First Great Western named most improved train operator

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

From FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Website: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=631

First Great Western colleagues are celebrating after scooping two prizes at the first ever Modern Railways' Golden Whistle Awards.

The company was awarded the top prize and a Golden Whistle for the Most Improved Operational Performance and a Silver Whistle for finishing second in the Most Improved Operational Delivery category.

Over the past two years First Great Western customers have seen an improvement in the punctuality and reliability of their services of almost 10 per cent, and the awards recognise this hard work.

Editor of Modern Railways Magazine, James Abbott, said: ^Over the past year First Great Western staff achieved the most improved score in the Public Performance Measure of reliability and punctuality monitored by the Department for Transport, and received a richly deserved Golden Whistle for their efforts.^

First Great Western^s Managing Director, Mark Hopwood, said: ^This is a fantastic achievement and a huge thanks goes out to colleagues for their hard work throughout the network.^Modern Railways magazine and the Institution of Railway Operators joined forces to launch the awards, which acknowledge best practice and congratulate railway operators that have done a good job.

Companies were judged on performance statistics against all other train operators over the 12-month period from December 2008 until 2009.

The Golden Whistles will follow the success of Modern Railway^s Golden Spanners Awards, which take place every November and reward excellence in train maintenance.

Well done to all the staff at FGW for turning this franchise around over the past couple of years. Well deserved.

[Electric train]

Well done to all the staff at FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for turning this franchise around over the past couple of years. Well deserved.

More than can be said of their sister company Capital Connect, well done FGW things are much better than 3 years ago but still a way to go though so don't take your eye off the ball

[vacman]

Lets face it though, i'm usually at FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s defence when I have to but they couldn't have really got any worse than they were!

[johoare]

I tend to agree with vacman here. And I'm sure it's been said in the past on here before.. It's not difficult to be most improved if you're starting from rock bottom 

[JayMac]

To quote 'Yazz and the Plastic Population' - "The Only Way Is Up" 

[Timmer]

More than can be said of their sister company Capital Connect, well done FGW^▸ (First Great Western) things are much better than 3 years ago but still a way to go though so don't take your eye off the ball

As for First Capital Connect...where's Andrew Haines when you need him? Rail's loss is aviation's gain I spose.

[Henry]

 Personally I have never had a problem with the staff at the stations I use.

 Teignmouth/Newton Abbot/Exeter/Totnes all the staff are a credit.

 Overcrowding is still an issue on certain trains I use ( the first unit Newton - Plymouth weekday mornings).
 Although the reliability is better.
 In my opinion anywhere west of Bristol/Exeter then we really are the poor relations in the network.
 It seems in Cornwall, roads take priority.

[hornbeam]

Agree, when your that bad the only place to go is up. I've never understood how they can get one franchise right, and another so wrong.

[ChrisB]

Good to see Modern Railways getting something right at last! :-)

[eightf48544]

Thinking about it they are very interesting awards.

You probably only want to win them once, because otherwise it means you've dropped off and had to start again.

It's good that FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s improved performance has been recognised but now the problem is having won them, is how to sustain the improvements.

This is probably as hard as making them in the first place.

[Timmer]

Another 'most improved operator' award for FGW^▸ (First Great Western), their third transport award this year:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=639

Says a lot about the rail industry that there is an award for improving things though. Shame things got bad in the first place. Wonder who will win next year? FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) or East Coast are probably leading contenders.

[woody]

 Personally I have never had a problem with the staff at the stations I use.

 Teignmouth/Newton Abbot/Exeter/Totnes all the staff are a credit.

 Overcrowding is still an issue on certain trains I use ( the first unit Newton - Plymouth weekday mornings).
 Although the reliability is better.
 In my opinion anywhere west of Bristol/Exeter then we really are the poor relations in the network.
 It seems in Cornwall, roads take priority.

Problem as I see it is that in the good economic times when money was cheap and plentiful FGW^▸ (First Great Western) missed out on their fair share of the national cake.The results are clear to see on a daily basic,overcrowded trains caused by a lack of adequate rolling stock and particularly west of Exeter minimal infrastructure investment.No wonder some airlines are trying to step into the breach here.Now we are heading into the bad times again and all transport investment decisions are under review even Great Western Electrification and IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.).Certainly what money was availaible in the past particularly west of Exeter was pilled into road building at the expense of rail investment.Regards IEP here are two interesting comments from a "high speed train driver"  from my local paper with reference to the governments latest decision to defer a decision on IEP until after the general election.
 
Well, who`d have thought that, eh ? we never saw that coming....much ! i remember seeing artists impressions of HST<sup>▸</sup> (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) 2, the Siemens built replacement for what we`re using now, many years ago & long before these trains from Hitachi were envisaged - wonder what happened to those ? as for electrification...oh look, a squadron of pigs has just flown over..!
a high speed train driver, west of england
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commented on 03-Mar-2010 08:22
                                               

Oh, and as a reply for mary - we can get you from Plymouth to london in 2hrs 50 easily...we used to..it`s just that the powers that be are making us stop at all these small stations instead of using smaller, better suited trains for the job.But dont blame FGW, they have to do what they`re told by the government and the rail regulators !
a high speed train driver, west of england
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commented on 03-Mar-2010 08:30

Enough said.

[amiddl]

Personally things have got much worse for me this winter regularly travelling along the Berks and Hants to Cornwall most weekends so I find it hard to accept this.

Key to this perception is the fact that over the last three months my journey has been significantly increased by engineering works (as it will today) for a full two months out the three. In addition the retiming of the mid day Friday connection through from Newbury to the west by calling at Frome allows the connecting fast to overtake now which means that one misses the connection at Plymouth to Gunnislake requiring an aditional wait of an hour. And many trains are now missing a buffet -  a trolley is no subsitutute (if its there).

The only plus I can give FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is that trains have tended to run reliability in most cases and the staff give excellent customer service.

From my personal individual perspective - Its not been a good winter travelling and I find it hard to accept improvement as my personal travelling circumstances are much worse.

[devon_metro]

Engineering work has absolutely nothing to do with FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!!

[JayMac]

To be fair to amiddl, he didn't just flag up engineering. He also pointed out areas which most definitely are within FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s remit - catering provision and calling patterns.