but it's referenced by Adrian Vaughan in either Signalman's Morning or Signalman's Twilight as being an ancient nickname of obscure origin, from memory I think specifically referring to the Newbury-Hungerford section of the B&H. It's also mentioned by Benedict le Vay in Britain from the Rails, although again I don't think there's any indication of the derivation.

Come to that - why 'Hants & Berks'? The line doesn't go through Hampshire.

I love 'Toot & Bunny', though. Someone must know why, somewhere!

See a previous topic, at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6380.0  ;)

 >:(   I received this letter in the post today:



I have now lodged a further complaint to state that if you pay for a sleeper berth and don't get one, then this is a breach of contract and I should be entitled to a full refund. 

Am awaiting the outcome.

Your views??

I believe you should at least be entitled to a refund of the berth fee.  You pay for a birth and get a seat - not exactly what you've paid for!

I would guess that it's simply that the person reading your letter was in a hurry, didn't realize that the 2145 PNZ to PAD was a sleeper and just bashed out a standard passenger's charter reply without really thinking. I had something similar once when I claimed for a train that was 86 minutes late only to receive a letter from a customer services advisor who was apparently using a metric hour, since they said that I could only claim for delays of an hour or more and therefore 86 minutes wasn't long enough!

You might try giving them a call with the reference on your letter and asking to speak to a supervisor, as this resulted in a fulsome apology and a speedy issue of the appropriate compensation in the situation above.

FGW customer services are generally pretty good in my opinion - fair enough there are times when things like this slip through, probably because staff have a relatively short period of time allowed in which to read and respond to each complaint, but when such mistakes are brought to their attention they generally resolve them very quickly.

And I'd request a further goodwill payment for the extra time and effort you will now have to put in after such a fundamental mistake made by the CS Advisor who responded.

The fact the the CS Advisor mentions 'sleeper service' in the response would seem to indicate a lack of attention - I'm assuming you enclosed your berth reservation along with the travel ticket.

I'd further suggest that the CS Advisor's handling of your claim also be brought to the attention of 'Senior Managers'.

The mistake probably most likely happened when the CS advisor didn't realise that the replacement service was an HST.  Very elementary error, but this is probably not a situation the CS person comes across very often.

I would agree that the customer services person probably did not realise that sleeping accomadation was paid for, and not provided.
It would appear that they regarded it as a simple delay/cancellation, with the lost time made up, therefore no problem.

If a passenger had booked a seat on the train in question, then I dont see that compensation would be payable, since a seat was provided, and arrival was on time.

In case of a sleeping berth (not birth :) !) than at least the sleeper suplement should be refunded, and perhaps a goodwill payment in addition.

:-[ ;D

Has there ever been a birth in a berth?  [will split to separate thread if I this 'takes off'  ;) ]

Hey Grahame

I don't think that even if I eventually get to go on the sleeper that I can up the numbers on this one!  I know I'm large and that it looks like I'm carrying twins, but I've tried pushing them out, but no good !  lol!   ;D

Hopefully you have got your money back. Found this while looking for something else.

NRCoC
41. Refund of reservation fees
If a seat reservation, sleeper reservation or cycle reservation is not honoured, the Train Company responsible will refund any reservation fee paid. If the Train Company is unable to provide alternative equivalent accommodation for you or your cycle, you will be compensated for the inconvenience. The value of the compensation will be no more than
the price of the full single fare for the journey. If you are unable or have decided not to travel you will be entitled to claim a refund under Condition 26 for the relevant part of your journey.

Write to Mark Hopwood at FGW HQ in Plymouth. OK he won't read it himself, but someone in his office will and escalate the issue at Customer Services. Enclose all correspondence so far.

I had cause to write for a refund on an advance purchase a while ago- the train was severely delayed, FGW were completely inflexible about letting me travel on other trains, so I had to go home and get the car.

Customer Services said it was my decision not to travel, so no refund was due. After writing to Mark Hopwood I had rail vouchers to the full value by return of post.

See thats why it really matters who the guard is

The other sunday I was on the rammed 1512 with no buffet and got off at bath (was almost riots due to no buffet and I wanted off) - had an advance ticket but found the TM and explained and asked if I could use my existing ticket (I would have paid a single and weekend first upgrade if needed) and got told no problem

Probably no need - customer services are very good about keeping records of correspondence at their end, and my understanding is that whenever you send a complaint back to them because you're dissatisfied with the response then things are automatically escalated to the supervisory level. An example from my experience a while ago - on a train from Didcot to Whitland (this being on a summer Saturday, with a diversion via somewhere or other so the journey was going to take about 5 hours) the customer host refused to serve me any refreshments after Bristol because he said I had "used my ration" of three items. Apparently at the time there was an edict regarding "abuse" of weekend first upgrades, but my ticket wasn't a weekend first and he was just making up the rules to be awkward. Customer services informed and they wrote back to say that he had probably just run out of stuff. I emailed back to say that that was categorically not the case, he had plenty of comps but just refused to issue them, and suggested that as some kind of goodwill gesture they might like to send me a catering voucher for a few quid.

I was amazed (in a good way!) when a few days later I received a very apologetic response email from someone senior in customer relations offering me a free "anytime/anywhere" first class return journey.

Mark Hopwood @ Swindon HQ is more likely to get to his "people" rather than Plymouth I guess ?

Without wanting to go OT, if you are delayed on an Advance, i'd be interested to know why FGW were inflexible about travel on later trains  ???

Drifting OT a bit....

I was travelling from Twyford to Gowerton (South Wales). Got to Reading OK, but the Swansea train was at least 40 mins late. This would have meant missing the Gowerton connection, which is bi-hourly. There was a Cardiff Central train also running late, but would have let me maintain a connection at Cardiff onto Gowerton. I suggested that in order to complete my journey I could travel on this train. The answer was negative. I then asked if I would be entitled to a taxi at Swansea if I missed the connection. I was told no. I didn't have the time to hang around Swansea for two hours, so went back to Twyford, went home and drove to Gowerton instead (about three hours). I arrived at least an hour before I would have done if I'd gone on my booked train and waited around at Swansea.

The in initial response from CS was that as the train had run (albeit very late) I was not entitled to a refund on an advance purchase ticket.