Ruby Murray is ageless, don't get your Alans in a twist.

They waited for them to finish their post match curry too? Now that's what I call customer service! 

Great win for Chiefs too!!!

It's nice to see Dennis the Menace still going strong after all these years. Not sure about his pink trousers though?

May as well be referring to Jeremy Kyle, as he's as likely to have an influence on any such decision as any of the others that have been mentioned! 

Welcome to October! 


Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Slough


Due to a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Slough trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines towards Slough.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 10 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 10:00 01/10.
Customer Advice
Customers from stations with cancelled services between Hayes & Harlington and Langley travelling westbound should travel to Ealing Broadway and change for services to Slough.
Customers travelling westbound to stations between Hayes & Harlington and Slough should travel through to Slough and change for stations to Hayes & Harlington

Danks for the memories.

08:05 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:06 was terminated at Plymouth.
It will no longer call at Totnes, Newton Abbot, Exeter St Davids, Tiverton Parkway, Taunton, Castle Cary, Westbury, Pewsey, Newbury, Reading and London Paddington.
This is due to a person being hit by a train.

Thoughts with all affected;


Cancellations to services between Plymouth and Totnes


Due to a person being hit by a train between Plymouth and Totnes the line is blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 12:00 30/09.

Possibly, but you need to understand what specification they were given to work to first, and consider the alternatives - are GWR willing to (re) invest in an entire Customer Service operation?

For example, if Capita were told that (for example) 90% of replies were expected within 28 days, they may well be working within their contractual tolerances.

In this sort of scenario, they may well have been given standard paras to use by GWR for the majority of their answers.

If Capita aren't doing anything "wrong" contractually, it would probably cost GWR a fortune to extract themselves from the arrangement, or insert variations to allow for stricter KPIs.

If they've been "crap" from Day 1, and are missing all their targets after this length of time, then you have to look at the way they are/the contract is being managed by GWR as well as their performance. In my experience it is often the way the contract has been let and is being managed as much as the performance of the outsourced agency, and that can only really be managed objectively, by comparing their performance against what is set out in the contract.

Capita aren't universally bad, although they do get an awful lot of bad Press.

Sometimes it's as much about looking at the discipline of the parents as well as the badly behaved child?

Swindon Town at home too, cancelling the 1736 won't be appreciated.

"Being aware" of something means nothing. It's action that counts, not "conversations". GWR are 100% accountable for the performance of their suppliers.

They've been like this for well over a year. Almost as soon as the outsourcing took place it collapsed. Any competent organisation who outsources a function to an organisation of the size that GWR use should be all over them to improve their performance - I know because I manage this sort of thing every day.

It could of course be that GWR have set the bar so low with their KPIs (probably on the cheap) for the outsourced supplier that they are performing to specification, either way they are clearly incapable of managing the function to provide anywhere near an acceptable level of customer service.

Comes back to Customer Service culturally being at the bottom of the GWR list I'm afraid.

Great - wonder if they'll have her announcing the signal failures which are knackering the evening peak? 

Agree on all points.

Sarah Ward (I think) was on television this morning describing some of the indignities which she has suffered on the railways with great patience and forbearance

The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) presenters could hardly believe some of the incidents described.

Fundamentally there needs to be a cultural shift on behalf of the railways and some of the outdated attitudes & cynicism towards disabled/assistance issues (unfortunately sometimes displayed within this esteemed forum) before real change will come - that's the real challenge but initiatives like this are a good step forward.

The Locomotion?