FGW does it again

[whole diary]

[simonw]

Yet another day of train chaos due to poor planning.

Every train from Swansea cancelled. New trains added from Cardiff but time shifted by three hours to prevent anyone travelling before 8am. So passengers at BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) had NO service, and passengers at Swindon, DPW and Reading had a disrupted service.

Does anyone else every wonder how FGW^▸ (First Great Western) was able to win the current franchise? Surely the government must of looked at performance record, reliability and management ability before awarding the franchise? Alas, it appears not!

Anyone who thinks it might be Network Rail's fault, just consider if it was wise for FGW to have a contigency plan incase of an engineering overrun.

If the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) had any sense they would terminate this franchise immediately and award it to someone else, and ensure that the current management team of FGW were never allowed to work in the Rail Industry again.

[whistleblower]

So you have two contingency plans, right?  One to cover the expected hand over of the route at the advertised time and another one in case the engineering works overrun.  So you'd have what, two sets of trains and crews in two different places standing by for anything that might happen?

In your job, even if you had the resources, would you be able to justify that sort of expense to your Boss to cover a 'just in case' scenario?  There are hundreds of engineering works going on all over the Country at any given time and virtually all of them finish at the estimated time.  So if you repositioned all your trains for a belt and braces approach then you are not going to cover your other services.  You have to plan for what is expected and do your best to cover if it goes wrong.  That's how life works.

I wish somebody who is obviously so knowledgeable about railways would join the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) management team as your talents are obviously wasted where you are.  It sounds as though you could really make a difference

[simonw]

Thank you for your reply.

I do not expect FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to have twice as many trains as they need to run a service, but I would expect them to be able to run a skeleton service at short notice, especially when part of the main line is shutdown over Easter (Port Talbot).

Overruns are not new, but would it not have been wise to place a couple of trains at Cardiff incase there was a problem, instead of having virtually the whole Wales->London Paddington fleet stranded in Swansea.

Surely Network Rail kept FGW uptodate with developments and FGW could have handled this mornings chaos better?

Finally, the bulk of the passengers for this line in the morning use Bristol Parkway station and they where left without any service, or information for almost 2 hours whilst FGW and Network tried to initiate  a skeleton service.

[grahame]

Simon, it would be nice if there were resources in place to deal with unplanned events, but the way the railway industry is run / financed these days means that such resources would be a luxury and they have been squeezed out of the system - not really First's 'fault' although First did win the franchise on a bid that pays the government an extraordinary amount of money by paring down the fat out of the system  - and not only the fat, but some of the meat that they (First + DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)) didn't want either.

You have only to look at what has been done to the TransWilts line - a ruined service that doesn't meet the intent of the service level specification and doesn't meet the needs of travellers - just to save a single coach.   In that climate, even a spare 2-car train in Cardiff to handle any eventuallities would be pie in the sky.

[simonw]

Thank you for your reply, much appreciated.

My main gripe is not the overrun, or the current skeleton service, but FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s reaction to it.

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6542545.stm it is clear that FGW knew about the problem at Port Talbot on Monday.

However on Tuesday, I and many hundreds of others stood at the platform at Bristol Parkway waiting for trains that where cancelled and delayed, with no information. At least today there is information and skeleton service!

Why can't FGW keep it's customers informed on what is going and when they can expect train?
Why didn't FGW move some trains to Cardiff ahead of these engineering works in case of an overrun?
Why can't FGW move trains from Swansea to the rest of the network using local lines, the main line under supervision?

[Jim]

Why can't FGW^▸ (First Great Western) keep it's customers informed on what is going and when they can expect train?
Why didn't FGW move some trains to Cardiff ahead of these engineering works in case of an overrun?
Why can't FGW move trains from Swansea to the rest of the network using local lines, the main line under supervision?

1. Becuase chances are FGW don;t know what is going on
2. Where would they put them. It would cost paths. How would they get them back to Swansea in time for morning service when the Pway was not sposed to finish (probs) till 0300 ish
3. The only route posiable is via the Heart Of Wales Line, but I belive HST^▸ (High Speed Train);s are not allowed down there

[grahame]

I do have a lot more sympathy with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) over this one than some of the other things that they have done or have caught them out. Realistically, the 125s did get strnaded in Swanse for the duration of the overrun, and so many railways have been ripped up that there's no practical alternative way of getting them out.  As regards re-planning and information, there's a limit as to how many different contingencies canrealistically be thought through.  But, yes, time can be (and it sounds like) might have been lost in planning when the problem was realised on Monday.  As I recall, though, FGW were also trying to beal with horrific overcrowding on other routes that day so were probably fully stretched in the "oops-how do we handle this?" section!

[Lee]

Here are some relevant links.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6547079.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6545951.stm

[simonw]

Hi

My gripe is not with the engineering overrun, but FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s response to it. I accept that root cause is not FGW fault but the contigency plan is. To quote from Gelenda Lamont's letter (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=111)

These trains were in Swansea for the start of service on Tuesday morning as it was our obvious aim to operate a normal service from then on. In addition we had contingency plans in place, in case the Network Rail work over-ran, with buses ready to transport customers on Tuesday morning however it soon became apparent that the over-run would be much longer than Tuesday morning.

Its a shame that the contigency plan did not invlove having ONE train at Cardiff for the bus passengers. In the end, the 0710 from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) was sent to Cardiff and still hadn't left by 08:00.

I was at BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) from waiting from 06:50 to 8:00 with no information.

FGW knew about the overrun on Monday. The could have provided

- information
- buses to BTM/Swindon
- Started the Bristol TM^‡(resolve) trains from Cardiff or BPW

I'm sorry for going on about this, but this is the worst rail disruption I have experienced, and whislt information can't fix the problem, it can give people time to plan options.

 

[grahame]

Simon,

You and I are thinking very similarly, I suspect, but from different angles.  First have pared down parts of their operation  that have resulted in major chaos and misery in the Bristol area.  That's not only in the area of contingency planning (on which at some stage - not sure if it's happened yet - some roles are being centralised in Swindon) but also in terms of numbers of trains, train maintainiance, and numbers of staff.  It's the nature of the operation to look to make as much profit as possible, to keep to the contract they have, to encourage more business with their excellent marketing machine, and to maximise revenue per passenger through the farebox and other sources.  These are great ways to service the holding company and its shareholders.  Contingency planning, having resources in place just in case they need to be used, don't provide such a return and the company makes very careful decisions some of which will impact negatively on the user - in other words, it probably wasn't worthwhile them making too many plans (on Monday) for Tuesday morning and beyond, especially as Network Rail and the maintainiance people will pick up the blame.   

Been there before, I'm afraid ... we're very used to having the TransWilts service cancelled when there's a blockage on the line from Swindon to Cheltenham - cheaper and easier to cancel the whole service than to run the Westbury - Swindon section. Cheapness and easiness seem to take priority over customer service.