Hi Grahame,

For the specific incidents, we have an obligation to make sure our customers reach their destination. If that’s not been possible, in this instance because someone was overcarried because we didn’t open the doors, staff at the next station (or via the help point if it’s an un-staffed station) should arrange for the customer to be returned to that destination station. That should always be by the quickest route, and it’s worth mentioning that for anyone travelling on a single, return, or weekly ticket, a delay of 15 minutes or more qualifies for Delay Repay compensation (that’s not available to ST holders at the moment I’m afraid).

I’d be interested to hear of any examples where we didn’t arrange that onward transport and/or customers felt ‘un-cared for’ – that should never be the case.

Operationally any failure to let customers disembark at the planned station is disappointing and, as you’d imagine, is something we take seriously. Our Operational teams will pick the issue up with the individual/s concerned to make sure there is no repeat and if there is anything specific that had led to the incidents, such as a shorter platform, or SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening), we’ll re-brief the wider team.

Thanks Grahame, that's very kind of you & we're all very much looking forward to welcoming everyone back on board our services as soon as we can, hopefully that won't be too long!

Hope the answers have been informative & we'll check back to see if we can help with any further comments.

Also, if I can help anyone on the forum with a Customer Service issue they're welcome to get in touch with me directly. Will also try to pop in to the forum when I can.

Thanks again & stay safe everyone

Jason

Train travel is a fantastic experience, we all love travelling by train and we are looking at how we can enhance that for our customers in years to come.  Although we don’t have any specific plans for 2022 at this stage, we have a lot of ideas about how we can work together to boost our customer offering. Watch this space!

We’ve received an unprecedented number of refund requests since Lockdown started and that has been challenging, especially as we changed our processes to give customers a route to apply for a refund online when they would have done so at a station normally. We’ve just about got through them all now and have refunded 95% of the requests we’ve received since late March.

If anyone has been waiting since April for their refund something may have gone awry as they should have heard from us by now. Happy to pick up any queries offline via jason.ness@gwr.com.

Annual Season Tickets are heavily discounted compared to daily/weekly tickets, with the last 2 months of travel effectively free. When a customer requests a refund, we take the cost of time used (using the cost of monthly, weekly and daily tickets), and refund the remainder (minus a £10.00 admin fee).  So, customers who surrender their Season Tickets early pay no more, or no less, than another customer who bought tickets to cover the period used. 

Under the current Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA) we're unable to change anything to do with fares without the approval of government, that includes extending any railcards I'm afraid.

This is an unprecedented situation; we understand that loneliness is a risk to physical and mental health.  It is something we have seen with our own colleagues who have been working from home or are shielding, and we’ve made a huge effort to keep in touch with them using digital and other means.  Our primary motivation is to keep people safe while following the Government advice – we would love to welcome people back this summer, and we are closely watching the travel advice that is given.We accept that feeling safe and being safe are two different things and we are trying to reassure customers through social media, videos, and our website that we are doing everything we can to keep customers and colleagues safe. We also have additional staff now at stations to help and guide customers returning to rail.

If members of this forum have any other ideas, we’d love to hear them.

No, it's refilling the trains water supply. Really important we don't run out of water & customers can wash their hands when they need too.

We have increased the frequency and standard of cleaning in line with government and Public Health England advice, including specialist cleaning products. All our facilities are open and any faults with them are treated as a high priority to repair.  As well as keeping the facilities open, we have added social distancing signage (including indicating maximum capacity in toilets) and measures where possible. We have also installed hand sanitisers in many locations.

Some toilets, where they are in waiting rooms, may be closed but we are providing alternatives, for instance at Oxford station.

We’re tanking our on-train toilets more frequently.  We’re also trialling a new virucidal product which kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses for a long period of time – you can find more here https://www.gwr.com/about-us/media-centre/news/2020/june/gwr-and-swr-trial-new-virucidal-sanitiser-in-cleanliness-battle-during-the-pandemic

Hi Grahame & everyone,

I’m the Head of Customer Relations for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), so responsible for our Contact Centre and the services held there such as Customer Support, Passenger Assist & Telesales. Also responsible for dealing with any complaints about our service, we do get the odd one or two!

Have been with FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/GWR for 15 years in a few Customer Service roles, look forward to answering any questions you have.