Thanks for these replies. I have the number on myBTP number on my mobile now and will report these incidents when I see them. I still think though that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) should have a clear policy that the guard must be allowed to refuse to allow the train to proceed if drunks get on, and that their asasessment of the situation must be respected. I don't see why there should be any flexibility about allowing drunk passengers onm trains. Afer all, many TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s like Arriva for example, don't allow their staff any discretion if a passenger doesn't have the correct ticket or has forgotten their railcard. They are charged the full fare and there is no room for negotaition. The same attitude should be applied to drunks, or for that matter , in my opinion, anyone who drinks alcohol on trains.

Have just returned from Edinburgh and been plagued with drunks all the way.
A completely drunk man boarded an arriva train at waverley at 8:00 and proceeded to drink several more cans of teannts lager,talking to himself loudly.
At 3 pm I was joined by an aggressively drunk man at Durham who stayed with me and the rest of the carriage shouting and being generally obnoxoious for a couple of hours.
And then between BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) and Bath I was joined by 30 drunk young things who partied in the train, drinking cider and wine, singing football songs, blocking the corridor etc, intimidating several passengers.
I have seen this type of thing many times before and the police seem totally disinterested, ebvven when there is a drunken brawl. The train crew have my sympathies. The woman guard locked herself in her compartment between Bristol and Bath. I would have done the same if I was her. I suggested to her that she should have refused to take the train out with drunks on it, but she was scathing and angry about the lack of help from transport police or indeed any support from her managers.
What is the company/railway line on this? What can be done to prevent trains becoming like our city centres?
I am inclined to pull the communication cord next time I feel threatened.Presumably the police would have to take an interest then.......

We'll raise your journey with Andrew Haines, CEO^▸ (Chief Executive Officer) of first when we see him in a couple of weeks . Weekend trains are often far more overcrowded than weekday trains, and your experience occurs with regularity on Saturdays and Sundays. This is simply becasue FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is saving money. They have the extra rolling stock parked up to make longer trains in the week, but choose not to use it.
Tony, More Trains Less Strain

Thanks Grahame

I took my old parents to Bath spa to go home on 27th December. I knew it would be busy, but so did FGW^▸ (First Great Western). There were various  local cancellations and the Brighton train was 2 coaches. Had they had reason to get that, they would not have coped with the crush. Fortunately they were booked on an Inter City which increasingly seems to be the only trains FGW put a serious effort into keeping running.
I am aware there have been a huge number of cancellations due to staff shrtage. Has anyone out there come up with figures that indicate what proportion of trains have been cancelled  or teminated early in the last week?

A friend reports she was on the 5:22 from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) to Portsmouth, yesterday. Packed to capacity. Got to Bath. Couldn't load more passengers on to 2 coach train. Passengers on the platfrom became very angry indeed and the police were called.
I fail to understand how we can continue to justify this as a train service we can rely on.
My old parents wanted to visit me this week from waterloo to Bath via salisbury. They assumed they could book seats. I had to warn them  off as I don't think they would survive the trip if they had to change onto a cattle truck at Salisbury, that's if they got on in the first place.
Call this a railway?
The tradgedy is the staff are the people in the front line so they take all the flak, when none of this is of their making. Andrew Griffiths actually said to me last week that perhaps in retrsopect FGW^▸ (First Great Western) should not have taken this franchise on under these terms.

You'll hear how it went in time!

What was that old bus like tain I caught from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) last night about 6:45.
Looked ancient, seats in banks of three, and maps of london rail lines inside the carriage. Was that a 142?

'A war of words has erupted between MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) over the leaflets'
That's a bit strong Lee isn't it!
I think the difficulty I have is that on on the one hand FGW is justifying the 10% increase by saying they have invested in improving services, and on the other they seem to be admitting that services haven't improved as they are warning us off using local trains, because in their own words, they are likely to be very crowded.
Maybe another case of them shooting themselves in the foot.

You know FGW^▸ (First Great Western), aren't free spirits. I know FGW aren't free spirits. However they did take on the franchise, thereby accepting some repsonsibility, and moreover their mangement and publicity machines does themselves no favours. The public and media perception seems to be that they have a tendency to be ' accident prone' and more rapacious than other rail companies. I doubt that that perception is down to MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) but if it is, then we're happy to take credit for that.
Publicity against FGW, the service providers generates an equal amount of publicty highly critical of the government, the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) and the Franchise system. The press and medai have made the connection and if MTLS decides on further action, whih may or may not be a fare strike, then the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) will be forced onto the back foot again. Every little but helps. We are just doing our bit.
The last thing we have any intention of doing is criticising individual staff who do a stressful job under difficult circumstances.

The issue is how the governement runs what passes for public transport, not whether a bus is 80 pence cheaper than a train.
Any discusssion with someone from over the channel will soon come to transport and they all say how awful our trains are. Please don't take this personally, you probably work on the railways, and do a very difficult job running an overcrowded and by international standards, clapped out train network.I can see that working on the railways is often thankless and that staff can be abused by mindless morons of passengers who are either drunk or stupid, so you have my symapthies. But it could be all so different. Call me a dreamer, but didn't the government just find ^26 billion under their matress for Northen Rock, that they may or may not get back. The money is there if they choose to spend it on a decent train network.The public can help them to change their priorities.

I think Timmer has hit the nail on the head. Fares are in effect a tax on travel, funding the exchequer, and have little to do with the real cost of travel. Also, I agree that fare comparisons need to be made with our European neighbours not with even more horrendously expensive fares on other routes in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). To achive change we have to influence governement, and publicity that highlights the laughable failure of the franchise system will help to hasten the day when the governement comes up with a more sensible way to run the railway. Not saying that direct action will change the world overnight, but it has an effect.
And no I wouldn't like to take the x39 Jim. That's run by First too, and perhaps this system of pribvate monoploy is part of the problem.

from 2nd january, up from ^6.20 to ^6.80  for a return from Bath to Bristol.
So how do we now interepret their fare reduction of Sept from then ^6:50 to ^6.20. I interpret it as another cycnnical and failed pr exercise. I think lots of commuters will be seriously disgrunteld with this new increase. I suspect we were prepared for the fare to return to ^6:60 but ...almost seven quid!
Will commuters now feel that this is the last straw and that they will now support a second fare strike?
I know that some of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff who post on here have expressed cycnisism about these tactics, but it certainly had much of the the travelling public's support and that of the media, questions were asked in parliament and the perception was that trains increased in length as a result.
If they get away with this increase, it wil be way in excess of 7 quid next year.

No meeting tomorrow 2nd October.
A mailing has just gone to MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) email list, so we'll give them a few days to get on board and almost certainly have a planning meeting to finalise the questionnaire next Tuesday 9th. Will confirm here, so wathc this space.

Following the half million pound refurb of Bath Spa we have ticket machines that wont sell you the next days tickets, longer ticket queues for more of the time, fewer ticket windows open, a crush at the barriers, and we've lost those those nice leather armchairs in the london bound waiting room.

Now, my assessment could be entirley wrong,which is why MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) will be conducting an objective  survey of passesengers in the morning rushour inabout 2 weeks time. We will be asking them what they think of the station ' 'improvements' and the train service, and then most probably making the results public.

We are very keen for help, both for input into the survey quetsions and to stand outside the station from 7:15-8:30 one morning.The survey will have to be to the point and focussed as people will proably be rushing for trains, if indeed there are any.
If you would like to help either on the day or in the preparation, leave a message on this site and we'll be back in touch with the date, and other details.
If we have enough offers of help, it's possible that we could consiedr surveys at other stations too.