FGW 1st Class - ongoing discussion of the benefits and their apparent reduction

[whole diary]

[johoare]

And don't let them fob you off with 'this only applies on HST^▸ (High Speed Train) trains and not Turbos' - they omitted that appalling condition from the Oct 13 conditions so its open season on Turbo's from now onwards.

Ooh that is a new one on me.. they really need to work out whether they sell first class tickets.. or not..

[bobm]

If Friday's issue wasn't bad enough.. today the 7.59 was missing coach H... You can guess the resulting trouble.. I do wonder why they sell First class tickets to Maidenhead passengers 

I'm afraid today's 07:59 from Maidenhead (07:06 from Didcot Parkway) is missing all its coaches.  Cancelled due a train fault.

[johoare]

If Friday's issue wasn't bad enough.. today the 7.59 was missing coach H... You can guess the resulting trouble.. I do wonder why they sell First class tickets to Maidenhead passengers 

I'm afraid today's 07:59 from Maidenhead (07:06 from Didcot Parkway) is missing all its coaches.  Cancelled due a train fault.

Indeed it was Bobm.. My third e-mail to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) today since..erm.. Friday asking for a refund for the difference between first and standard on my season ticket.. Pretty bad considering that was 3 days out of 4 which is a pretty big fail..

[Lee]

Conversion of some first class accommodation to standard has been officially announced, along with a refresh of first class accommodation - http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/About-Us/Media-Centre/2014/March/more-standard-class-seats-and-refreshed-first-class-environment

[John R]

In addition to the standard class re-seating, work will be undertaken to refresh the remaining first class accommodation, 1^ carriages per train, recognising the importance of this to commuter, business and leisure customers. This activity will include realignment of single seats, installation of privacy screens, more comfortable headrests, re-covered seats, new carpets and other changes designed to improve the experience for first class customers.

Ah yes, improving the experience by giving us fewer seats. Given some of the loadings west of Swindon I've noticed recently in first, I'll be fascinated to hear what they are going to be like out of Paddington.

Does realignment of single seats mean airline I wonder? If so, that certainly isn't going to improve my experience. I also wonder whether recovering seats, (with no mention of leather) means that they are going to revert to a more conventional covering.

[paul7575]

Does realignment of single seats mean airline I wonder?

It might just mean turning some seats round so that they don't come up against a partition?   Suppose it depends exactly where the 'half way' point is in the carriage.

Paul

[ChrisB]

Further from the Press Release -

The first completed carriages are expected to be running in June 2014, with the entire fleet completed by late summer 2015.
The programme to provide additional standard class seats is being funded by the Department for Transport, while the changes to first class accommodation are being funded by First Great Western.

[ChrisB]

More info....

On 35 of our High Speed Trains we will be taking a first class carriage and converting it into a standard class carriage with 80 standard class seats. In addition to the extra seats, we have listened to customer feedback and these carriages will also have more 4-person tables. The other 18 High Speed Trains will have a first class carriage converted into a composite carriage, half standard and half first, with the saloons fully divided with a door.

.....re-covered leather seats.....LED lighting....Catering will not be affected as a result of the investment; both the first class at seat trolley service and a buffet car service will continue to be offered  and our very popular Pullman dining services will continue....All the work to convert the carriages and to refresh the first class environment will be done in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) , with the work to the first class carriages being undertaken at our depot in Laira, Plymouth and the reseating work being undertaken in Scotland

Our programme to fit Wi-Fi to all these trains is unaffected. The first services with Wi-Fi will operate from June and by December of this year all our high speed trains should be offering the free service to both standard and first class customers.

[broadgage]

Does realignment of single seats mean airline I wonder?

It might just mean turning some seats round so that they don't come up against a partition?   Suppose it depends exactly where the 'half way' point is in the carriage.

Paul

I cant imagine that "realignment" will be to make things better ! so I would presume that either bus seating, or smaller tables and reduced seating pitch are intended.
After all the new trains have bus seating EVEN IN FIRST as do the adelantes, so really it is moving with the times.

