Great Western Coffee Shop

Good day, I've been reading the coffee shop for several weeks, my user name might give a good clue to my job.

Let me state I'm a career railwayman and did my first turn of duty in my teens back in the late 70's. I've spent most, but not all, of my railway life at one of the principal stations on the western region.

I won't as a rule post items into the melting pot unless an issue posted is missing some factual evidence,
I do not need to say how badly things are run these days, web sites like this one, farce great western, I hate great western, and other anti-fgw sites say it all.

There are things going on these days that concern me greatly and I may well start some topics for others to support me (or not), railwayman have great input in this site, input from the public would also back up my concerns.

I look forward to 2 major sensible things happening on the railway.

1, Network Rail bringing in single line working at most engineering sites, doing away with most, but not all rail replacement bus services.
If for that to happen NR need to take relaying in house, then do it.

2, The Great Western franchise being run by somebody else, Anybody else! the sooner the better.
Whilst First run this franchise I can not see it ever getting better.
Far too much money is to be paid to the Government to run FGW

Station Manager, you are VERY welcome indeed.

We say that we are a site run "by a customer for customers" in the tag line that's somewhere on every page ... but it is an enormous help to us customers to have a wide variety of knowledgable professional input to hand, informing us and letting us know how things are from - err "the other side".   Except it is not the other side at all; the railway has to be a symbiosis with the staff who run the service, the passengers who use it, and all the various managers who ensure that things are in place to that ... the staff can run it for ... the customers.

I started off - summer of 2005 - campaigning for a retention of what I considered to be an appropriate service on the Swindon to Southampton line, after I read in the paper that it was to be cut back to just two trains a day.  I asked some pretty dumb questions in those early days, and am forever grateful to the people who took, and continue to take, time to explain things to me. It's not that I scandellously uneducated prior to that point - it's just that I spend my time learning about other things, and I assumed (falsely, as it turned out) the whole structure that provided and operated the trains to our town - trains that were rapidly getting busier - was competent in providing them and had a duty of care to continue to provide an appropriate service for the passengers. I wish I had know some of the railway professionals we now know on here at an earlier date!

As many readers may have guessed, the moderators have good communications channels between them, and we were discussing the "by a customer, for customer" approach the other day, and how it relates to rail staff.  So my "you are very welcome" message goes out to you - and to others - from the whole team. But some of my fellow moderators did make the point that it's easy - all too easy - for professional staff to assume a level of knowledge in the "Joe Public" poster that's unlikely to be there.  So I'm suggesting there often a need to explain more than you might expect, and to accept views that are deep seated but you feel to be incorrect and illogical.  I know I'm at the stage now of knowing enough to have almost become "part of the establishment" as far as these things are concerned, to the extend that I get accused of being "antipassenger" from time to time ...

A long comment there - written to be read (please) in general by everyone - but you gave me an excellent opportunity to make some points.

And a very warm welcome to the forum.

--Graham

Nice to have another member of staff on here :D

Welcome fellow emplyee! ;)

Oh no :O Management!

Aha welcome :)

LOL ;D Careful what you say now, boys and girls of FGW, a manager is on board!
Only joking station manager, welcome.

Actually, as a passenger, I'm very impressed: I haven't seen any FGW manager putting their head above the parapet for months - until now!

Welcome to the forum!  :)