Great Western Coffee Shop

From the FGW website :

"You spoke. We listened."

Well , we obviously told them that we dont want our trains to run on Saturdays :

08:25 Southampton Central to Cardiff Central due 11:23
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads.It will no longer call at: Southampton Central, Romsey, Dunbridge, Dean, Salisbury, Warminster, Dilton Marsh, Westbury, Trowbridge, Bradford-On-Avon, Avoncliff, Freshford, Bath Spa, Oldfield Park and Keynsham.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


08:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 11:55
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads.It will no longer call at: Cardiff Central, Newport South Wales and Filton Abbey Wood.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


08:38 Taunton to Great Malvern due 11:38
This train will be terminated at Gloucester.It will no longer call at: Cheltenham Spa, Ashchurch For Tewkesbury, Worcester Shrub Hill, Worcester Foregate Street, Malvern Link and Great Malvern.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


09:03 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 11:32
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Reading and Slough.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


09:21 Oxford to London Paddington due 11:00
This train will be started from Reading.It will no longer call at: Oxford, Radley, Culham, Didcot Parkway, Cholsey, Goring & Streatley, Pangbourne and Tilehurst.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


09:31 Southampton Central to Westbury due 10:39
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


09:49 Reading to London Paddington due 10:41
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Twyford and Maidenhead.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.


10:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 13:55
This train will be terminated at Southampton Central.It will no longer call at: Fareham, Cosham, Fratton, Portsmouth & Southsea and Portsmouth Harbour.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


12:07 Great Malvern to Taunton due 15:30
This train will be started from Gloucester.It will no longer call at: Great Malvern, Malvern Link, Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill, Ashchurch For Tewkesbury and Cheltenham Spa.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


14:00 Cardiff Central to Weymouth due 17:12
This train will be started from Westbury.It will no longer call at: Cardiff Central, Newport South Wales, Severn Tunnel Jn, Patchway, Filton Abbey Wood, Bristol Temple Meads, Keynsham, Oldfield Park, Bath Spa, Freshford, Avoncliff, Bradford-On-Avon and Trowbridge.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


14:22 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 17:44
This train will be started from Southampton Central.It will no longer call at: Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Fratton, Cosham and Fareham.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.


Alteration: 09:45 from Chichester.
This train will be terminated at Westbury.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable. 

In case you haven't already noticed but if you ain't got the crew you can't run the train! :'(

From a list of questions to Andrew Griffiths :


Is AG right to be so optimistic?

NO!

Very true...but it always seems to be the ex-Wessex routes where the crew problems seem to be at their greatest and where passengers suffer the most with services which do run packed to the gunnels on weekends. It really is the problem part of FGW and yes before anyone says it, the most expensive part of the network to run in terms of income received vs cost to run.

Fgw are taking steps to address this problem...with up to 50 extra Drivers in training, as well as Train Managers and Conductors all these new staff will of course take time to become productive.

And as for the crew they have got you need to remember they are all safety critical and covered by Hidden where by they have got to have 12 hrs clear break between shifts,also when ill they must declare any prescription medicines they take and will not be allowed to work if these medicines cause drowsiness.
and also if they are avalible and dont sign the route they cant do the job......Remember the Railway is a very dangerous place and without these strict rules more accidents would probably occour

Acknowledged and understood .... I've heard a year quoted as the realistic time it takes.   And I agree with your safety paragraphs too.

All re-organisations lead to a higher turnover of staff than normal. I understand that North Wilts District Council may be down to as few as one planning officer now beacuse of the anticipated move to a unitary authority. But it's a little disappointing that even with the major service changes / cutbacks last December there was still a problem on "West" trains / FGW.  And any new staff taken on at the start of the franchise (1.4.2006) should be on the team properly by now. Perhaps a bit of a miscalculation there?

from what i can remember fgw began recruiting Drivers dec 06 with the first batch starting jul 07 so they are not productive yet a year is somewhere about the mark......as for T/M Conductor a few are passed with a lot still in training.
Seems FGW may have been a bit slow off the mark when the franchise started to recruit, but they are now and staff shortages will be a thing of the past in time which is surely a good thing

Here's an interesting crew - shortage related revision. From the FGW website (25/11/2007) :

11:10 Brighton to Cardiff Central due 15:36
This train will be started from Cosham.It will no longer call at: Fareham, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Warminster, Westbury, Trowbridge, Bradford-On-Avon, Avoncliff, Freshford, Bath Spa, Oldfield Park, Keynsham, Bristol Temple Meads, Filton Abbey Wood, Severn Tunnel Jn, Newport South Wales and Cardiff Central.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

since whan has anybody taken this person seriously?

Since he started doing a damn slight better job than his predecesor?

Although to be fair, that wasnt exactly hard.

I think you may be getting you Andrew's a little mixed up here Shazz. The above is referring to Andrew Griffiths who has a management role on West Fleet services.

Andrew Haines recently took over from Alison Forster.

Yis i did.

nevermind  ;D

From the contact i have had with AG, i think this guy should be taken seriously. He is very approachable, and has the passengers best interests at heart.(i think) I have never had a problem with him.