[paul7575]

After all the new trains have bus seating...

Yawn...

[John R]

After all the new trains have bus seating...

Yawn...

Hard to spread one's papers etc out with airline seats (even with a small table in first) which is one of the key advantages that I get from travelling first. So I'm with broadgage on this one.  You might yawn, but as a premium paying customer I would regard it as a significant reduction in service quality if it's what's meant by realignment.

[paul7575]

I was just yawning about the term 'bus seating' which broadgage seems to use rather than the normal railway term 'airline' seating.

Paul

[broadgage]

I was just yawning about the term 'bus seating' which broadgage seems to use rather than the normal railway term 'airline' seating.

Paul

Most customers call the unidirectional seating "bus seating" IME^▸ (in my experience).
Only the rail industry calls it "airline seating" presumably becuase they think that airline sounds better than bus.

Whatever one calls it unidirectional seating is widely regarded as inferior to traditional seats at tables.

I note that in Scotland, that TPTB^▸ (The Powers That Be) are requiring a certain percentage of seats on new trains to be at tables, presumably because that is what customers prefer.

[ChrisB]

The converted coaches will have 8 4-person tables....

[SDS]

Additional seating capacity secured and consultation begins on improved timetable for West of England
As you know we have been working hard to secure further improvements for our customers including additional standard class seating capacity on our long distance trains.

The Department for Transport has today confirmed that together we are investing around ^13 million on our HST^▸ (High Speed Train) trains, with the Government funding additional standard class capacity, and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) funding a refresh of our first class environment.

This joint approach will deliver some 3,000 more standard class seats a day for customers across the network. That is almost 16% more standard class accommodation across all our High Speed Trains into London in the busy morning peak.

On 35 of our High Speed Trains we will be taking a first class carriage and converting it into a standard class carriage with 80 standard class seats. These will be arranged to include eight 4-person tables, in response to customer feedback. The other 18 High Speed Trains will have a first class carriage converted into a half standard and half first class carriage, separated by a dividing door.

All our High Speed Trains will therefore retain one and half carriages of First Class seating. Even after these changes we expect the vast majority of services to have spare capacity in first class, and room for growth.

Offering a premium first class service to our commuter, business and leisure customers is very important to our business, so we are investing in a refresh of the first class carriages at the same time.

This will include realignment of single seats, installation of privacy screens, more comfortable headrests, re-covered leather seats, new carpets, LED lighting and other changes designed to improve the experience for first class customers.

All the work to convert the carriages and to refresh the first class environment will be done in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), with the work to the first class carriages being undertaken at our depot in Laira, Plymouth and the reseating work being undertaken in Scotland.

The first completed carriages are expected to be running in June 2014, with the entire fleet completed by late summer 2015.

As we begin to carry out this work, you may notice changes to our reservations systems. In particular, we will begin re-lettering our first class carriages in preparation for the changes. Seat reservations for first class for travel from Sunday 18th May will now be in carriages labelled K and L, rather than G and H.

Our programme to fit Wi-Fi to all these trains is also going to plan. The first services will operate from June and by December of this year all our High Speed Trains should be offering free Wi-Fi to both standard and first class customers.

As well as the exciting news about the extra seats, we have also just been given permission by the Department for Transport to implement some timetable changes in May and start a formal consultation on some important prospective changes for December. 

These proposals will deliver a much improved service for the West of England, supporting economic growth through the enhancement of connectivity between major centres. As with any timetable there may be some changes that will not suit everyone. We have worked hard to minimise these and the vast majority of customers should find the changes offer them new opportunities and better timings as well as winning new business to the railway.

Both announcements are excellent news for our customers and show the confidence the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has in FGW. This comes from the work you do day in and day out to make sure the service we provide is the best it can be.  Please keep up the good work as we intend to keep working with the DfT, and with you, on further improvements throughout this franchise period including how we might continue to address capacity issues on our network.

Thank you for everything you are doing, the hard work is paying off.

Mark Hopwood
Managing Director