FGW Customer Panel - vacancies / minutes (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[Lee]

There are currently vacancies on the Panel in the following areas :

Kemble to Cheltenham Spa area.

Shipton to Hanborough area.

Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol Parkway area.

Details contained in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=98

[12hoursunday]

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=98


There are currently vacancies on the Panel in the following areas:

Kemble to Cheltenham Spa area
Shipton to Hanborough area
Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol Parkway area
If you wish to apply to join the Panel, write about yourself and your travel patterns, as well as outlining any concerns you feel are important in relation to First Great Western and send to:

Customer Panel Applications
C/O Lesley Colman
First Great Western
Milford House
1 Milford Street
Swindon
SN1 1HL

[grahame]

Many thanks for posting that ... although the individual area structure of the panel does a huge dis-service to the Swindon to Westbury service, and some others no doubt, I would encourage anyone who is thoughtfully looking for improvements and a feedback ability / voice in these areas to consider applying. 

[Tim]

I know a conscientous chap who was on the Customer Panel for the Reading area.  He resigned a couple of years ago in disgust over how FGW^▸ (First Great Western) was using him.  As well as being poorly administered (FGW gave his home address out to the public on more than one occassion) he thought that he was being used by FGW to deal with difficult complaints.  On occassions he was sent a copy of a customer complain together with a propsoed reply pre-drafted by FGW.  He felt that this approach undermined his independance and meant that he was doing FGW's job for them.

I don't want to discourage anyone from joiningthe panel but I think anyone on the panel should be careful that they are treated properly by the company

[grahame]

There are some excellent panel members (but you note I say "some" not "all").   

The role is a difficult one and, with the best will in the world, there's likely to be conflicts of interest for anyone who takes it up as constituted.  But I would rather have the panel than NOT have it ...

[willc]

Minutes from last month's meetings of FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s three regional customer panels have been posted on the website as Word documents. See http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=100

Andrew Haines doesn't seem to be on message with DafT about rolling stock. He told the East panel: "This is a big challenge for FGW as increasing rolling stock is not within the power of FGW ^ it is a DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) decision. 1300 vehicles will become available in the next 6 years in England (not including Wales or Scotland) The allocation for FGW is 50 for the LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) area and only 8 for the West. FGW are trying to increase this allocation and quicken the time period for when they will be received, however it is difficult as it means lobbying for something that is outside the contracted agreement."

Expect a DafT spokesman or minister to pop up any moment and tell us it's all a matter for the operators...

Same panel meeting was also told about plans for a mock-up of proposed revamped interior for Turbos:
"Lesley Colman, Customer Liaison Manager FGW (LC^▸ (Level Crossing)) said she was pleased to advise that as a consequence of a members suggestion a mock up of the proposals for the Turbo refresh would be available for customers to view at Reading station. Costing and logistics of this was currently being finalised."

[John R]

There are some interesting snippets of info in these minutes, such as the comment that traffic on the Severn Beach line is up 25% since the new timetable came in to effect. Also confirming the enhancements to Devon and Cornwall branches, including the good news that I hadn't read before that the Looe line will retain its peak summer service all year round, thus effectively restoring the cuts made in Dec 06.

[Chris2]

The First Great Western customer panel minutes for January are now available on the First Great Western website.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Customer%20panel/West%20CP%20meeting%2028.01.09%20minutes%20-%20WEBSITE.doc
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Customer%20panel/Central%20Customer%20Panel%2021%20Jan%2009%20minutes%20-%20WEBSITE.doc
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Customer%20panel/East%20Customer%20Panel%2014%20Jan%2009%20minutes%20-%20WEBSITE.doc

In the East and Central minutes there is a summary of key dates for Crossrail. The West minutes have some details about the Cornish branchlines.

[IanL]

Has anyone else noted the extremely curtailed reporting of customer panel meetings as shown by the minutes on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website, in the past this has been several pages covering the actual discussions and presentations. The latest ones seem to be a special website version that run to much less than a page in total.

[IndustryInsider]

Indeed.  Is there a reason for this change?  Can ChrisB provide us with more detailed minutes?

[Timmer]

Has anyone else noted the extremely curtailed reporting of customer panel meetings as shown by the minutes on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website

Yes I have and its very annoying. Surely proper minutes were taken at both meetings so why not publish them. It is after all a meeting aimed at FGW customers so nothing confidential.

Please FGW can you post some proper minutes from the two recent meetings?

[IanL]

ChrisB,

Did you see this thread?

Ian

[Timmer]

ChrisB

Do Customer Panel members get full minutes from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) or are you now expected to write everything down to report back to your fell customers?

[John R]

Response to an email I sent to the Customer Panel, which you may find of interest.

Thank you for your email. As the First Great Western representative responsible for managing the Customer Panel, I have decided to respond to you on their behalf. I hope you don't mind. I was responsible for the decision to condense the minutes, and therefore I am more than happy to discuss this with you personally.

As you may be aware, the Customer Panel members have all signed confidentiality agreements and a large amount of what is discussed at our meetings is commercially sensitive. The meetings are a tool for the Customer Panel members to bring concerns that have been raised by customers to the attention of our senior managers and for them to discuss with us what changes they feel we can make to improve things. In the time between the meetings, I compile detailed reports of all issues being raised by our CP members and customers. These reports are then discussed in detail by the Chairs of the 2 Panels prior to the meetings, and they select the topics for discussion, which they feel to be the most relevant.

It is of course important that we let customers know that our Panel Members are championing their views and therefore, by providing a summary of what has been discussed, customers can see that their issues are being raised at this level. Although a few customers do like to see the full minutes, I do not feel it is necessary to publish in detail what has been discussed in our meetings. Saying that, it is certainly not the case that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do not take the Panel seriously. On the contrary; we put a lot of effort into making sure the panel runs smoothly, efficiently and that our customers voices are heard.

Although we will no longer be providing the minutes on the website in the same detail as we did previously, the Customer Panel are there for you to talk to. If there is an issue concerning you, or something you have raised and you would like to know if there has been any progress, by all means email the relevant member, who will be more than happy to keep you in the loop. I know that you feel we are not being transparent by providing the full minutes and I can see your point. It is not that we are hiding what we are discussing though - just trying to make the customer panel pages more succinct. I do take your views on board - in the near future, I will be updating the Customer Panel pages and I hope that as part of this, we can provide much more information about our activity.

Thank you again for writing. I have copied in both Customer Panel Chairs to my response, as I am sure they will be keen to hear your views on the matter.

Kind regards


xxxxx
Customer Relations Senior Officer

[JayMac]

So they're not hiding anything, but 'a large amount of what is discussed..... is commercially sensitive'.

Why not just publish the minutes and redact the commercially sensitive bits?