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martyjon
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« Reply #25 on: August 11, 2007, 09:59:08 » |
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I have the sneaky feeling that FGW▸ DID» NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN in the first place.
1. No advertising of the service until 48 hours before it was due to start.
2. Using and depositing a 3 car 158 at Weymouth to lanquish all day there from the 0804 service from Bristol on the first day of operation of the T&T 67's service and thus provide a 5-car unit combo on the 1721 ex Weymouth to Bristol up service.
3. On the first day of operation directing all passengers arriving at Weymouth for a service to Bristol to the 1721 service for which the inbound unit to mate up with the 158 which had enjoyed a lazy day sat in the sunshine in Weymouth's platform 1 was known to be 20 minutes late. When the unit did arrive, the T&T 67's left first, on time and thus picked up the passengers en route who were waiting for the delayed 1721 service. This, the 1721 service, was then declared, so I was informed by the TM‡ on the T&T 67s the last time it ran, a failure at Weymouth.
The cause of the abrupt halting of this service has been reported as a safety case issue, FGW has no safety case for operating 67's.
FGW ARE NOT operating this service, EWS▸ are operating the service under contract to FGW and surely THEY have a safety case for the 67's, after all they move HMQ and all and sundry around the nation in her personal rolling stock.
If the safety case issue involves the use of 6 coaches on this service which is too long for some of the platforms served, surely all stations served can command grandfather rights as none of the stations served are of recent build. If this happened to be the reason then why not simply reduce the length of the train to 4 carriages, but that is probably a tad too simple for FGW.
And what about the passengers who have booked tickets on this service and have or are now affected by this fiasco.
If I were a passenger with a booked ticket on this service and was shunted onto a coach, I would certainly be looking for a full refund. If I WANTED to travel by coach I would have booked on National Express and would probably have paid much less for a family to travel than by this Farcical Company.
I travelled on this service on the first day of operation, I also travelled on the service the last and as it now transpires the final occasion it operated. I reported my observations on coffee shop on the first day of operation, now for the last occasion.
The service ran pretty well much to time down to Weymouth and I did a rough count of passengers disgorged at Weymouth, about 180, about half full.
On the return service, if I recall, we were a few minutes late off of Weymouth but pretty well kept to the point to point running times. We had to wait at Yeovil Pen Mill for the down service, and consequently were a few more minutes down from there with an arrival at BTM▸ about 10 minutes behind schedule, It didn't really matter to me as it was such a pleasant journey.
A rough count of passengers on the train between Weymouth and Dorchester West was 130.
As FGW have completely loused up this operation, I will report an incident that happened on the return journey on the 28th July as a result of this louse up.
A woman accompanied by four teenage girls boarded the train at Weymouth and found the train manager who was sat behind and on the opposite side of the aisle to me. She requested that the train be stopped at Yetminster. The train manager was flummuxed. We dont stop at Yetminster he replied. Oh yes you do replied the woman, there it is in the timetable, x stops on request. Ah replied the TM and looked at this timetable which was the printed HEART OF WESSEX partnership line published pamplet. I waded in at this point with my copy of the official FGW Timetable and pointed this out to him that this was also the notes in the offical timetable. Ah noted the TM both these timetables quote the Weymouth departure as 1749, BUT there is not a 1749 departure, we are the 1747 departure, you should have caught the 1721 departure my dear. I pointed out to the TM that there in no 1721 in either timetable. The EWS TM then contacted FGW control and explained the situation who as one would suspect, knew nothing of this cock-up and agreed to the train calling at Yetminster, but the driver had a different idea, NO, the train was too long for the platform, not withstanding that it was also too long for at least one other platform served by the service, Bradford-on-Avon.
The solution for this party was therefore to stay on the train until Yeovil Pen Mill and return to Yetminster on the down service which we would pass there, and which would be held for them.
I have since 28/07/2007 obtained a copy of the credit card size line timetable (E8) which also DOES NOT include the 1721 Saturdays Weymouth - Bristol service but a 1749 Weymouth - Bristol with request stops as per the pocket timetable E at Chetnole, Yetminster and Thornford, and also scheduled stops at Oldfield Park and Keynsham which the T&T 67's did not stop at.
An amusing incident happened on the morning journey to Weymouth. A middle aged couple from Gloucester, the flooded city decided they would get away from it for the day and decide to have an awayday to Weymouth. Well about two minutes before the train left the man of this couple decide he wanted a morning newspaper and left the train. As we started moving his wife exclaimed where is he as we passed him just coming back through the barriers at BTM. Mobile phone contact was established between the two and I told her to stay on the train to Weymouth and tell her husband she would wait on the platform there for him as the next train to Weymouth left BTM at 0904. FGW front line staff at BTM had another idea however, get the next fast train to Taunton and connect there for a train to Castle Cary which would arrive there, Castle Cary, nine minutes before the Weymouth service, and wonders of wonders it so transpired and a romantic reunion took place. However the wifes travails were not over, at Westbury a RPI▸ boarded and when asked for her ticket the woman had to explain the situation and that the ladies husband HAD the tickets in HIS pocket. With a look of, well I've heard some stories of why passengers havent got a ticket but this one takes the biscuit, on the face of the female RPI I interceeded and said I would vouch for the ladies story as did another passenger and the RPI retreated. It later transpired that the man relied upon his mobile phones clock for the time and therefore he decided he had time to get off the train at BTM and get a newspaper, the trouble was his mobile phone was 10 minutes slow, he-he.
AS an aside to this aborted service operation, I was informed at least two months before this operation commenced that IT WOULD HAPPEN. The original intention, from the information given to me, was that it would operate Mondays - Saturdays. This would release resources, FGW crew and rolling stock, to be used elsewhere in the peak summer holiday period. The operation would use crews from St. Blazey in Cornwall who already signed the route from Bristol to Castle Cary but would require to learn the road from Castle Cary to Weymouth and also attend and pass a short safety course on working on third rail electfied lines. As it was eventually decided not to run Mondays to Fridays but Saturdays only this arrangement would have proved not cost effective so Bristol/Westbury crews were used for what has now transired to be such a short period of operation although the TM was, again from memory, from Hertfordshire and had recently been acting as a TM on the special services provided for the Golf Open Championship in Scotland, and was booked to do all the trips involving this service and does these duties on an ad hoc basis for EWS being a retired ex-employee.
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