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3573
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Journey by Journey / Cross Country services / Re: XC Dawlish cancellations now beyond a joke!
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on: December 16, 2018, 16:40:07
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Notwithstanding an overcautious attitude, this is an issue which affects Dawlish for what, maybe 10-15 days a year?
In that context, all talk of avoiding routes and new/different rolling stock is at best whimsy. The railway has far more pressing issues to deal with.
I agree on all counts ... and was only suggesting a contingency plan - or rather contingency plan modification - to have the Cross Country HSTs▸ stay south during these periods; there will be HSTs / Castles based west of Dawlish for the forsessable future, so depots and an overnight facility that knows about them if they don't migrate north at the end of the day ... and I'm sure that Craigentinny can cope with a couple more voyagers that would normally be serviced in the far South West. Yes - there are more pressing issues. Fortunately, issues can often be dealt with in parallel and not in sequence! It perhaps highlights the poor decision and shortsightedness to semi retire and use "sawn off" HSTs to do short Devon and Cornwall stopping services, for which they were never designed, rather than long distance routes for which they were intended and are clearly still needed, or at least could be far better utilised? |
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3575
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All across the Great Western territory / Smoke and Mirrors / Re: Call / data centre response time
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on: December 15, 2018, 17:14:39
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Yet another horror story relating to the nonperformance of Capita. The problem is that when you go out to tender you have to accept the lowest price. The winning bid cuts corners to give the lowest price and this is reflected in future performance with insufficient resources to deliver the service properly
You don't actually. I always wrote into tender documents the phrase. The client will not necessarily accept the lowest or any tender. The difficulty is that the short termist bean counters can't bring themselves to accept anything other than the lowest tender, regardless of the consequences. In my experience the consequences of blindly accepting the lowest tender was often a contractor who then failed to meet the contract terms. The Gov't Dept concerned would not then exercise their legal rights to enforce the contract, indeed they often ended up throwing even more money at the failed contractor or brought someone else in who said they could do the job at the lowest price............repeat ad nauseam..... Public sector procurement has been a disaster for decades, and the scenario you describe has been very common...…….a lot of these contractors knew that they could get away with murder, as the financial slack was absorbed by the taxpayer, rather than the bottom line of a more commercially astute, professional Client who would be far more rigorous and less forgiving of failure............the saying "you get what you pay for" should be printed in huge letters at the top of each ITT▸ !!! |
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3576
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All across the Great Western territory / Smoke and Mirrors / Re: Call / data centre response time
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on: December 15, 2018, 16:57:35
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I almost fell off my chair when I heard that my own business were outsourcing work to Capita, I know it's fashionable to criticise them (in some cases with good reason), but our experience has been pretty positive.
Obviously can't go into too much detail, but they weren't the cheapest, we worked (and continued to work) very closely with them and treat them as partners, rather than contractors, and we set realistic KPIs which at the moment they are hitting every month.
There are a lot of very committed and dedicated people within their organisation but I get that as a group they are vast and disparate and people's experience will be very different.
GWRs▸ already woeful customer service seemed to take even more of a dive when they moved a lot of it to Capita, but I guess it's worth asking whether or not they have specified, and are paying for, the sort of service which their customers deserve?
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3577
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: 17th December 2018 - the start of toll free Severn Bridges
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on: December 15, 2018, 16:49:09
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Don't worry.
When the Welsh who have never visited Bristol belore and those paying a return visit have found they have to pick their way past open air dormitories of the street sleepers hostel, past occupied concrete bedrolls alongside concrete bedside cabinets the tops are which are cluttered with empty cans of what was the dormitories occupants last refreshment in a restricted area in which consumption of certain refreshments as those contained in the empty cans is prohibited demonstrates the bye-law is clearly not being monitored plus having to walk past further street dwellers requesting 'any change' for their next 4-pack purchase and street buskers playing out of tune instruments those visitors from tother side of the Severn will say, "Visit Bristol, never again".
I think there's a little more to Bristol than that (and I speak as a Plymothian!). Unless you live in a bubble, you'll find similar scenes in all large cities (and not so large towns). People tend to understand that. And when they've experienced the daily traffic congestion and gridlocked central area even on a Sunday, What then ? …...I would hope they'd tread carefully to avoid falling down the holes left by the goalposts which you just moved!  |
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3578
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: 17th December 2018 - the start of toll free Severn Bridges
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on: December 15, 2018, 16:31:03
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Don't worry.
When the Welsh who have never visited Bristol belore and those paying a return visit have found they have to pick their way past open air dormitories of the street sleepers hostel, past occupied concrete bedrolls alongside concrete bedside cabinets the tops are which are cluttered with empty cans of what was the dormitories occupants last refreshment in a restricted area in which consumption of certain refreshments as those contained in the empty cans is prohibited demonstrates the bye-law is clearly not being monitored plus having to walk past further street dwellers requesting 'any change' for their next 4-pack purchase and street buskers playing out of tune instruments those visitors from tother side of the Severn will say, "Visit Bristol, never again".
I think there's a little more to Bristol than that (and I speak as a Plymothian!). Unless you live in a bubble, you'll find similar scenes in all large cities (and not so large towns). People tend to understand that. |
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3580
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Journey by Journey / Wales local journeys / Re: Tempting fares (not) on TFW website
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on: December 13, 2018, 19:53:06
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Has anyone else noticed that the homepage of the TfW Rail website has a section with details of great prices.... except that all the prices quoted seem to be the full standard fares. I wouldn't say £74.60 for a single from Cardiff to Manchester is exactly a bargain worth shouting about. https://tfwrail.wales/Without looking, if Easyjet were to fly the route I would bet their fare would be £14.99 when my recent Bristol to Glasgow and back trip cost £22.99 to Glasgow and 24:98 back to Bristol which I could pay for out of my savings but if I were to take the train I'd have to have taken out a bank loan.  Enthusiasts...wait for it.... triggered! 🙂 |
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3582
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All across the Great Western territory / Your rights and redress / Re: GWR’s compensation scheme is all delay and no repay
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on: December 12, 2018, 17:59:08
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Is it possible for someone to confirm Mark Hopwood’s email address by PM?
I think I know what it is but just want to confirm.
Thanks in advance.
I shall soon by escalating my claim if Capita don’t get back to me in the next few days. I’d rather not have to do this but the railway messed up so a refund is due.
BTW▸ , like BNM, I too got a survey from them asking how they did. Suffice to say I left them in no doubt I was very unhappy with their response. Not that they didn’t pay out but that the reason for not paying out was totally incorrect.
I believe it's Mark.Hopwood@gwr.com |
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3584
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Rail travel too unreliable to commute to work?
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on: December 10, 2018, 10:49:39
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From RTT» , I see that there are six services from Aberdour to Edinburgh that arrive before 09:00 (plus one that arrives at 09:27!).
I wonder which one she regularly catches, and does she 'insure' her journey by always aiming for an earlier service than one actually required according to the timetable? Even if she were to drive, I am sure that she would aim to arrive some time before the 09:30 opening time.
Surely the point of having a timetable is that it enables you to identify the train you need to catch to be at work on time, not one that's half an hour (or whatever) earlier? Not everyone can work flexibly, and a lot of people have domestic commitments which have to be fulfilled too. Once again in this forum there's indignance and a suggestion that a customer is the author of their own misfortune, where it's quite clearly an issue of the railway not delivering the advertised service. |
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