Had my first experience of one of the refurbished units on Saturday on a Basingstoke - Reading service. Overall impression was cleaner and brighter but couldn't help noticing that three windows had jammed and the stuffing was already emerging from a number of seat cushions - I hope this hasn't been a rush job done on the cheap otherwise given the use they get they won't be looking good for long....

Everything seems to be more or less running to schedule. Tavelled into Paddington from Reading and nothing around 07.00 was down as more than a couple of minutes late and once you get into West london the snow starts to disappear - there's none at all in central London (yet !) and all the tubes are running

The Worcester train is usually pretty reliable (I get it from Reading) though having said that it was cancelled on the first day of the new timetable ! The main issue I suspect will be that there's rarely more than a few seats left by the time it leaves Reading.

On the 06:58 from reading this morining, we were told that the delays were caused by a failed Heathrow Express blocking the main line and we duly diverted onto the relief for as low trundle to London and passed a stationery EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) at Hayes   

The  paper on the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) website seems to suggest that re-furbished (with air-con added) Thameslink stock will cascade to suburban lines out of Paddington (eventually inner-surbuban will be covered by cross-rail stock) when the Thameslink upgrade is finished and their new stock delivered. It then suggests turbos (expect presumably those still needed for the branch lines) would then be sent on to the Bristol area freeing up further units for transfer North.

I presume this means the FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) Class 319s - which will be geetting on a bit by then and in serious need of an upgrade.

 

As a Reading commuter, I appreciate getting a seat and they are comfortable enough but I just find standard class claustrophobic. When you get on its impossible to see at a glance what seats are free or occupied and if you don't manage to grab a window seat you've effectively no view at all - fine for short distance commutes  but destroying one of the key selling points for longer distance leisure journeys - its seems self-defeating for the railways to effectively compromise one of their key selling points (remember those old BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Inter City adverts).  I've been travelling on Southern and Southeastern Electrostars a lot recently and have been striuck how comfortable and pleasnt to travel in the longer-distance versions are, lots of tables, comfy seats aligned with windows etc - they serve a similar market to the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) - longer distance commuters plus leaisure travellers to the coast - but do a better job of it.     

It was caused by police "storming" atrain to arrest suspected armed robbers, see

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7874676.stm

Personally I prefer the pre refurb coaches - I find the new ones less comfortable and rather claustrophobic. I appreciate that high seat backs are now a safety standard but the rank upon rank of airline seats makes it a) impossible to see whether a seat is occupied when you board the train and b) severely restricts views out of the window (part of the pleasure of train travel). A few more tables would break up the monotony, open up the views and considerably improve things - one only has to look at the GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways)/ NXEC^▸ (National Express East Coast) refurbished mark IIIs which also incoporate high sea backs (though they seem at first glance to have got away with rather shorter ones than FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) to see what can be achieved with a bit of thought and proper design. Its a sad state of affairs when Southern region commuter stock operated by South Eastern, C2C, Southern and SWT^▸ (South West Trains) is now a pleasanter travel experience than inter-city trains on what was once one of Britain's premier main lines. Still, things could be worse, they could be as uncomfortable as standard class in a Virgin pendelino where the seating appears to be a complete afterthought as anyone whos sat next to a blank wall for hours will know !   

Interesting the way this is being spun, read the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) sites you'd almost think FGW were doing this out of the goodness of their heart rather than as a last ditch attempt to save the franchise in response to the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport)-mandated Remedial Plan Notice and Breach Notice for exceeding the threshold on cancellations in the second half of last year and then misreporting the cancellation rate (although FGW claim this was more "cock-up" than "conspiracy" .

Still, that isn't to say that this is welcome news...lets hope Andrew Haines seizes the opportunity to  demonstrate he can deliver what his predecessors have failed to. 

My first post and some good news - Just seen the announcement from Andrew Haines about increased levels of compensation on renewal of season ticket, basically seems to be doubling the statutory reductions for poor performance - a welcome gesture 


http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=578

In all my years of travelling Great Western/First Great Western, I can't recall a year when the 5% discount hasn't applied  - if they ever do achieve satisfactory levels I'm not sure my bank balance will be able to bear it....!