Great Western Coffee Shop

I appreciate the problems that the heavy rain and resultant floods have caused.

From the FGW main site:

The line from Oxford to Worcester and Hereford is expected to be closed for up to one week with NO alternative road transport expected to be available all week.

My "bolding". Slight surprise at the lack of any alternatives even after the first day or two.

As most of the roads are closed in the area, as well as the railway, and waters are still rising, I wonder what alternatives you might suggest, Graham ::)

We have been told not to sell tickets to Oxford or North of Gloucester.  We have to advise people not to travel as there is no way through and no trains or buses can run!  It's hardly reasonable to use the floods as a stick to hit FGW with - give it a break for a bit.

It's been an awful weekend trying to cope with the thousands of people who are trying to travel despite the constant advice in the media not to do so.  Do people think we are making it up?  I'm ready to slap the next person who gets nasty with me because his or her train is late or overcrowded.

BTW the Oxford to Hereford line is now expected to be closed for at least 14 days with no alternative transport.

Give FGW some credit. At least today hasn't started off too badly considering the amount of trains that are likely to have been at the wrong depot etc.

Whilst I would agree that none of the above was the fault of "on the ground" FGW staff , this is "a forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too." As you will no doubt appreciate , a balance has to be struck , which does mean that people are going to post negative as well as positive views , based on their own experiences.

BTW it has been suggested that the FGW website could have been a little bit more helpful regarding recent events (link below.)
http://firstlatewestern.blogspot.com/2007/07/great-flood-marooned-in-didcot.html

Hi

I totally accept that FGW is not responsible for the weather, or its consequences. and anyone who chooses to travel to flood affected areas must accept the minimal services being offered.

What I find unacceptable was FGW  situation on Friday. At Reading station

• No noticeboards - the system was out
• No phones - the system was out

I work 300 yards from Reading station. Our phones and computers where ok, why where FGW's  out?

The staff tried to be helpful, and I truly did feel sorry for them. Lines where flooded outside of Oxford, Didcott, Swindon, Chippenham and near Bristol Parkway, and no help was being provided to them.

All they could do was advise people to board a TWO carriage train to Basingstoke, change for Salisbury and then change for Bristol. I was able to get home after 5 hours of travelling the most crowded trains in recent history. The funniest part of the journey was the South West trains connection from Basingstoke to Salisbury. A clean tidy six carriage train, with the train manager continually apologizing for the over crowding. This train was sheer luxury compared to the ram shackle 2 carriage trains that FGW used from Reading to Basingstoke and Salsbury to Bristol.

Lee, I am afraid I see your comments as unnecessarily patronising.  Because I am presently working for a railway company you are wrong to assume that I am of below-average intelligence.  I have, in fact, retired from a professional career and do not need to work to survive.  It is not necessary to remind me that this is a forum for passengers etc.  Graham welcomed me onto the forum to try to give an insider view of different situations which I have always tried to do.

Your supercilious comment 'as you will no doubt appreciate', I turn back on you and point out that a balance indeed has to be struck.  As about 90% of the comments on the site are negative (and justifiably so to some degree) I consider that one positive comment is going some way to striking the balance that you are looking for.

During the last few months I have tried to use my many years of customer service experience to help both you, the passengers, and the company to understand better what is happening.  You obviously don't appreciate my input and I have far better things to do with my time to try and offer help where it is not wanted.

I wish you luck with your efforts to change the way the FGW franchise is run.  I shall just go to work and stay anonymous and help the passengers on my train and go home and leave it all up to you while I relax.

Good luck - and goodbye

Whistleblower :-*

I am sorry you see it that way , and at no point did I even hint that you were "of below-average intelligence." I feel that you have drawn the wrong conclusion there.


All I wanted to point out was that some people's comments may be justified.

I will be genuinely sorry to see you go , and I apologise if I have offended you.

Whistleblower, are you still hearing me?

I must take a degree of "blame" for starting this one; persoanlly, I felt that I had given the TOC a degree of latitude and restricted my comment to the lack of alternatives even after the initial problems period.    Let me make it quite clear - I can appreciate and understand and sympathise with a lack of alternative transport for a handful of days as the initial crisis hits and the majority of the waters clear.   And I totally agree that no alternative could easily be offered on Saturday or Sunday or perhaps Monday ...

But a week?  Two weeks?  The question of whether or not an alternative could have been laid on, or whether an opportunity to save money and blame it on the whether, deserves to be asked.   And that's not related to the crews on the ground.   You may accuse me of being cynical, but just at the moment I feel that we've been very hard done by on the TransWilts - after nearly 2 years of campaigning for the retention of an appropriate service, I'm getting letters again that start playing "smoke and mirrors" passing me from a, to b and then back to c ... and I'm being told that these things take time and we must be patient and mustn't look to rush people.  After nearly two years!!   

So in the light of that, I think I have the right to ask about the company's motives.  And it's been so wonderful to have you here to help us understand some of these issues and to help put me, and others, right where we perhaps don't realise something. Are you able to tell me why, last Saturday, First were able to be sure that they won't be able to run buses to serve any of the Oxford to Hereford stations NEXT Friday?

I'm delighhted to do so; I was looking at the closure from Didcot to Oxford and wondering if half the fleet was going to be stuck at Oxford but from what I've heard / seen, they've coped remarkably well.

Interestingly, the announced "nothing for a week or two" has now changed.   There are limited buses starting to run already while the trains are out.   After all, First are also a bus company!

More on this in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=1547

I'm coming back to this thread to give credit where it's due to First Great Western.   I'm now noting a whole series of bus and taxi services, local bus arrangements, and trains coming up into the middle of the line at Worcester in order to provide a replacement service while the through railway is out.

The originally stated intention of providing no alternative for the whole duration was, in my view disrespectful of the customers and failing to meet even minimum standards. By providing the raft of alternatives, FGW have corrected that disrespect.  I'm not travelling "on the ground" up that way - but this looks stacks better than "no alternative".

Whilst not wanting my first post to sound out of turn or bring an old topic back to light I feel I must drop my 2p worth in to the pot. With FGW not being able to run any rail services along the OWW for 2 weeks due to flooding their ability to not see past the immediate difficulties astounded me. Fair enough there was a fair amount of devistation around this neck of the woods with many roads etc closed. HOWEVER after the floods on Friday, roads were easily passable again by the Wednesday. So, why were FGW standing by ther "No alternative road transoprt is avaliable" stance? It was of course the start of the school holidays so coaches would of been avaliabe. It wasn't untill week 2 of the crisis that 'Bustitution' took place with a coach from Worcester to Kingham. Alternatives were in place for Evesham passengers with a shuttle bus to Cheltenham connecting there, for other intermediate stops taxi's/local bus services were suggested. So if they were able to use the roads, why couldn't a rail replacement bus do the same? The re-routing of the 2 morning and 2 evening HST's does need applause, it happens occasionally that the HST's come up from The Marsh, through Worcester and across as ECS moves to Hereford instead of into Newport, then Reversing and heading up the Marches Line.

Still glad its all back open, just hope these speed restriction don't last much longer!

Lets not forget this weeks half price offer.

Hello ... welcome, FGW traveller - and please don't worry too much about bringing an old post up.   In fact ... it's something I do all the time.  ;)

-- Graham

Which you can find in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=506.msg1636#msg1636