Great Western Coffee Shop

Richard Wilson investigates the state of Britain's railways in the face of complaints from passengers about high ticket prices, overcrowded carriages and cancellations. The actor experiences the hustle and bustle of the daily train commute, and interviews experts, industry insiders and members of the public.

Dispatches: Train Journeys from Hell.  Channel 4, Monday 21 March 2011, 8pm.

From the Radio Times (http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=10&channelId=132&programmeId=172786960&jspLocation=/jsp/prog_details_fullpage.jsp):

That's telly. Would it make a difference if it was Michael Portillo, Michael Palin, Ian Hislop, Pete Waterman etc etc presenting?

Should we have the researchers, who've done all the legwork, in front of camera? No. So the producers get a 'name' in instead. After all it's the job of programme makers to get an audience.

Maybe wait and see how this 'sleb' gets on, eh?

Bignosemac excepted.

I don't believe it! is that Victor in cattle class?

Richard Wilson is on the 7.45am First Great Western train from Reading to Paddington. This is not how he is used to travelling, standing up with the commuters in cattle class.

"Is it always like this?" he asks a woman who appears to be sitting on the luggage rack. "Yes," she says. "Do you ever get a seat?" "No," says the woman. "But would you like to have a seat here on the luggage rack?" The man who, as Victor Meldrew, epitomised curmudgeonly crossness breaks into roars of laughter. "I've never been offered a luggage rack before!"

He shoulders his way along the carriage a bit. "I've heard people sit in here sometimes," he says, opening the door marked Toilet. Perched on the seat, he shakes his head. "I don't believe it!" he says. "Oh, whoops." Yes, that catchphrase. "Well, I suppose this is slightly more pleasant than standing up. He apologies to a commuter who is clearly in need of relieving himself. "Do you want to come in?"

Wilson clearly isn't used to all this. "I've been going First Class since One Foot in the Grave," he says in his Scottish burr. "I used to get recognised so much and ... well, that was my excuse," he sighs. "I just have a penchant for five-star hotels, taking taxis and going First Class."

So why is he slumming it on what is generally held to be London's most overcrowded commuter experience? Work, my dear. Wilson, 75, has accepted the task of researching our rail services for Channel 4's Dispatches. And what he has discovered has shocked him.

"The woman who was sitting on the luggage rack, do you know she pays ^4,000 a year for a season ticket? And she never gets a seat! And for older people the state of the trains is a real pain."

During his Dispatches mission, Wilson has been introduced to the "hunter gatherer" way in which the harried commuter will search for a seat, and then secure it. He's understood that no one stands up for anyone else (on a week-long shoot, only one person, in Manchester, offered him a seat). He's been astounded at the lack of carriages at busy times, frustrated by automated ticket services and gobsmacked by the conditions which working people must put up with.

He's also learned about "crush rage", wherein people lose the plot thanks to the effects of being poured into a train at rush hour. "But more than that I was amazed at how tolerant most people are. It's the British way, I suppose. Not complaining, paying thousands of pounds for a season ticket and putting up with it. Or altering their behaviour in order to cope. I met lots of people who are getting up an hour earlier just so that they can get a seat."

Last week, Wilson was travelling from London to Sheffield, where he works as an associate director at the Playhouse. He'd bought a First Class return ticket two days before online - and with his Senior Railcard, it only cost him ^15.85. However, when the guard came around, Wilson discovered he had left his wallet at home. With his Railcard in it.

"Well, I am clearly over 65!" he tells me. "But because I didn't have my Senior Railcard, he charged me a full fare of ^139, each way. So a total of ^278. I admit that I did get a bit tetchy. Yes, I can afford the full fare but what if you are some old dear who hasn't got much money, decides to treat herself to First Class, and forgets her Railcard?"

Indeed, since One Foot in the Grave started in 1990, Wilson has been something of a champion for the elderly. The programme bucked the assumed trend that programmes about older people facing retirement (or as in Victor Meldrew's case, redundancy) will be a ratings disaster. The show ran for 10 years and six series, turning Wilson into a national treasure.

Some might think working as a reporter on Dispatches at 75 might be seen as a bit tardy but then Wilson has always been a late starter. He trained as a lab technician and only went to Rada at 27 after he'd done National Service and had another profession under his belt. Even when he became a theatre stalwart, he found time to engage himself in the real world. "It's very good for actors to get out and into the workplace, to see how people really are. I used to go to the Old Bailey a lot. You would see very desperate people there. Or the local police station."

So being a reporter for Dispatches came naturally? "I found I liked listening to other people. It is amazing how you can be made aware of someone else's life, and how open people are."

Will he carry on working? "I certainly will," says Wilson. "I have told my agent that I want to carry on making enough money in order to keep on travelling in First Class." Presumably his recent experiences in London's commuter-crush have only stiffened his resolve.

