Great Western Coffee Shop

Andrew Haines, interviewed at Bristol on the BBC's lunchtime news.  He was talking about things not being fixed quickly - explaining amongst other things that Network Rail has a lot of catching up to do, and how he would be working to improive reliability.   He described how FGW are increasing train capacity by replacing trains with 200andsummat seats with trains with 500andsummat, and how there's a shortage of trains available and they're scouring the country to get whatever they can to help further.

He wasn't asked (and didn't offer comment as far as I could tell) what will be happeneing to the 200andsummat seat trains when replaced by the 500andsummat seat ones. I had a dream that they could in turn replace the 150orso seat trains that are full to bursting point on Cardiff - Portsmouth, and then those 150orso seat trains could strengthen other services, provide appropriate extras and help Andrew deliver that improved reliabiity by having just 1% more slack in the system. I expect there's no substance in my dream - are the Adalentes off to some other pastures in the North of England, by any chance?

I presume he refers to Adelante (200 seats or so) being replaced with HD HSTs (500 seats or so)

Yes I think that is what he was referring to. Good though that is, thats only solving London services overcrowding and not 'West services' overcrowding unless as Graham says the 180's could find their way onto Cardiff-Pompey. That would make Andrew a very popular person in these parts.

The scouring the country bit of his interview was for the 'West fleet' problem.

Well Andrew from what your predecessor was saying last week the scouring has been done for you by Dft and they have found you some lovely clapped out 142's that no one wants, and from 2010, some hand me down 150/1s from the Midlands so scour no further. Believe me Andrew any half decent rolling stock that is around is being fully put into service and you'd be very hard pressed to find any TOC who would let go of it as they may not get anything to replace it.

However, I do know where you could find some pretty decent rolling stock for the problematic 'West' services. I'll give you a clue, they are right under your nose and have a funny foreign name beginning with 'A'.

I know FGW are looking to acquire 150's from Central in 2010, if they do then pleeeeeease keep them as 3 car sets! would solve a lot of problems!

They are also in 2+3 config so more seats

It would make sense to keep them in 3-car units because there is no connection between units if coupled together which could cause problems when people are unwilling to walk up the platform to an emptier part of the train.
As for the 2+3 seating there had been reports FGW were converting the 150s they currently have back to this formation.

was in the origional plans to convert our 150's to 3+2 but I think now they will remain as 2+2.

Its now been mooted that FGW probably cant have any of the 150s from West Midlands afterall as the Dft wants them all to go to Northern. What is it about this franchise that any spare stock going seems to be destined for Northern?

What are Northen doing to get all this stock? ??? They must be paying the Dft a hefty premium for the franchise. Hopefully this means will have to keep the adelantes though. ;D

My understanding is that the Northern franchise involves a payment by the government to the train operating company, and not a premium payment back by the Train operating Company to the Government.   Can anyone confirm this / give figures, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Here is a link to the probable forthcoming rolling stock deployment , based on the unit number codes used by FGW in the Draft December 2007 Timetable.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=660.msg2347#msg2347

How about this instead?

Class 143/1 - Bristol - Avonmouth / Severn Beach services.
Class 143/2 - Bristol - Avonmouth / Severn Beach services.
Class 143/3 - Weston - Bristol Parkway services.
Class 143/4 - Southampton - Cheltenham group services.
Class 143/5 - Peak Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 143/6 - Bristol - Avonmouth / Severn Beach services.
Class 143/7 - Weston - Bristol Parkway services.

Class 150/1 - Southampton - Cheltenham group services.
Class 150/2 - Southampton - Cheltenham group services.
Class 150/3 - Peak Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 150/13 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 150/14 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.

Class 153/8 - Southampton - Cheltenham group services.
Class 153/9 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.

Class 158/1 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/2 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/4 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/5 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/6 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/7 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/9 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/10 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/11 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/12 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/13 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/14 - Westbury - Gloucester group services.
Class 158/15 - Taunton - Cardiff services.
Class 158/16 - Taunton - Cardiff services.
Class 158/17 - Taunton - Cardiff services.
Class 158/18 - Taunton - Cardiff services.
Class 158/19 - Marked as "not used."
Class 158/20 - Taunton - Cardiff services.
 
Class 158 (3 - coach) - Westbury - Gloucester group services.

Class 180/1 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/2 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/3 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/4 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/5 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/6 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/7 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.
Class 180/8 - Portsmouth - Cardiff services.

This could provide the following benefits :

SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS

- 2 - hourly off - peak (rising to near - hourly peak) Westbury - Swindon services , with early morning , evening and optimally - timed peak trains restored.

- Half - hourly Bristol - Severn Beach services.

- Half - hourly Bedminster , Parson Street , Severn Tunnel Junction and Weston Milton services.

- Same number of Dilton Marsh services as now , but pattern revised to more closely match traffic flows , especially at the peaks.

- Through services between Dean and Mottisfont & Dunbridge - Warminster , Dilton Marsh and Westbury retained , along with easier northbound connections.

ROLIING STOCK PROVISION IMPROVEMENTS

- 5 - coach (including first class) Portsmouth - Cardiff services.

- 4 - coach Westbury - Gloucester group services.

- All Taunton - Cardiff services operated by Class 158 units.

To me, this makes perfect sense. 5 car Adelante 180s would be perfectly suited to the Portsmouth-Cardiff route. This saves coupling of 158s or 150s that can be used as normal units in other places, and also ensure a comfortable, fast and spacious ride down this route.

Northern get a massive subsidy to run their services and get all the half decent rolling stock and FGW pay the DaFT for the privilege of running services and get all the crap that no body else wants, although I find it hard tobelieve that Northern will have all of the cascaded 150's from London Midland as there are loads of them, are those 4 153's still at Eastleigh? they were clapped out big time but if refurbished they'd be better than nothing!!!

Well this has been the new boys first Monday - Friday at the helm but the reliability of units this week must have been as worse as it has ever been since last December with the number of short formations particularly on the Wednesday, Thursday and today Friday. You cant blame reliability on the infrastructure.

You cannot blame the infrastructure ... but neither can you blame the boss-of-one-week, unless it relates to his prior involvement with FGW.   Give the man a honeymoon period ;)

The re-furb FGW 150s are supposed to be coming back as a 3+2 seating configuration. OK if you aint a lard ass and have to take 1 and a 1/2 of the seating arrangement!! ;D

I note your comments Grahame but does a "new broom" spring to mind.

The performance in the last three days of this past working week has been so abysmal, no doubt as a result of the FGW front line staff being so de-motivated, it would seem that the wrapping hasnt yet been removed from the broom whilst the shop floor is getting dirtier every day.

It does.   I also know that I have spung into situations in the past - jumped straight in and got my hands dirty when in hindsight just a short evaluation of the situation would have lead me to much more effective actions.

I'm sure that Andrew Haines is a far better operator than I am, and so he's not rushed right on in to oil the squeakist wheels first as I woudl have been so tempted to do!

On reading the staff newsletter today it would appear that Andrew Haines speaks a lot of sense, lets hope he will turn things around! Firstly he needs to sort out us demoralised staff, when the staff are on side then maybe things will go smother.

If I was him that would be the best place to start. Because you guys are on the frontline you've had to put up with a lot of c**p because of management and Dft decisions. He needs to demonstrate that he is on the same side as you and wants to make this work for the benefit of everyone and that his words are not just spin which I dont think they are. His track record (no pun intended) in turning SWT into one of the best franchises (maybe not as good as it was BTW) shows he knows what he is doing but realises what one heck of a challenge he has with turning this company around. I hope he does and it looks like he is a safe pair of hands. Time will tell of course.