Oldfield Park to Bristol Temple Meads

[whole diary]

[Barney]

Correspondence below sent to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) this morning in despair of the service:
Dear Sir / Madam

I wondered if there was any explanation for the 20 minute delay to the above service?  In addition to this delay, the frustration suffered by everyone waiting at Oldfield Park this morning was compounded by the following things:

^   An Intercity service sped though OIdfield Park with plenty of space available and did not make a stop despite there being c.90 people waiting at Oldfield Pk.
^   A 2 coach service finally arrived at c.08.11 which had people standing already, leaving several people unable to board at Oldfield Pk and Keynsham.
^   The information point at Oldfield Park was not working and has not been for several weeks.
^   The First Great Western line (0845 6002244) currently has information relating to Sunday 13 November!
^   No information was offered on the train as to the reason for the delay or lack of coaches, and no apology offered.

I am sure that the above is self explanatory enough to convey my frustration and anger at the current levels of service, and the prospect of paying more for such a service in January is totally inconceivable.  I want to make it clear that this is NOT an isolated incident and to this end a log of my experience of services offered since the winter timetable change is below:

Date      Incident               
10/12/07   07.51 delayed 16 mins
11/12/07   18.07 delayed 7 mins
12/12/07   Didn^t travel
13/12/07   Didn^t travel
14/12/07   Didn^t travel
17/12/07   18.07 delayed 6 mins
19/12/07   18.07 delayed 8 mins
18/12/07   Service ok
20/12/07   07.51 delayed 20 minutes

This gives a total of 57 minutes delay in under 2 weeks and as you can see several days I didn^t travel so have do not know what level of service was provided on those days.  I do not think that this level of service is acceptable. 

I also feel that the decision to stop intercity services at Keynsham but not at Oldfield Park in the morning peak has been ill conceived and taken without realising how this has further antagonised and alienated the commuters at busy Oldfield Park who now have a longer wait between services in the morning and suffer seeing the intercity service go through without stopping.

I am very disappointed about the service provided by First Great Western and I only wish there was an alternative for me. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing what response you feel is appropriate.  By copy of this email I wish Don Foster MP to note the current service levels experienced.  I have also made this correspondence public via http://www.firstgreatwestern.info.

Regards

[Lee]

Welcome to the forum, Barney.

[shadow]

I also feel that the decision to stop intercity services at Keynsham but not at Oldfield Park in the morning peak has been ill conceived and taken without realising how this has further antagonised and alienated the commuters at busy Oldfield Park who now have a longer wait between services in the morning and suffer seeing the intercity service go through without stopping.

You've hit the nail right on the head there, why stop a High Speed Service at Keynsham but not oldfield park? Even just one could proberbly relieve some of the strain at oldfield park in the mornings

[devon_metro]

It would probably anger the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) folk who dont want local folk on their new trains!

[shadow]

It's silly. If i'm going from bristol to bath spa, i usully get the 17:30 HST^▸ (High Speed Train). If i'm trying to get to Oldfield park, i dont even bother trying to get on the 17:22 to portsmouth habour, due to it usully packed, and depending on how many passengers there are, a couple of times, they get the 17:30 to stop at keynsham and Oldfield Park, it works fine! so where is the logic in not stopping a service in the morning!?

[Lee]

I refer you to this extract from a list of questions put to Andrew Griffiths :

Q) Keynsham Rail summit
From the Keynsham rail summit we were expecting capacity at local stations to be improved by having HST^▸ (High Speed Train) London trains stopping at Oldfield Park, Keynsham & Worle once selective door opening was introduced. Worle has some. Keynsham has 8.09 heading for Bristol with no evening equivalent ! Oldfield Park has none.   

AG) All peak time HSTs call Worle.  Keynsham and Oldfield proved problematic to fit these calls in.  Two 143+143 West services are going over to 150+158 so there will be extra capacity.

Q) Are we approaching another December rail crisis ?
 
AG) No!!.

These questions were posed by an FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) member and kindly forwarded to me. Any errors in English , grammar , punctuation or anything else like it are entirely down to your Global Moderator , working within a limited timeframe........

[Lee]

It's silly. If i'm going from bristol to bath spa, i usully get the 17:30 HST^▸ (High Speed Train). If i'm trying to get to Oldfield park, i dont even bother trying to get on the 17:22 to portsmouth habour, due to it usully packed, and depending on how many passengers there are, a couple of times, they get the 17:30 to stop at keynsham and Oldfield Park, it works fine! so where is the logic in not stopping a service in the morning!?

The link below might interest you, shadow.
http://www.loial.co.uk/fgw.pdf

[devon_metro]

If the 1730 was to stop at Oldfield Park and Keynsham it would have to be retime not to cause problems at Swindon and Reading.

It would probably be 1724 Bristol TM^‡(resolve) - London Padd but this would follow the 1722 far too closely. There *are* reasons why it can't be done. Capacity between Bath and Bristol is very tight

[shadow]

Thanks Lee

I dont mean make the 17:30 a timetabled stop or anything, It's just happened a couple of times to me before the new timetables came into effect.

[Lee]

If the 1730 was to stop at Oldfield Park and Keynsham it would have to be retime not to cause problems at Swindon and Reading.

It would probably be 1724 Bristol TM^‡(resolve) - London Padd but this would follow the 1722 far too closely. There *are* reasons why it can't be done. Capacity between Bath and Bristol is very tight

What if the following was implemented? :

- Remove the stop at Oldfield Park in the 1722 service, thus potentially speeding it up and removing Oldfield Park passengers from an already overcrowded train.

- Retime the 1730 slightly earlier, and include a stop at Oldfield Park on a service which FGW^▸ (First Great Western) say in the leaflet will have "additional capacity."

Would this be feasible pathing-wise?

[shadow]

That sounds good!
But the 1730 comes from weston super mare now i think, so would that put a hicup in that idea?

[Lee]

That sounds good!
But the 1730 comes from weston super mare now i think, so would that put a hicup in that idea?

Arrival time at Bristol Temple Meads is 1729, so yes, you would have to see if you could turn around the 1648 arrival at Weston quicker (20 minutes turnaround time currently) and path the 1708 Weston departure earlier so it arrives in Bristol before the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service does at 1725.

Not easy, granted, but nothing like this ever is.

[devon_metro]

20 minute turnaround is already fairly tight.

[Lee]

20 minute turnaround is already fairly tight.

Agreed. Looking also at whats coming towards Weston in the opposite direction, the best I can suggest is to start the 1708 Weston-London service at 1700, and have it arrive at Temple Meads at 1721 (4 minutes before the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service as opposed to 4 minutes afterwards.)

This would give you a turnaround time at Weston of 12 minutes. I dont know whether that would be feasible or desirable, but I am open to other suggestions.

[devon_metro]

Or alternativly, ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) from SPM^▸ (St Philip's Marsh (Bristol depot)) to Bristol to form the 172x service to London, and have the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) at Weston leave later and call at all of the shacks.