Charles Howeson

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Lee:
From the FGW website :

"Following the resignation of Sir Chay Blyth as Chairman of First Great Western and appointment as Chairman of the First ScotRail advisory board, The board of First Great Western Trains has appointed consumer champion and West Country business leader Charles Howeson, to be its new chairman with effect from midday, today Monday 19 November 2007." (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=567

Quote from Andrew Haines :

^As a well established consumer champion from a high profile business background Charles brings a valuable new insight and approach to First Great Western as we now move from physically consolidating the three former franchises into concentrating on being thoroughly ^customer centric^ in all that we do."

Lee:
Passengers who branded First Great Western's train services the worst in the country are right according to Charles Howeson (link below.)
http://thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133464&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133158&contentPK=19686799&folderPk=78031&pNodeId=133174

Mr Howeson has responded to the damning verdict by saying services in and out of Plymouth would be back on the rails 'as soon as possible'.

Quotes :

Quote

"So I am determined henceforward that FGW treat each and every one of our customers (passengers) just as if they were the company's own shareholders."

"If you don't want to believe me then that is your privilege, but I mean what I say.

"All of us at FGW want to run the very best railway in the country for you, and the climb back to our all having a real pride in what we do at all levels of the company has already started."

Unsurprisingly, not everyone who commented on the article was convinced, so Charles Howeson added a response to them in the comments section :

Quote

Sorry that my explanation does not appear to be satisfying the three of you above, but I am simply telling it as it is. FGW will actually pay the Government ^1.3m for the privilege of running this franchise, and the re-investment that I have referred to (more trains and more crews) is not likely to leave us making the fat profits that you refer to. The point is that we have taken on this job, and we are going to do it and do it well, regardless of the cost to us, and albeit after a slightly slow start and, yes, the Government allocates the railways rolling stock. With the fares pegged and a retrospective compensation arrangement now in place, looking forwards is up to us to get the punctuality right and if I said that we could do it by tomorrow, looking it would not be true - that is why I have said that you will notice a difference by the early summer.

Charles Howeson, FGW HQ

John R:
Maybe someone ought to point out to him that it's a tad more than ^1.3m premium that the franchise is required to pay. 1000 times more maybe?

Chris from Nailsea:
Quote from: Lee Fletcher on January 28, 2008, 14:38:25

Passengers who branded First Great Western's train services the worst in the country are right according to Charles Howeson

" ... that is why I have said that you will notice a difference by the early summer."

Charles Howeson, FGW HQ

There you are, Jim: they've gone from "It'll be better next week" to "It will be better by the spring" to "You will notice a difference by the early summer." Even then, will it be a difference for the better - or a difference for the worse? :-\

Timmer:
Quote from: chris from nailsea on January 29, 2008, 00:14:05

There you are, Jim: they've gone from "It'll be better next week" to "It will be better by the spring" to "You will notice a difference by the early summer." Even then, will it be a difference for the better - or a difference for the worse? :-\

I think I even heard the words 'green shoots appearing' too!

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