MPs Call For FGW To Be Renationalised

[whole diary]

[vacman]

Well there should be more than one weekday service from Newquay in the summer! Anyway, I think we're going to be told off for going off topic in this thread! 

[Lee]

Well there should be more than one weekday service from Newquay in the summer! Anyway, I think we're going to be told off for going off topic in this thread! 

I can split the topic if you wish.

[vacman]

Well there should be more than one weekday service from Newquay in the summer! Anyway, I think we're going to be told off for going off topic in this thread! 

I can split the topic if you wish.

Don't matter, one last thing on the subject of Newquay, look at this photo taken in the 80's, note there are THREE platforms. http://briandaniels.fotopic.net/p25635435.html

[oooooo]

Back on topic does anyone actually know what triggered the government to strip Connex of their South Eastern franchise?? Were they actually worse than FGW^▸ (First Great Western)??

[Lee]

Back on topic does anyone actually know what triggered the government to strip Connex of their South Eastern franchise?? Were they actually worse than FGW^▸ (First Great Western)??

Some very bizarre things happened in Connex South Central land, and you can read about them in the link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/988175.stm

Looking for comparisons with FGW? The following quotes may or may not be relevant :

"Yet again another cancelled train," wrote one disgruntled commuter last summer.

"No explanation and no announcement. The following two trains were then too overcrowded to get on. Third train lucky and 35 minutes late for work.

"Will Connex pay my employer for lost work time? They should do."

Last year, the company was fined ^1.2m for running trains with too few carriages on its South Central and South Eastern services.

Regarding Connex South Eastern, the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about)'s decision was explained as follows (link below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3024804.stm

But the SRA said it was the overall financial management of the franchise, rather than its "operational competence", which was causing concern.

The SRA gave Connex ^58m of public money last December to keep the company running, on the proviso that it improved its financial performance.

But the operator recently requested another ^200m in subsidy.

"This is not a question of the operational competence of Connex, but there has been a serious loss of confidence that we have in the ability of the company to run the business in its widest sense," SRA chairman Richard Bowker told the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page).

"We set Connex some very serious and very tough targets last year. They have not met those and we decided to take some very firm and decisive action."

[Shazz]

So effectively, they went bust?

[Lee]

So effectively, they went bust?

It was more the case that the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) felt that Connex were taking the mickey with their extra ^200 million subsidy request.

[Shazz]

So effectively, they went bust?

It was more the case that the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) felt that Connex were taking the mickey with their extra ^200 million subsidy request.

ah, fair enough then

[Lee]

Connex still operates public transport (including train) services, trading as Veolia Transportation, in many countries (link below.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veolia_Transport

[Timmer]

Its probably worth mentioning at this point that Portsmouth-Cardiff services were 3-coach under Wessex but now 2-coach under FGW^▸ (First Great Western).......

I would like to see somebody justify that one.

Very true! West of Plymouth has been quite lucky really with regards to capacity, the Cardiff Portsmouth situation is a joke!

In case any of you hadn't noticed, Lee and I are pretty hot on this one as are others who use the Cardiff-Portsmouth line.

[vacman]

Its probably worth mentioning at this point that Portsmouth-Cardiff services were 3-coach under Wessex but now 2-coach under FGW^▸ (First Great Western).......

I would like to see somebody justify that one.

Very true! West of Plymouth has been quite lucky really with regards to capacity, the Cardiff Portsmouth situation is a joke!

In case any of you hadn't noticed, Lee and I are pretty hot on this one as are others who use the Cardiff-Portsmouth line.

Was it the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) who thought that it was acceptable to run 2 car trains on the Cardiff-Pompey?

[Lee]

Its probably worth mentioning at this point that Portsmouth-Cardiff services were 3-coach under Wessex but now 2-coach under FGW^▸ (First Great Western).......

I would like to see somebody justify that one.

Very true! West of Plymouth has been quite lucky really with regards to capacity, the Cardiff Portsmouth situation is a joke!

In case any of you hadn't noticed, Lee and I are pretty hot on this one as are others who use the Cardiff-Portsmouth line.

Was it the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) who thought that it was acceptable to run 2 car trains on the Cardiff-Pompey?

