Plan to reduce morning service between Maidenhead and Paddington?

[whole diary]

[NickB]

Also they should very clearly publicise how to obtain compensation AND make it easy to claim.

That seems to be outside of what FGW^▸ (First Great Western) wish to deliver.  Last year, when FGW overcharged ALL "First Class Eastbound Only" passengers by several hundred pounds, I asked FGW to write to those affected passengers.  They refused and said that they don't have records of who would have been affected, and that customers would have to work it out by themselves.  I also asked for a sandwich board/poster at the stations affected.  They refused.

And yet, as you rightly state, they write to me as a season ticket holder to tell me about Reading station - thereby contradicting their statement to me.

[johoare]

The 7.59 Maidenhead to Paddington HST^▸ (High Speed Train) was replaced by a class-180 on Thursday and Friday which isn't ideal as the train is full as an HST and it means only one First Class carriage.. I hope they don't make it permanent.

The best thing those is the change doesn't get mentioned on Journey check, or at the station in advance so the staff have to go to the far end of the platform to bring the people waiting there back. Even realtime trains wasn't showing the change which is a shame as I used to rely on that being correct at least.

[thetrout]

That seems to be outside of what FGW^▸ (First Great Western) wish to deliver.  Last year, when FGW overcharged ALL "First Class Eastbound Only" passengers by several hundred pounds, I asked FGW to write to those affected passengers.  They refused and said that they don't have records of who would have been affected, and that customers would have to work it out by themselves.  I also asked for a sandwich board/poster at the stations affected.  They refused.

Being highly cynical I'm not sure I believe that at all (The part I've highlighted in bold).

Recently my Bank wrote to me regarding an account I held in 2009 which I have long since closed. Long story short, they had levied charges on my account which were not the correct amount and were refunding them in full with interest and a cheque was included in the letter.

Had the bank not have written to me, back then being a slightly naive teenager I never spotted it and wouldn't have known.

So actually, I think FGW are being extremely economical with the truth. Oh and once every 3 years I get a reminder to renew my Disabled Railcard...

[sprinterguard]

Actually, it's probably more accurate than you think. There is no national central database of season tickets... you might have a database of tickets bought via FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ticket offices; other databases of tickets bought from Trainline etc/FGW online/other TOCS online; other databases of tickets from other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) stations.

Indeed still not impossible; but you get the picture.

[thetrout]

Agreed, yes there would be alot of databases to search through etc which would be very time consuming. But surely some form of record must be kept somewhere? Otherwise how would a replacement season ever be issued if one loses an annual season?

It was perhaps overly cynical yes. But not completely unrealistic.

[ChrisB]

I believe paper records still exist, either held centrally by each TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) at each station....still

[sprinterguard]

Individual companies or retailers will have their own electronic databases of customers/the season tickets they sell and therefore have the ability to replace tickets sold by them.

So if you bought a season ticket through Trainline Business there would be no record of the ticket if you searched for any record of it in a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ticket office.

[johoare]

This morning someone came through the train (well first class at least) to count up how many passengers there  were. It was the 7.59 and it was fuller than usual in First class.. Not sure if that is so they can check how the reduction in First Class will affect people or not but that was my guess as I've not seen it happen before..

[SDS]

Every season ticket over a week long. IE a month or longer is supposed to be registered in a database. Each TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) will maintain its own database.
SWT^▸ (South West Trains) wont be able to access the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) one. FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) wont be able to access FGW. I do believe however that Serco/FirstInfo have access to all the relevant First (and EC) season databases.