So it was Meet the Manager session this morning. I had a chat with some representatives about a number of issues including void days and left still unclear/fobbed off.
Did anyone else get any useful information?
I got told that
FGW▸ get negative publicity and public criticism if they declare a void day as this is then excluded from their
PPM‡ performance measures which impacts season ticket discounts. I was told they were damned if they do and damned if they don't.
I was also told that in the past that FGW had been too generous in declaring void days, and that they have since made a corporate decision to assess the criteria rather more strictly. The manager wasn't able to explain what these criteria actually are, and agreed with me that these need to be better publicised. Indeed I was told they would pursue this with their web team as a high priority.
On last Friday, she said that disruption did not impact enough of the day to be declared void. The manager I was speaking with didn't know the reasons for the 28th December but they promised they would get back to me with an explanation and took my email.
All in all, whilst I didn't really come away particularly convinced by any of this, I did get the impression that some of my points about the lack of transparency in the way void days are declared was at least heard with a degree of sympathy. They also admitted that this issue had been raised by a number of other people that morning.
If I ever hear anything more I'll let you know.
