Great Western Coffee Shop

On Saturday I boarded the 08:08 Service to Swansea. When I arrived at Bath Spa, admittedly I was late. I thought I had missed it. (Arrived 08:00). As the 08:08 service was not shown on the Departure Screens. Gutted that I had thought I had missed it, I purchased a coffee from Pumpkin and decided to wait till the 08:36 to Cardiff Central.

Except that when I consulted my piece of paper, I noted that I had written down 08:08 as the time of train I was catching. Puzzled at this I sought out a member of staff who informed me that I had not missed the train and that it would turn up ontime - which it did ;D

Unfortunately we had to wait at Bath Spa for 25 minutes whilst the police attended to remove some abusive passengers. The train manager came through shortly after leaving Bath Spa, who I have to say really was on top form. She even went to the trouble to ask me how I was that particular day. She then sold me a Weekend First ticket to Cardiff for ^5 ;D

we arrived at Bristol 26 minutes late. Then there was a fault with the train and we waited for a further 10 minutes. Now running 37 minutes late, we slowly headed off to Bristol Parkway. Where we were delayed for another 15 minutes because of Signalling Issues.

This is where things started to go royally t*ts up!! We got delayed even further by engineering works in Newport. Panicking that I was not going to make the connection at Cardiff for Pontyclun, I went to speak to the train manager. Unfortunately the TM had changed over at Bristol and a new TM was found sat in Coach H drinking tea and chatting to his colleagues. He seemed deeply uninterested that I would miss the connection at Cardiff and that I would have to wait over an hour to get to Pontyclun.

As we arrived in Cardiff, I was unfortunate enough to watch the Pontyclun train leave, without me!! >:( >:(

I needed to get to Pontyclun for 10:45 and ATW refused to give me alternative transport sighting it was not their train that was late. Taxi was the only option. ^25 poorer I arrived at Pontyclun for 10:50

Now, do you reckon that if I write into FGW about this awful journey, that I will receive the ^25 back I paid for the taxi? I doubt it myself but it's worth a try.

All in all it was a rather poor journey!

FGW will pay compensation based on your arrival time in Pontyclun compared to the expected arrival time.  You'll have to fill in a delay form (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=2420) to get this.  What compensation you'll receive as you took a taxi is debatable, but as the next service was 1 hour later, I would expect them to pay compensation at the 1hr level.

Given that you eventually left Bath Spa at around 0833, would not it have been better to catch the 0836 to Cardiff, which would have overtaken the Swansea service whilst the latter was reversing at Parkway (even if it hadn't been delayed there and at Bristol TM).

If you put your required journey into the journey planner it comes up with the 0836, changing at Newport, with a 27 minute connection there. I suspect if you taken the recommended train you would have made your connection with time to spare.   

I suspect that you will get your train fare back which will be close to the ^25 taxi fare.  Always worth sending a form in.

I think the waters are muddied somewhat because you took a taxi on your own initiative from Cardiff, and from what I can tell you weren't an hour late at your destination. You may get your fare refunded in vouchers if you write in but frankly I don't fancy your chances because of these two caveats: (a) the initial delay was caused by disruptive passengers and subsequent police attendance, so technically "outside the control of the railway industry", and (b) you didn't actually complete your rail journey to Pontyclun.

As far as the taxi fare goes, sorry but you can forget ever seeing that again. As a general rule of thumb, taxis are provided where you've missed the last connecting train of the day or you'd have to wait two hours for the next connection. Much as you may not like it, the duty manager at Cardiff was entirely correct in not providing you with a taxi.

I was always under the impression that 'alternative transport' is arranged if...

^ The next connecting train is more than 60 minutes later than the one you should have caught; and
^ Alternative transport will get you there quicker than waiting for the next train.

I will also echo that I doubt you will get the taxi money back as you didn't get it pre-authorised (mind you that would have been hard considering the TM you had to deal with).

Hmm...interesting. I've been provided with a taxi twice at the railway's expense. Once was from Temple Meads to Keynsham when a connection missed on a Sunday when there was a two-hour gap before the next train - in that case I had spoken to the train manager on my inbound service who told me that I need not worry since company policy would be to provide me with a taxi because it was a 2 hour wait. And gave me a complimentary tea and biscuits by way of an apology!

The second time was from Carmarthen to Whitland very late one winter's night when, again, my connection was missed. Unfortunately in that case the chargeman on duty refused point blank to provide me any alternative transport because the Fishguard boat train in a few hours' time would get me there. However there was another passenger travelling to Kilgetty who had missed her last train of the day, and finally the recalcitrant staff member agreed that he would send me in the same taxi via Whitland.

Last Friday (26/11/2010) me and my friend took a day trip out on the Berks and Hants travelling out of London on the 12:18 hst to Hungerford. Had a great run down with a very friendly TM doing a full ticket check between London and Reading . In Hungerford we grabbed some lunch then returned to the station for the 15:21 to Bedwyn which arrived 20 minutes late. From Bedwyn we planned to return on the 16:44 to Reading but this was cancelled along with the 17:35 to Pad making the next available train the 17:55 to Reading making a gap of 70 minutes . I used the shiny new help point and managed to get the FGW customer services phone number . I rang and got through to a very helpful chap and explained the problem and the fact it was absolutly freezing . I requested a taxi only as far as Hungerford as i knew we could sit in the warm in the pub by the station the chap at the other end was very friendly and said he just needed to check with control. He returned around 30 seconds later to tell me control had denied the taxi and that i would have to wait in the freezing cold fo 70 minutes (at the earliest) i was sure that this was a franchise commitment of FGW that if a service is delayed by over 60 mins to provide alternative transport and that control were bang out of order but wasn't sure of my rights can anyone enlighten me?. On LM if a Bedford to Bletchley service is cancelled a taxi is always provided but then again London Midland is not a First operation ;)

Generally it's a 2 hour delay before alternative transport will be arranged.