Worcester-Cheltenham December 2007

[whole diary]

[timmo]

Am I imagining it or have BOTH morning commuter services from Worcester-Cheltenham been taken off, i.e. 7.36 and 8.36 departures ?   
That leaves services at 6.49 and 9.05, either too early or late for most commuters.  Can't see them in printed timetables or on-line journey planner from any other company.  They have got be kidding

[Shazz]

correct.

However there are a 5:40 and 6:17 CC services also

[Lee]

Am I imagining it or have BOTH morning commuter services from Worcester-Cheltenham been taken off, i.e. 7.36 and 8.36 departures ?   
That leaves services at 6.49 and 9.05, either too early or late for most commuters.  Can't see them in printed timetables or on-line journey planner from any other company.  They have got be kidding

The main reason that the 0736 was moved back was so that commuters from Gloucester , Cam & Dursley and Yate would have a more "optimum" morning peak arrival time in Bristol.

Interestingly , this service dwells for 23 minutes at Gloucester. 

[timmo]

Would have thought that the 7.12 from Glos (6.59 ex Cheltenham) catered Ok for that end of the service.   From the Worcester end it is now almost useless for travel to work and there is no local bus operator from Worcs to Cheltenham.  Crazy.  Is Passenger Focus the complaint option these days ?  Not exactly holding my breath.

[Lee]

The main lobbyists for the new timetable pattern were the Severnside Community Rail Partnership. See their June 2007 briefing (link below.)
http://www.severnside-rail.org.uk/documents/junebriefing.doc

It would be fair to say that the chairman of the above group , Keith Walton , and I have had our differences.

The timetable itself was (apparently) partly designed by David Redgewell of Campaign For Better Transport , who is a trained transport planner with experience working for British Rail and the National Bus Company (see quote below.)

Looks like someone from the Bristol Evening Post has swallowed the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Press Release hook , line , and sinker (link below.)
http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231190&home=yes&more_nodeId1=144922&contentPK=18568873

Glaring error :

"There will also be additional trains on the Severn Beach branch in the form of an hourly off-peak service."

We already have an hourly off-peak service....

Interesting quotes too from David Redgewell of Campaign for Better Transport :

"There's a lot of new services which we have helped design and we think they will be fit for purpose."

"This should mean better trains for greater Bristol and we are confident that the system will work."

"Apart from the state of the catering on these services, the real issue now is rolling stock - we are disappointed that the Department for Transport did not make it available for the Severn Beach Line but hopefully that will improve in May."

Pages 10 - 12 of the link below contain Andrew Griffiths's presentation to stakeholders on the new timetable.
http://www.wellho.net/wccfoi/wccfgw3.pdf

[grahame]

Is Passenger Focus the complaint option these days ?  Not exactly holding my breath.

Good [that you're not holding your breath!] 

If the service that's being provided is within the SLC^▸ (Service Level Commitment, or possibly SLC Rail (a consultancy firm), depending on context) specification, then you'll find it's very hard to get support from official channels.  Remember that the specification is set by the Department for Transport who also fund Passenger Focus - so PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) tend to be very good where a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) is failing to meet the standard required, but not good if the standard required of them is inapprorpiate in the first place.

You may also want to be aware before you get involved is shouting "this isn't allowed under the SLC" that the SLC can be changed - often with [limited] consultation, but I have also known it to be changed when it was pointed out that a service didn't conform.   A quick edit ... and the officlal SLC which said "a train must arrive between 08:00 and 08:30" suddenly read "a train must arrive between 07:30 and 08:30" ...

Sorry if you find this answer a bit depressing ... there really isn't any officlal complaint channel, with the real answer being "if you didn't agree what was in the Greater Western Franchise, you should have said so in June 2005 when it was being consulted upon".  However, you'll notice that political and popularpressures have added extra services on some of the Cornish branches, extra stops at places like Severn Tunnel Junction, and a whole host of other things since.  Most of those stop short of things that need extra trains, however (exceptions - the Sleeper was saved, and extras coming next May on the Severn Beach line) if your request is going to need even one extra carriage you'll have a very tough fight.

[timmo]

Thanks for the contributions.  Perhaps we should rename the 'Faithful City' as 'Greater Bristol' ...
Can't see that any new resources is required, simply not withdrawing what was already there and well-used.  The 23 minutes wait at Gloucester is not quite enough to get from Worcs but not far short.
Just diverting one of the X-Country Notts-Cardiff (7.10 or 7.30 ex-New St) services via Worcs would also help (fat chance !).  I'll see what the official FGW^▸ (First Great Western) response is and then see if the local news are interested.