Surely the stock needed is already there! What's wrong with using the day coaches and 57 off the sleeper?? Plenty of time to work a round trip to Plymouth between sleeper commitments!

I took full advantage of that 15.00 additional non-stop to Reading. It was a diverted service due to flooding between Taunton and Castle Cary. Just caught it at Bristol where we left alongside the other 15.00 and I stepped off it at Paddington at 16.20 - it was quite a "lively" run - never been through Chippenham that fast before! Seriously though, only 80 mins to Paddington shows what can be done!

Think you'll find that all four diagrams are meant to start next Monday!! Are there enough 180s about for this to happen??

St Ives Line?? Possibly better revenue protection???

I think it has more to do with the charges that First (or the Council) pass onto Western Greyhound for using the Bus Station. Charging for bus station per departure is nothing new and is common practice throughout the country - which is why in quite a number of cases operators have rerouted their services away from Bus Stations to avoid further costs on what are possibly only marginal routes! Furthermore First have just picked up a number of council contracts previously operated by Western Greyhound so I suspect the view at Greyhound is to reduce operating costs as much as they can in an attempt to prevent further loss of work. Mind you, First apparently bid for these contracts based on a completely different wages and conditions structure as to what the rest of their bus staff in Cornwall are on and word on the street is that the troops are far from happy about it with threats - at least a couple of weeks ago, of industrial action!   

So.................... as a matter of interest, when was anyone's journey on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) last disrupted by Industrial Action by FGW staff?? I honestly cannot recall!     

Tim, for gods sake take a reality check!! The guy on the train made a mistake, perhaps he was new staff??  Who knows but it's hardly surprising considering the complexity of ticket restrictions which seems to provide endless opportunities for discussion on this forum!! I would be very surprised if you can find one conductor/train manager who works for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (or indeed any other TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)) who is completely 100% aware of all ticket restrictions for the area for which they work. The system is just far too complex for any individual to have that sort of knowledge - unless they're fanatical! Personally if i was in this woman's situation I would have paid the fare and then taken it up with the company concerned - I wouldn't have gone running to the local newspaper! Still, if you want to fine the company thousands then ok, that's your perogative - but they'll get it back at the next fares increase!   

A very clear picture - shouldn't be much of a problem picking him up!!  However, looks like the interior of a HST^▸ (High Speed Train), wasn't aware that HSTs had CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision). Is this something new??

I can't comment about what goes on from Maidenhead etc but from my experience of commuting to London from Didcot on HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) is that from Reading onwards coach E (and sometimes D) are jam packed solid with loads standing but in coach A at the back, more often then not, there are quite a few spare seats, albeit most occupied by laptop bags and assorted paraphanalia in an attempt to stop anyone sitting on them! 

14.04 fast Taunton Reading, 14.10 calls all principle stations so assume would get more busy the closer to London it gets and the 14.18 is "set down only" at Exeter ex Newquay. Based on previous threads would it really be desirable to mix "normal" passengers with the Newquay clientele??

Quite agree!!  Some years back I inadvertently boarded a saturday evening up Newquay service at Exeter for the journey back to London and all I am going to say is "never again"!! I have never seen a train so full full of assorted dross, pondlife and scumbags in all my life! Even 1st class was not immune to the clientele thanks no doubt to the misguided policy of offering cheap 1st class advance purchase tickets. The train was delayed at Exeter "receiving police attention" and another extended stop was made at Reading for the same reason! Talking to the TM^‡(resolve) on board she stated the situation was typical along with some other comments which I cant repeat here - needless to say, on my frequent trips to Exeter I now avoid trains like the plague which involve Newquay. What made the situation worse is that the train stopped at most stations coming up to London, god knows what people boarding at Castle Cary, Westbury etc thought of the environment they were thrust into. Quite frankly, the sooner this issue is sorted out once and for all the better for all concerned!   

