143 Fun commute today at BTM

[whole diary]

[lj3]

So anyone else have fun on the 0817approx service for Cardiff Central which broke down at Bristol Temple Meads?
Half an hour to replace the clapped out 143 with a nice healthy 158 refurb.

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Then of course there was the broken down HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) refurb at Paddington on Saturday approx 1005 heading for Penzance. Half hour late due to not being able to turn on the electrical systems in Coach H first class. Train fitter scrabbles out of a cupboard, silver box in hand with electrical entrails hanging out of it.

So how do FGW^▸ (First Great Western) handle things when you are claiming rail vouchers upon rail vouchers upon rail vouchers, paying an ever decreasing fee for your travel? Will I eventually end up paying an infinately low train fare of 1p??
Would anyone like to pool their total savings from using rail vouchers and start an open access operator with me?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hi, lj3, welcome to the forum!

Apart from that, I'm sorry but I cannot offer any explanation: I too am a mere passenger suffering similar bizarre experiences, such as the complete and unexplained disappearance of the 0859 from Nailsea and Backwell to Bristol Temple Meads last Thursday!

I can only suggest it's worth sending in those 'comment cards' - I'm up to ^40 in 'ex gratia' vouchers now!

Best wishes, Chris.

[Graz]

Welcome to the forum lj3!

I had a 'fun' trip on Saturday involving a new refurbished 158. I was travelling to an event in Yate but after we left Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) the train juddered badly and pulled into the sidings near the Bristol train wash. Soon after we were notified that the brakes were jammed on and couldn't be released, so they called out an engineer who walked to the train from Bristol TM. 1/2 hour later he fixed the issue but the conductor said the train had to be pronounced 'failed', So we went up to Lawrence Hill and reversed back again to BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)).

I couldn't get the later service as I'd miss the event so I had to call it a day. Big credit to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) though- I received a full refund for my tickets from the travel centre at BTM. No need to claim vouchers for the grand total of ^4.20 this time round!

The man at the office gave me a travel permit paper to get back to Oldfield park but instead I decided to walk back along the Bristol-Bath railway path