The fairest way of putting it would be that it was part-DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) (or SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) to be exact) and part-FGW.

Jacobs Consultancy questioned the business case for 3 coaches on Portsmouth-Cardiff services in their reports for the SRA, which means that you could argue that the cut was "strongly hinted" to First as being a "good idea." It would be a fair assumption that First read the Jacobs reports, and, coincidentally, their author used to work for Great Western Trains.

Not only that, First Group's head of strategy for their re-franchising bid was recruited by the DfT to supervise the bid acceptance procedure while the process was still underway, while the former head of franchise design at the SRA was recruited by First Group to direct their bid strategy.

FGW not only included the cut in their bid, but felt that it was entirely justified. See quotes below :

But at the end of the day FGW only have themselves to blame for all this by saying to DaFT^» (Department for Transport - critical sounding abbreviation I discourage - about) at the franchise tendering process that they could do without 10/12/14 or however many 158 units have now left the franchise. Why didn't they check the passenger loadings that were happening under the Wessex franchise? They didnt make some of their fleet of 158s three cars for no reason.

Quote from Andrew Griffiths (11 September 2006 , page 3 of the link below.)
http://www.wellho.net/wccfoi/wccfgw1b.pdf

Please find attached (for internal use only please, as it is only draft) an indication of the number of coaches on
each of the FGW West services from December 2006. The revision shows the impact that having two extra
2-coach cl.158 sets and splitting two 3-coach cl.158s into three 2-coach sets has had. The main benefits are
not only capacity on key services but also performance (avoidance of cancellations, standbys at strategic
locations, fleet cycling etc). This plan is based on a detailed comparison of current loadings mapped onto the
new service pattern - and is a vast improvement on what was originally proposed. There will still be some
very busy trains, but I am pressing for better use of the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) in the evening peak on Bristol - Weston from
May. From December 2007 the aim is to also to use them to call at Worle, Keynsham and Oldfield Park in the
peaks, and the prospects for Turbo use are potentially more extensive than I had originally hoped.
Thankyou for your patience, and all your suggestions for service changes, which I have collated and am
proposing for implementation from May if possible. For December my aspiration is for a much improved
clockface pattern of departures from Bristol - I will keep you posted on progress!

[smokey]

Its probably worth mentioning at this point that Portsmouth-Cardiff services were 3-coach under Wessex but now 2-coach under FGW^▸ (First Great Western).......

I would like to see somebody justify that one.

Very true! West of Plymouth has been quite lucky really with regards to capacity, the Cardiff Portsmouth situation is a joke!

In case any of you hadn't noticed, Lee and I are pretty hot on this one as are others who use the Cardiff-Portsmouth line.

Was it the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) who thought that it was acceptable to run 2 car trains on the Cardiff-Pompey?

And as Vacman has noted elsewhere, the old Wessex Penzance-Portsmouth that was a class 158 2 car unit is now an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (8 carriages) and is carrying a lot more passengers.
Likewise I expect FGW have lost loads of passengers (and hence  money) replacing 3 car units with 2 car units on the Cardiff-Portsmouth

[Shazz]

Its probably worth mentioning at this point that Portsmouth-Cardiff services were 3-coach under Wessex but now 2-coach under FGW^▸ (First Great Western).......

I would like to see somebody justify that one.

Very true! West of Plymouth has been quite lucky really with regards to capacity, the Cardiff Portsmouth situation is a joke!

In case any of you hadn't noticed, Lee and I are pretty hot on this one as are others who use the Cardiff-Portsmouth line.

Was it the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) who thought that it was acceptable to run 2 car trains on the Cardiff-Pompey?

And as Vacman has noted elsewhere, the old Wessex Penzance-Portsmouth that was a class 158 2 car unit is now an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (8 carriages) and is carrying a lot more passengers.
Likewise I expect FGW have lost loads of passengers (and hence  money) replacing 3 car units with 2 car units on the Cardiff-Portsmouth

Since when has penzance > portsmouth been HST's? i could be wrong but i didnt think hst's were cleared to go down that far?

[devon_metro]

It used to be a 2 car 158 and was replaced as far as Plymouth by an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) which used to start at Plymouth.

During summer the Portsmouth service was often 3 car and still busy.