It would be interesting to read the job description of the trolley steward. My experience travelling (mostly) off peak during the day is that this service can be sporadic. In particular, on services that run non-stop between Exeter and Reading (both directions) too often the trolley is absent for well over an hour. Yet, if you take a 'stopping' service the trolley appears after most stations.
Furthermore, some trolleys carry chargeable items e.g. alcohol and some don't, seemingly at random. Similarly, some trolley stewards offer to fetch items from the buffet (I'm usually in H), some hope you won't ask and some point blank refuse (the latter only once).
Appreciate the leather seats, and almost always have a good journey, but:
1) Would table lamps break the budget? Other
TOCs▸ have them and they are, after all, a traditional First Class fixture. They add a touch of style and also help communicate to 'strays' that they are in the wrong coach.
2) Why oh why does it take so long for the trolley to appear on (off-peak) trains departing
PAD» ? On occasions this has taken 30 minutes i.e. after Reading. Compare this with Midland Trains, whose stewards were offering refreshments at seat with minutes of leaving St. Pancras. Not to mention the china crockery.
3) Enforce First Class. Sorry, but too many train crew look the other way. It's not rocket science. My suspicion is that
FGW▸ are too anxious to collect surcharges from Standard passengers with the wrong ticket, rather than focus on this issue. Quite frankly, on almost every
EXD» departure I've travelled on, if you could get past the barriers on the platform* then you could enjoy a free
FC‡ journey to Taunton - the tickets are almost never checked.
4) In line with the above, even Cross Country seem to now make more of an effort with their at-seat service. On the one hour trip from Exeter to Bristol I was offered refreshments twice. On the
thirty minute hop from Exeter - Totnes (that I often make on a Friday afternoon) I am offered refreshments
twice.
5) Coach F, when not been used for dining, seems to be a FGW social club. I realise that off-duty train crew need to sit somewhere, but I'm less impressed when on-duty crew slouch around there, including of course, the elusive trolley steward. Put it this way, would you walk into any half-decent catering establishment and find the employees lolling around, sat in the customer areas? If you did, what would it say to you about the venue? If this sounds harsh, so is well over ^200 for a four hour round trip.
6) Trolley stewards: I am 43 and didn't go to school with you, so I'm neither a "young man' nor your "mate'. If you have moral or social issues in providing service to customers who can afford to pay a premium for a service, then perhaps you should reconsider your employment.
7) Bring back the miniatures, a backwards step.
"We no longer offer carbonated soft drinks e.g. Coca-Cola to our customers because they were taking them home with them". Customers which may have paid over ^200 to sit on your train. Bet you get free carbonated soft drink at the shareholder's meetings, eh, FGW?
9) WiFi. Again, it's not rocket science. Bet you've got WiFi at your Head Office, eh FGW?
10) Friday night Wine Club. Evidently the customers enjoyed it too much, perhaps relaxed, sparked up a conversation with a stranger, thought better of FGW or even just smiled? Good job they axed it then.
All in all, my experience of FC with FGW is that there is a culture of complacency, penny pinching and, too often, a lack of customer focus. Hopefully, the revamp will address these issues and not merely be a cosmetic
PR▸ exercise.
* travel from St Thomas, for example.
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