I agree we should look after people in such situations although our ability to do so is often limited by the availability of resources such as buses and taxis and our own people as well as how much other disruption we are managing at the time. Our Passenger Charter sets out a framework for this -  https://www.gwr.com/about-us/our-business/passengers-charter

a.   We have a contract in place with First Transport Solutions for buses and they will enquire about availability on our behalf with dedicated companies who already comply with the required safety standards. 

Customers are encouraged to inform the Train Manager of any connections so arrangements can be made as far in advance as possible by contacting the Control Centre and arrange a possible hold or where the connection cannot be held, we know to arrange road transport in advance.

The Contact Centre answering our station help point calls will contact our Control Centre to arrange replacement road transport for connections that have been missed and there is no train service for 60 minutes.

Our taxi sourcing company (Cabfind) has been taken over recently by a larger taxi sourcing company (CMAC) which now has the combined resources of both companies, creating the largest network of corporate ground transportation solutions in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). Already we are seeing improvements, with a newly developed road transport tool, which has simplified the booking process and provides our Control team with the real-time status of the taxis, confirmation when they have picked-up and dropped off.

CMAC Press release: https://www.cmacgroup.co.uk/blog/cmac-acquires-cabfind-creating-the-largest-network-of-corporate-ground-transportation-solutions-in-the-uk/

b.   We aim to provide replacement transport where there is no alternative train service in the next hour. Where a cancellation is known about hours in advance it is much easier to have road transport in place on time at the origin station.

There are challenges, even when the road transport is requested hours in advance, which can include;

-   Road transport is much slower than a train service, and whilst it may have departed its origin station on-time, it is unlikely to keep up with the train timetable when stopping at the following stations.
-   Availability of the driver, who may need to travel to the depot to collect the bus.
-   Bus/Coach/Taxi availability in the area, at peak times when most of our passengers travel, these are also the times when our road transport suppliers are their busiest, especially the buses which are used for school transport.

c.    Often, we do not receive a contact number for the customer when calls are taken through the station help point by National Rail Enquiries and we are unable to close the loop on this.   When road transport has been requested at staffed stations, we will provide an estimated time for the arrival to our station staff, however, currently we are not able to track the road transport as accurately as our train services and the estimates can move if the road transport is delayed in traffic. 

However, we are working with our road transport suppliers (First Travel Solutions: 16 seater to coaches and CMAC: taxis) to develop GPS tracking of road vehicles and make this available to our Control Centre teams.

I agree we need to do more. Please let us know when you think we’ve got it wrong. You can also use Twitter to talk to us real time if you want. I’m happy to try and encourage Train Managers to talk to passengers about this.

I can’t promise to hold connections as some of these will cause further delay especially if on a tight turnround or using single line sections.

I agree. If we have procured a taxi we should try and provide it with further business but sometimes taxis do have other work booked already.

Pleased to hear

and


c. is the cause of a lot of passenger angst at unstaffed stations. The contact centres do not/are not instructed to collect a contact number, and there is no way of calling back through the help point. Neither (usually) do you get through to the same person in the call centre should you call through to it after waiting (too) long for your transport.

Maybe something to take up through Transport Focus as it affects all call centres & TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company). There needs to be a way of keeping the passenger updated, especially at unstaffed stations.

Surely the simplest answer would be for all unstaffed station help call points to be directed to the relevant TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) who manages that station rather than someone being put through to a call centre in India or wherever National Rail Enquiries is based these days.

We have no facility to use taxis off the rank unless they are already signed up to our central supplier (CMAC) and we do not keep petty cash at stations for local staff to pay for customers at the start of their journey.  I appreciate this is frustrating when customers are waiting at the station. If there are any local taxi companies who wish to sign up to our central supplier, I’d be happy to put them in touch.