First Great Western rebrands to Great Western Railway and related department changes

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

as for compensation, it's derisory for season ticket holders and generally only payable after an hour's delay for other tickets, far too long.

I think the delay/repay scheme is really good.  Nearly half of the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s have adopted it already and more will follow shortly (including GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)).  The details vary slightly between each TOC, but as an example the two Virgin routes and Cross Country offer a 50% refund on a single ticket for a 30-59 minute delay (25% if a return ticket), for delays from 60-119 minutes it's a full refund (50% if a return), and for more than two hours your whole ticket is refunded if it's a return. 

Season tickets are have the same thresholds in than if your journey is delayed by 30 minutes into work you would get 25% back on that days travel based on the proportional daily cost of your ticket.  That's rather better than my bus commute which doesn't even publish performance data let alone entertain any kind of refunds for the regular delays.

[TaplowGreen]

as for compensation, it's derisory for season ticket holders and generally only payable after an hour's delay for other tickets, far too long.

I think the delay/repay scheme is really good.  Nearly half of the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s have adopted it already and more will follow shortly (including GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)).  The details vary slightly between each TOC, but as an example the two Virgin routes and Cross Country offer a 50% refund on a single ticket for a 30-59 minute delay (25% if a return ticket), for delays from 60-119 minutes it's a full refund (50% if a return), and for more than two hours your whole ticket is refunded if it's a return. 

Season tickets are have the same thresholds in than if your journey is delayed by 30 minutes into work you would get 25% back on that days travel based on the proportional daily cost of your ticket.  That's rather better than my bus commute which doesn't even publish performance data let alone entertain any kind of refunds for the regular delays.

Delay/repay sounds like a good move. When will it be implemented by GWR, and presumably refunds for season ticket holders will be paid into customers accounts automatically as GWR hold their details?

[IndustryInsider]

It will depend on how GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) sets their system up, but, as an example, Abelio Greater Anglia can refund to their customers' Season Direct account.  I believe it is going to be implemented by the end of next year, but others closer to that side of the business (ChrisB/BNM?) might know more.  It's a government initiative that all franchises will be expected to commit to over time.

[JayMac]

Delay/repay sounds like a good move. When will it be implemented by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), and presumably refunds for season ticket holders will be paid into customers accounts automatically as GWR hold their details?

Delay Repay on GWR has to be introduced on or before the 1st anniversary of the start of the current direct award franchise. The franchise started on 20th September 2015, so Delay Repay has to be in place by 20th September 2016.

From the Franchise Agreement:

4.8 Co-operation in respect of implementation of delay repay

The Secretary of State and the Franchisee shall co-operate in good faith with the intention of implementing a revised Passenger^s Charter including ^delay repay^ passenger compensation provisions (or such other passenger compensation provisions as may be proposed by the Secretary of State) on or before the first anniversary of the Start Date. It is intended that any revised Passenger^s Charter shall be implemented by way of Variation pursuant to paragraph 1 of Schedule 9.5 (Variations and Incentivising Beneficial Change).

[ChrisB]

Can't help yet...departments are still reorganising, I doubt its been on their radar yet (specifics, I mean)

[JayMac]

How much reorganising is required after a change of house colours? Surely the same people are in the same departments pre and post change from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

[grahame]

How much reorganising is required after a change of house colours? Surely the same people are in the same departments pre and post change from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

Well - it's more complex that we might think.   The "F" has to be moved out and sent for safe recycling, the "G" moved up to where the "F" used to be.  Then the "W" has to be moved up to where the "G" was, but as it's a heavier letter there may need to be some strengthening of the foundations.   Then an "R" needs to be sources and installed where the "W" used to be.  Bearing in mind that's a brand new "R", it needs to conform to all the latest safety standards and go through the full GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects - Network Rail's process for project management of schemes through development and implementation) process, and conform to the regulations on re-usable parts.  Staff will need training on how to use it ... and it may suffer teething troubles and delivery delays.

[JayMac]

On what is turning into a pretty sh**ty evening for me that post cheered me up no end.

Thanks for the hearty laugh grahame. 

[ChrisB]

Some departments are no longer

[Chris from Nailsea]

Some departments are no longer

... active? ... inactive? ... radioactive? 

Sorry, but I can't see that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would have closed down any department that would be responsible for dealing with the specifics of a direct award franchise requirement which has a deadline for completion less than a year away. 

[ChrisB]

No longer. In other words, err no longer. Gone

[JayMac]

Who have gone? GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have made redundancies? They kept that quiet if so.

It's hardly a specialist job changing the compensation scheme. I suspect though that GWR will leave it until the last minute as Delay Repay is less financially beneficial to them than charter compensation.

Take last Thursday's incident at Highbridge and Burnham. GWR will be compensated by Network Rail, but don't have to pay a penny to their passengers.

[TaplowGreen]

Who have gone? GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have made redundancies? They kept that quiet if so.

It's hardly a specialist job changing the compensation scheme. I suspect though that GWR will leave it until the last minute as Delay Repay is less financially beneficial to them than charter compensation.

Take last Thursday's incident at Highbridge and Burnham. GWR will be compensated by Network Rail, but don't have to pay a penny to their passengers.

Is there anything at all which tangibly benefits customers coming out of this rebrand or is it solely a (pretty half baked/painted)  expensive vanity project?

[PhilWakely]

Is there anything at all which tangibly benefits customers coming out of this rebrand or is it solely a (pretty half baked/painted)  expensive vanity project?

IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) this is nothing more than the removal of the toxic word 'first' from the headline level - and therefore 'hopefully' altering the public perception of the franchise.

[paul7575]

...I suspect though that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will leave it until the last minute as Delay Repay is less financially beneficial to them than charter compensation.

There was something from DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) on the web a while back that suggested the opposite.  TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) already on delay repay were not paying out as much, especially to season ticket holders, as there were none of the blanket 5% or 10% renewal discounts anymore.

I haven't found it with a quick search, but I'll look again when I have a bit more time.

Paul