Richard Wilson is in Train Journeys From Hell, Channel 4, March 21, 8pm.

Richard Wilson^s Trauma on Trains ^ Via Yate

If you are too at the end of your tether when it comes to train journeys, in not only Yate but across the entire country. You must watch dispatches on March 21st.
 
Richard Wilson is investigating the madness that is our rail service in the UK as he attempts to cross the country via rail.

The Dispatches documentary is set to investigate complaints into the rise in ticket prices, overcrowding on carriages and cancellations.

There is expected to be a major government review in trains in the next few weeks.

When trying to buy a ticket over and automated system, Richard Wilson was bombarded with automated responses. Richard wanted to purchase a ticket from Manchester and Harrogate but was asked in response if he wanted to travel to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, Kyle of Lochalsh in the Highlands, Angel Road in London, Severn Beach in Avon and our very own Yate Station.

After all the problems with Yate Station in recent months, you couldn^t blame him for not wanting to travel to Yate Station.

There is nothing worse than automated systems. They never get it right; you always end up speaking to an operator in the end anyway so what is their purpose.

Richard wouldn^t have appreciated our lack of shelter and lack of ticket system if he had made it to Yate so maybe he had a lucky escape.

As bignosemac says the million of boring daily coommuter journies aren't news.

Programme research and programmer presenting require two very different skills.

The bit about being charged an Anytime fare after forgetting his Railcard, doesn't quite ring true. The Guard should have only charged him for an Any Permitted Anytime Single for the train he was on - ^139.50. Mr Wilson could then have made other arrangements for his return journey at considerably less cost.

And occasionally trump myself.

What sort of FC ticket had he already bought then - or was that figure a typo in the original article?

Paul

What have you been eating, then? (http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/fartysmile1f.gif) (http://www.millan.net)

Will come as news to the many people who appear on our TV screens having researched the material they are presenting.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23932856-i-dont-believe-it-is-that-victor-in-cattle-class.do

See the photo associated - Richard Wilson (yes, Victor Meldrew) isn't even sitting in FGW First Class! It's a nonsense, from beginning to end....

Have you actually seen the documentary yet Chris? I shall be watching it first before making any comments.

TV undercover roles for tired commuters

A long-suffering Kent commuter is to star in a TV documentary aimed at exposing the truth behind Britain's much-criticised rail network.

Chris Hill, 30, has been filming his journey from Sittingbourne station through the Medway Towns to Cannon Street for Channel 4's Dispatches programme.

Train Journeys From Hell will be aired at 8pm on Monday and feature clips of Chris and fellow Kent commuter John Nicholson's experiences with embattled rail company Southeastern.

Chris, who lives in Kemsley, hopes the month-long diary footage will highlight the problems with the region's rail service. He said: "Pressure is mounting on Southeastern and it's a nationwide programme being shown at prime time so will hopefully bring the problems to light. It hasn't been as bad as in December but one day they stuck us on a rail replacement service and it was freezing and nobody told us what was happening. I also filmed the Southeastern managers meeting at Victoria which will make for an interesting watch. Usually with complaints they come up with an excuse, but it will be difficult when there's hard evidence."

Chris, who has been travelling to the capital by rail since 2003, says he has received plenty of support from other passengers who have noticed his undercover filming, but admits he was relieved to ditch the camera.  He said: "I've had a lot of support but have been given some weird looks. People don't blink an eye if you're on holiday but on a train you look a bit weird! To be honest I'm glad to get rid of it. A few times I've had bags under my eyes. It will be nice to read a book again."

Southeastern's contract is currently being reviewed by the Department for Transport (DfT) to determine whether its contract should be extended beyond next year.

Last month the operator narrowly avoided paying out compensation to its season ticket holders after meeting its punctuality targets by just 0.04 per cent.

John Nicholson, from Herne Bay, is leader of the Kent's Alliance of commuters group and has also been compiling footage of his journey into Cannon Street.

The 36-year-old is considering boycotting Southeastern and reverting to car sharing instead of renewing his season ticket in May. He said: "It is really wrong they can get away with it ^ they're crooks. Some people have given up but I can't give up because otherwise they win. If Southeastern increase its fares and give a reasonable service then we can't complain. But they don't. The trains are constantly late, overcrowded, lack of communication. The list goes on. I've had a lot of support. It's great when someone you've never met before comes up to you and congratulates you on the work you've been doing. It just shows how angry people are."

Jon Hay-Campbell,spokesman for Southeastern, said he was aware of the upcoming Dispatches programme and believes the firm has improved its service over recent weeks. He said: "We have not been contacted by Dispatches so cannot comment specifically on what will be shown. However, we are continuing to work hard to improve the service for passengers and over the last four weeks over 90 per cent of trains have arrived on time across the network and we hope that passengers have started to notice a difference."

