I know just what IanL means - quite often, as HST^▸ (High Speed Train) carriages have been inserted in the train slightly out of sequence, there are temporary 'Carriage D' labels stuck on the outside of the carriage, but inexperienced passengers then get on and are completely confused when their seat reservation for 'D40', for example, doesn't exist and someone is already sitting in 'C40' and they're not sure whether to challenge them or not ... !   

No, but you are trying to transform travel for the better: http://www.iworkforfgw.com/blog/ for example!

I know, Ollie, and it's not personal!    

For what it's worth, I agree with John.  Someone who used to work with me in Bristol now travels to Cheltenham (via Bristol from Nailsea) - it's not too bad, he reckons.  You'd probably be travelling against the greater flow of commuters, too - lots of Bristol people travel up to Gloucester / Cheltenham, maybe there are less in the other direction at that time of day?  Good luck with the contract, anyway!

Hi, lj3, welcome to the forum!

Apart from that, I'm sorry but I cannot offer any explanation: I too am a mere passenger suffering similar bizarre experiences, such as the complete and unexplained disappearance of the 0859 from Nailsea and Backwell to Bristol Temple Meads last Thursday!

I can only suggest it's worth sending in those 'comment cards' - I'm up to ^40 in 'ex gratia' vouchers now!

Best wishes, Chris.

For the benefit of those who may not have noticed, I am the irritating git who has been using 'transforming travel' as my byline for some time now ... and I shall continue to do so, until things improve! 

By the way, FGW do use it on their branding: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=93

More interesting points, John!

I saw the poster from our local newsagent this morning, taped inside the shelter where the newspaper stand and 'honesty box' used to be, explaining that he's discontinued the service, due to the cash being stolen twice in the last month. That wouldn't have happened when Nailsea was indeed a 'manned' station?

Hopefully, Digital Doris has gone the way of Vera Duckworth - not least because they both spouted a load of absolute $^%&*& ... !

More likely, though, it's probably just a case of 'rainwater in the electrics' - which is why the ticket machines don't work, whenever there's been rain overnight ... !   

An interesting point, vacman!  Just an idle observation, but the last time I saw someone actually on duty at our 'allegedly' manned station at Nailsea one morning last October, he was leaning nonchalantly against the 'It is illegal to smoke on this station' sign at the top of the steps to platform 2, puffing away!  (And he's ex-Wessex, too!) 

Having read through the responses to this survey, perhaps I could offer my thoughts on some of the points raised?

- I voted 3: I think the 'strike' was a success, in the sense that it highlighted the problems;

- it was never a question of 'FGW^▸ (First Great Western) losing their franchise', far less the complete re-nationalisation of the railways: that's a complete non-starter;

- MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) themselves were careful to avoid being seen to be encouraging fare-dodging: they just wanted a good headline - 'Fare Strike!', not 'MTLS get lots of people to break the law';

- the 'strike' did get lots of publicity, particularly in the Bristol / Bath area, where there are lots of voters / MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament);

- the publicity generated by the 'strike' does put a lot of political pressure on Andrew Haines to explain himself / FGW to politicians, who will want to be seen to be 'doing something', and who will demand that FGW in turn actually do something to improve the situation, where it is within their control to do so;

- to vacman - I'm sorry to hear that you or any of your colleagues were verbally abused or assaulted during the 'strike'. When I arrived at Bristol Temple Meads on that Monday morning (some time after the scrum that John R mentioned above), I saw four uniformed BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) officers, standing in a semi-cordon beyond the barriers, ready to deal with any such incidents. It is regrettable if this support was not made available to other front line FGW staff elsewhere. I am on record in other posts on this forum as holding a strong view that abuse or assault on any front line FGW staff is well out of order.

Thanks again, Grahame! Another one, if I may?

LOOU^▸ (locked out of use) - Locked Out Of Use (broken doors, toilets, etc.)

... and it's also no fun if the train you are on speeds through your station without letting you get off ... 

Mookiemoo,

LARGE gin + (notional) tonic = relax: you've clearly had a real nightmare of a day, and I DO empathise!

Best wishes, Chris. 

As both d_m and gaf71 clearly have some very impressive knowledge of the workings around Bristol, may I please ask for any help they may be able to offer on the following?

I (and others) arrived at Nailsea and Backwell in good time (from 0846 onwards) this morning to catch the 0859 to Bristol Temple Meads. Problem was, there was no reference at all on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) screens to the 0859 - not 'on time', 'delayed' or even 'cancelled' - just nothing! Suspecting the worst, someone phoned her husband at work from her mobile: he checked on the internet and said, "Oh, it's cancelled!" In that case, why was it not shown on the FGW screens at Nailsea and Backwell as being cancelled, so we could make alternative travel arrangements, where possible? Surely a decision to cancel that service must have been made some time before, so it would only have been fair to show that on the FGW screens, rather than leave all the passengers waiting hopefully at Nailsea for that train, completely unaware of its cancellation (no Digital Doris this morning, either, so we were completely reliant on the green screens)?

The particularly annoying thing is that, when I eventually got into work later, I checked the FGW website and saw,
"08:40 Weston-Super-Mare to Cardiff Central due 10:17
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads. It will no longer call at: Weston-Super-Mare, Weston Milton, Worle, Yatton, Nailsea & Backwell, Parson Street and Bedminster. This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable."

Well, cheers! That means every commuter west of Bristol was 'dumped on' by the cleverly concealed cancellation of that service. Surely any decision to cancel the service altogether between Weston and Bristol must have been taken much earlier, leaving time for the screens to be updated to tell us poor mugs (customers?) on the platforms, so we could make alternative travel arrangements?

As I said at the beginning, d_m and gaf71, can you possibly provide any background information as to how/why such decisions are made, by Swindon control or performance resource managers, and how perhaps unreliable rolling stock may have contributed to 'a member of train crew being unavailable' - because they were themselves delayed some other service failure???

I agree with Shazz here: a very good point has been made, in another thread, on this subject - see


As Shazz says, please don't give the front line staff stick for doing something they themselves are clearly very unhappy about!

I agree - lots of publicity was gained, but nobody has gone down to Princetown for fare-dodging (yet!).

Now, John, was that ticket you were waving a valid one, or one of the dodgy fare strike ones ...?