Trains have been temporarily split in order to provide more units for driver training. Training is running behind schedule due to late delivery of trains so splitting them is a temporary solution to help get drivers trained up.

GWR never actively chose to offshore the function - the FirstInfo business was sold (by FirstGroup not FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/GWR) to Intelenet Global Services (who were already handling the National Rail Enquiries contract from Mumbai). Intelenet retained the contact centre in Plymouth, but they did move some of the work streams out to their Indian contact centre. When the contract came up for renewal (it is a FirstGroup contract - it covers TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) and Hull Trains in addition to GWR) it was awarded to Capita and all work streams moved onshore as a result. GWR do have an in-house Customer Support team too, still based in Plymouth. This team was set up after Intelenet bought FirstInfo. They handle all the difficult stuff (like all the emails sent to Mark Hopwood) and sort out all the cock-ups that Capita make.

Most of the Twitter stuff is done in house by the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) team, based in Milford House, so pretty well located to get the information they need! The overflow stuff is handled by Capita, so not so on their part.

If you leave an item on a train, the theory is it will be found at the end of the journey and handled by the operator of that location, which will not necessarily be the same operator as the train service. So if you leave a bag on a train into Paddington, it should in theory be found by the cleaners and handed into the lost property office there, which is managed by Excess Baggage on behalf of Network Rail. In practice, however, items can easily be missed by the cleaners, especially if trains are running late, so often items won't be found until later in the day, at a completely different location. If found at any GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) location an item will make its way to the GWR lost property office in Bristol within seven days (some stations send daily, some a few times a week, others once a week, depending on how much stuff they recover). Of course there are other locations that GWR trains travel to that are not operated by GWR. If the next journey your train made was into South Wales (or Hereford) then your bag could easily have been found by the cleaners there, in which case it would be handled by Arriva Trains Wales. So if it's not turned up at Paddington or Bristol, try ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) too. Items found at Laira, Long Rock, Old Oak Common, Reading and St Philips Marsh depots all get sent to Bristol. But items found at Landore are handed in at Swansea and processed by ATW.

Yup, exactly the same at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - Richard Rowland is responsible for front line staff (stations and on train) whereas the Capita contract falls under Sales and Marketing as the contract is more than just Customer Support, it also covers telesales, web support, disabled assistance, lost property...

Despite the title, Richard Rowland is not responsible for Customer Support or the contract with Capita. It falls under the Sales and Marketing directorate, which as of this week is now heading up by the new Sales and Marketing Director, Phil Delaney.

my 'view' is a fact.

Sorry, but this is complete nonsense. Train crew are still managed locally.

The previous supplier was based in Mumbai, so it's a little closer! One of the reasons for the change in supplier was that plans were afoot to close the legacy Plymouth contact centre and move the entire operation to Mumbai. The Plymouth office closed anyway, but the operation did at least remain in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Preston Brook's route knowledge is arguably worse than Mumbai's though!

It doesn't work like that, the FG contract is handled by a dedicated office, with dedicated staff, there is no crossover with other contracts, that would be insane - how would anyone be expected to retain that kind of knowledge?! Even within the FG office there are dedicated teams for the different subcontracts - GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) & Hull Trains, and within these subcontracts there are dedicated teams for different workstreams - Customer Support, Telesales, Aftersales etc. There is no crossover, each advisor works in a specific team.

I'm not saying it makes it any better, of course it would be better to have an in-house GWR Customer Support team, but that's a First Group decision, but the staff are certainly not shared amongst multiple contracts.

Customer Support is outsourced. The current problems started last year when the contract was switched to a new supplier. The new supplier failed to deliver as expected. A whole wave of new starters are joining the team next week, which should go some way to resolving the situation. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) do also have an in-house Customer Support team who deal with the more complex stuff, including the MD correspondence. I'm sure they won't appreciate being referred to as Mark Hopwood's minions!

I suspect the spokesperson said something else, but the shoddy journalist couldn't spell. In fact they've actually changed it now.

Did anyone else misread that as 'Daft plan for Plymouth Station'!?

Actually customers can report lost items and the lost property team will try to find them by cross referencing against the items that come in. The onus is not on the customer to keep calling back. Customers can report lost items by three methods - they can call the customer support team on 03457 000 125 selecting the 'lost property' option. They can search for their items themselves on www.missingx.com where they can submit a claim against an item they think might be theirs, or simply register their loss if they cannot find any similar items. Or they can visit the lost property office at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) in person. Reporting the loss using any of these methods will result in exactly the same thing - the details will be added to a spread sheet and the customer will be contacted if a successful match is made. 

If an item is left somewhere on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) network, or on a train that terminates at a GWR station, then recovered items will end up at the lost property office in Bristol, however, it can take up to 7 days for items to filter through. As such if you lose something you can report it lost straight away and if it turns up you will receive a call to advise (usually within 7 days). However, if you lose something at Temple Meads itself, if it is found it will be taken to the lost property office straight away. So they will know, pretty much immediately whether or not they have the item. If you lose something at Temple Meads and it hasn't been handed in there isn't really very much they can do about it. It's not likely to come in at a later date, it's either been handed in or it hasn't. Maybe that was the issue here? If the item hadn't been handed in already then it was unlikely to turn up later.