The next instalment of the campaign is about the quality of service provided by rail staff.

A survey carried out last month by Which? magazine suggested employees are not doing enough to ensure passengers get the best deal.

Grahame moved my post & changed the subject line which referred to the link - so he's partly to blame - but still the link was there & you should read all of someone's post before criticising it, IMHO.

It's a nonsense, from beginning to end....

It wasn't grahame, it was me: I moved / merged these two topics because they cover exactly the same subject: a television programme to be aired next Monday and various comments that are being made about it, in the press and among our posters, beforehand.

It wasn't grahame, it was me:
I left the individual topic headings of all posts unchanged, to try to avoid just such a misunderstanding.

Now I take it that you are referring to the program and not the article. Why do I come to that conclusion because no doubt the photo of Richard Wilson is a shot from the actual program so I take it that you are having a go at the actual program.

No, I'm referring to the webpage that I quoted at the top of my post. Sorry, Timmer, but you've jumped to the wrong conclusion & should admit it.

Channel 4 / Evening Standard Hatchet Job on FGW

I wonder if its getting quite a bit of press attention because it's presented by a high profile celeb?

ChrisB - we're happy to look / see how other boards do things, and what we learn forms much of what we do. 

Train companies respond to Channel 4 Dispatches programme

In response to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme on the railways, a spokesperson for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) said:

^The railways are attracting record numbers of passengers. With 1.32billion journeys made by train in 2010, the railways carried more passengers in a peacetime year than at any time since the late 1920s.

^According to Passenger Focus, the independent watchdog, more passengers than ever are happy with their journey. Punctuality is at historically high levels, and we now have one of the safest railways in Europe. These improvements show how train operators are committed to providing the high quality services that passengers expect and deserve.
 
^But we are not complacent and are always working to make services better for passengers which is why we are investing millions in improving information for passengers, and to provide better stations, more trains and faster services.
 
^Giving train companies greater freedom from central prescription would allow them to respond even better and quicker to passengers^ concerns. That is why we are making proposals to Government on how the industry can continue to improve services for passengers and deliver better value for money for taxpayers.^

Fares
From the daily commute to visiting family on a long distance journey, passengers use the railway in very different ways and understandably expect a range of fares to suit their needs. To meet these expectations, train companies have to get the balance right between periods of high and low demand in every part of the country while ensuring there are always cheap fares available.
 
The vast majority of passengers buy and travel on the right tickets. Most travel on some kind of discounted fare, for example, on Off-Peak, Season or Advance fare tickets. Every week, passengers purchase around 800,000 cheap Advance tickets.

Buying the correct ticket is pretty straightforward. Wherever they can, people should book early and avoid busy times of the day. Young people, those over 60 and many families can get a third off most fares with a Railcard. Or you can go to the National Rail Enquiries website, paid for and run by train companies, which has up to date information on the best deals.

Which?
The Which? survey was seriously misleading and misrepresentative. Asking 150 questions mostly based on unrealistic and obscure scenarios cannot come close to giving a representative view of the 1.3 billion journeys that are made every year by train.

The magazine also claimed that they asked ^about the cheapest fares^ but what they failed to tell their readers was that they explicitly excluded the cheapest fares in almost every question they asked.
 
Tens of thousands of passengers have no problem buying and travelling on the cheapest fares every day but we understand the frustration of those who feel they have not been able to buy the right ticket which is why we are working to continue improving services for passengers.
 
Monitoring and enforcement policies
There are safeguards in place to ensure that people who have been unable to buy the right ticket are not given a penalty fare. Train company staff use their discretion where people have genuinely had problems getting a ticket. Staff on trains and at stations are also kept fully up to date about ticket machines which may not be working and ticket offices that are closed.

However, train companies have to take a firm but fair approach on ticket enforcement to stop a small minority costing the railways millions of pounds every year because they choose to travel without a valid ticket. We estimate the railways lose up to ^190m a year, money which could pay for the lease of up to 1,500 extra carriages or the upkeep of around 380 stations for around the next five years.

Unregulated fares
Half the cost of running the railways comes from the taxpayer, the other half from passengers. The level of fares is determined largely as a result of Government policy which aims to reduce the contribution from taxpayers and increase what passengers pay.

About half of fares are directly regulated according to a formula linked to the rate of inflation. The rest are set by train companies as part of the financial commitments they have to meet and which are set out in the contracts they sign with the Government to run services. So in effect although these fares are known as unregulated fares, the level at which they are set is actually driven by Government policy on rail funding, which currently is that passengers should pay more.