I fly on average twice a year trans atlantic and having tried most options, I now choose, regardless of price to fly with BA^» (British Airways - about). In my opinion - and I appreciate others may beg to differ, I find the service provided by BA to be far superior to that of other other airlines. My worst experience by far was using Virgin whose stewardess are more concerned with looking pretty than actually providing an adequate at seat service and as for the legroom, I reckon a Voyager would be more comfortable than the 747 I traveled on!! Quite frankly, if I was a majority shareholder in BA I would advocate getting shot of Walsh, who quite frankly, IMO^▸ (in my opinion), has got to be the biggest buffoon on record. This dispute will never come to an end all the time that he is at the helm, I get the impression that a form of settlement is not part of his agenda, only confrontation! No doubt others will disagree but everywhere he goes he causes industrial unrest - just look at his time at Aer Lingus. Its a sad state of affairs, particularly as the individual concerned used to be a trade union official but that is far from unusual. In fact I am told (bringing this to a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) theme) that there is a manager at Bristol that used to hold a senior RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) position who now takes great delight in being as confrontational as possible towards traincrew under his wing!

Get shot of Walsh, bring in some different Unite Representatives and get it sorted. To me the whole issue at the moment is clouded and bogged down in a major personality dispute!

Think Bathgate to Edinburgh has guards and it wont on the new service. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Latest on the Scottish Dispute - and...............  don't shoot the messenger, I know how "twitchy" some people on here get when the word "Union" is mentioned in any post!!




ON THE eve of direct talks with Scottish Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson tomorrow over the dispute concerning safety issues and the axing of the Guard on Scotrail^s new Airdrie-Bathgate line, RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) have written to the Minister today seeking clarification on four critical points:


The failure to produce any risk assessments from either First Scotrail or Transport Scotland on the proposed Driver Only Operation mode for the new route despite repeated assertions from Scotrail that they consider the plans to axe the Guards on the service to be safe. The failure to produce the full correspondence between First Scotrail and Transport Scotland regarding the decision of management and the Scottish Government to opt for Driver Only Operation on the new route despite being aware that the decision is in breach of an agreement between the company and RMT and despite assurances from Alex Salmond that these documents would be made available to the union. Repeated breaches of the franchise agreement over the running of trains in the Strathclyde area without a second member of staff on board, effectively allowing First Scotrail to bring in Driver Only Operation via the backdoor contrary to explicit contractual agreements with the Scottish Government. Justification for the running of so-called ^training courses^ for a strike-breaking force pulled in from all corners of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) on strike days on Scotrail and the publication of all documentation relating to the validation and risk assessment of these courses as safe practice.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:


^Despite all the spin and hot air from ScotRail it remains the case that the dispute on their services, and the third day of strike action over the weekend, are all about the company compromising safety by axing the Guards in order to save money. In our letter to the Minister today we are bringing the focus back on to the safety critical points at the heart of the dispute and the misinformation that has been churned out by the company as fact.


^First Scotrail are prepared to ride roughshod over the terms of their contract with the Scottish Government, rip up existing agreements with the unions dating back to 2001 and ignore the overwhelming safety case against Driver Only Operation simply to save ^300,000 that they can add to ^18 million that they paid out in dividends to shareholders last year.


^We are fighting for passenger and staff safety on Scottish railways and we will be pressing Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson in talks tomorrow to issue a clear instruction to Scotrail to abide by existing agreements and the contractual commitments that they signed up to when they took on this franchise.^

Perhaps getting away from Newquay but as for cleanliness of trains, I have to say that when I board a West of England service at Paddington they are 99.9% time extremely well turned out! What they are like when I alight at Exeter is altogether a different story!  I would love to see the state of some of the clientele's homes, based on their behavior on board!! And yes, I would imagine by the time they get to Cornwall they are pretty rank but blame that on the people that use them!!!!  And dont even get me onto cross country - even when a voyager is alledgedly clean they still stink!!!