Overcrowding
Overcrowding is a big concern for train companies. More and more people are travelling by train ^ a sign of the success of the railways. But when customers are unhappy, then that^s bad news for us. Train companies, wherever possible, seek to ease overcrowding and we welcome the Government^s recent announcements on new trains.

But to a large extent the prescriptive nature of franchise agreements set out by civil servants restrict what train companies can do. We want to run even more services and address overcrowding, allowing train companies to use more of their commercial nous to tackle these kinds of issues. Train companies need to be freed up from interference from civil servants and be allowed to tackle overcrowding quickly and effectively themselves.

National Rail Enquiries - TrainTracker
TrainTracker received almost 3 million calls in the last year. Almost two out of three were repeat callers and the vast majority of people experienced no problems in getting the information they wanted. The service can plan journeys to and from any of 3,000 locations and recognise 9,000 speech variations, which are different names for the same station.

But we always want to improve our service which is why we regularly test TrainTracker to ensure passengers are able to find out what they need. We have invested millions of pounds in TrainTracker, our call centres and the National Rail Enquiries website, which we relaunched at the end of 2009 and is now the most visited travel and transport website in the UK, with well over 15 million visits every month.

Punctuality
Austria, Belgium and Spain are among the many other countries that use similar measures to record rail punctuality, and not all include cancelled trains which we do. Significant improvements have been made over the last few years and figures from the independent watchdog, Passenger Focus, show that 82% of people are now satisfied with the punctuality and reliability of trains.

But train companies are not complacent. We are acutely aware of how important punctuality and reliability are to passengers, which is why train companies devote a great deal of energy and resources to ensuring more services arrive on time. Compensation arrangements vary between train companies according to the exact agreement they have with the Government. The terms are made available by individual companies.

We estimate the railways lose up to ^190m a year, money which could pay for the lease of up to 1,500 extra carriages or the upkeep of around 380 stations for around the next five years.

but I worry when I read things like "Buying the correct ticket is pretty straightforward";  the people who designed and run the system would love to think that it is, but they're so used to their own system that they overlook how daunting it can be to the newcomer.

balanced

I was very disappointed with the programme; I do not think it added very much at all to the sum total of our knowledge concerning the state of Britain's railways.

Oh, come on. It was balanced in the sense that ATOCs responses to the criticisms were given air time. You wouldn't expect an investigative documentary to be titled "Train Journeys from Heaven and Hell" would you?

Vaguely amused by a member of the fourth estate espousing the need for balancing views from happy passengers in this sort of documentary. Do your fellow journalists in the mainstream print media ever seek out these views when writing a critical piece about rail travel?

We were given the opportunity to respond earlier this week, to make sure the views expressed in the programme are balanced. As is standard practice, we have not been able to view the programme before it goes on air, but we expect it to contain our responses to the criticism's raised.

An outline of what we said to Hardcash Productions, the TV company behind the programme, is outlined below.

On overcrowding:
Since the beginning of our franchise we've invested in rolling stock and significantly increased capacity on many of our routes. However, with more and more customers choosing to use our services it is difficult for us to keep up with demand.

In the past 18 months, six out of the 10 train operators in the London and South East area have had injections of rolling stock, but this does not include First Great Western, so it is not surprising that they have seen recent improvements. The 200 new carriages the Department for Transport originally planned to deliver to three rail franchises - including First Great Western - would have made a real difference for our customers, but this was put on hold early last year prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review.

We absolutely understand the constraints the current economic climate brings for government, but we also recognise there is a real need to improve capacity in key areas of our network. We have recently put forward a series of innovative proposals to the DfT to help manage the increase in the number of customers we're carrying. We hope the DfT will adopt these as part of its next allocation of additional trains, and our talks with them are continuing.

On fares:
We believe our fares offer good value for money, particularly when compared with alternative forms of travel. Taking your example (Hardcash Productions), an annual season ticket between Reading and London costs ^3584, or the equivalent of ^14 return for a day. The same journey by car would cost more than double in parking (average ^25/day) and the congestion charge (^10/day) alone. We would be happy to provide other examples if you need them. Passenger Focus' latest passenger survey shows that the majority of our customers see our services as offering good value for money - a five per cent increase since the previous year. While there is more we can do, we are making real progress.

However,  ^135.50 for one person to go from London Euston to Manchesteron on an anytime ticket is more than the ^50 petrol cost (which most people consider the cost of motoring) for the same journey by road. If there's more than one person travelling together then car wins everytime.

However,  ^135.50 for one person to go from London Euston to Manchesteron on an anytime ticket is more than the ^50 petrol cost (which most people consider the cost of motoring) for the same journey by road. If there's more than one person travelling together then car wins everytime.

Perhaps we should make more use of Group Rover tickets (like the German Lander and Schones Wokenende) to encourage parties to travel by rail.