« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
February 24, 2007
Passengers or Customers?
Traditional railmen describe train users as "passengers" and I've seen them be very unhapy indeed with talks / documents that describe them as customers. Surely it's just a word isn't is? Does it matter which word is used?
There is a - slight - technical difference between the terms. A customer is someone with whom there is a contract, so that a passenger who's travelling without a ticket and has no intention of paying is not a customer, and someone who buys a plaform ticket is, convesley, a customer but not a passenger. But this is fine tuning of the definitions.
Yes, it can matter. It can show a psyche - an attitude and a state of mind.
When I was on the local railway last (on Wednesday), I was both a customer and a passenger.
Three out of the four people I spoke with who were on railway business during the course of my 2-train journey spoke to me as a customer. They were polite, helpful, in one case chatty, and they made me glad that I chose the train. I regret that the fourth person made it very clear to me that he didn't want to be helpful. I was very obviously a nuisance to him, and he would have much preferred it if there had been an emtpy seat when I sat. IMHO, the cost of the smart new uniform he was wearing (he was the best presented of tht four) would have been better invested in giving him a short lesson in customer relations.
I like being a customer, and treated as such. But there's a minority - a sizable minority at times - of staff who treat the railway travellers in their care as, first and foremost, passengers. See this forum link.
If not my place to tell First what to do, but sometimes I feel I can offer constructive advise. They do have problems in certain areas with a high proportion of travellers without tickets, or so they say (has anyone seen an estimate of what proportion of journeys are made without the due payment?). And my constructive advise to them here is to identify their staff who don't understand how they should look after their customers, and train them better along those lines - reminding staff that the vast majority are paying, law adibing, people who pay their wages and want a pleasant experience. If they can't identify the staff in questions, then make sure EVERYONE knows.
Then, perhaps, we'll have a gentler approach to to problems caused by operational difficulties such as that reported at Reading, and no need to post up such stories on these boards for all to see.
Posted by gje at 07:08 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2007
IMPROVED PUBLIC TRANSPORT LINKS ACROSS WILTSHIRE?
A draft timetable for a regular train service from Swindon to Westbury, with onward connections to Salisbury, Frome, etc is presently under consideration. A meeting to show community support and discuss how best that support can be harnessed to gain and retain an effective service will be held as follows:
Venue - Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
Date - 5th March 2007, at 19:30 (coffee from 19:00)
The "TransWilts" line, currently operated with a skeleton service, links the five largest towns in Wiltshire (Swindon, Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Melksham) and also Warminster, Westbury, Frome and Dilton Marsh. We have a real opportunity for a practical service for the benefit of travellers and businesses in the wider area - whether your journey is from Trowbridge to Swindon, Chippenham to Salisbury, Melksham to Warminster, or Frome to Swindon, the new service will make it practical for you to leave your car at home and let the train take the strain.
Please come along is you can. Or if you can't, let us know of your interest and support.
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/community.html?printer=1&fill=coc
Meeting is open to individuals and organisation representatives. The train operator and county council will be represented at senior levels, and the Department for Transport are taking a keen interest and have asked me to report back, direct, after the meeting; they are considering the possibility of a "community rail" service.
Graham Ellis
Well House Consultants, 404 The Spa, Melksham, Wilts
http://www.wellho.net graham@wellho.net
+44 (0) 1225 708225 (phone) +44 (0) 1225 707126 (fax)
Posted by gje at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2007
Invite letter - 5th March 2007 meeting
We're holding what could turn out to be a turning point meeting on 5th March, at 19:30. Here's the invite letter and YOU, dear reader, are invited as an interested party. Please let me know (I need to have a rough idea of numbers)
Dear [name],
I am writing to invite you to attend a meeting on the evening of Monday, 5th March to focus community support onto the "TransWilts" railway line that links Swindon, via Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury. Formal invites are going out to many organiations involved, but additionally I'm inviting current, past,and potential future users and other interested parties too - this meeting and stong support COULD MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE.
The use of train service linking these towns - including the five largest towns in Wiltshire - grew dramatically up to last December; growth rates of between 8% and 35% per annum are quoted for the five years up to that point, and a service that was very quiet five years ago had become pretty busy by last autumn. But the service was cut back in December to just two trains a day, running at times that are inappropriate for the main traffic flows. The reasons given are poor economic value, but arguments from various parties to the decision were based on older (so lower) usage figures, and consultant's reports that assumed a growth rate of just 0.8% per annum.
I have various indications that the service provision is now being reconsidered much more throughly and constructively, with what I believe to be a better chance than at any point previously of us securing an appropriate service to meet customer needs. But we're still not out of the woods - we need a community push to ensure that the optimism isn't stillborn, and that a service - when provided - is well advertised and supported by the community. With the Regional Spatial Strategy proposing a high growth rate all the way from Swindon to West Wiltshire, increasing conjestion on the A350 and other roads in the area, and strong traffic flows between the towns in the county, a two hourly service starting later this year makes sense.
The meeting will start at 19:30 (arrive earlier for coffee) at Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY on Monday, 5th March. If you are unable to attend personally, please nominate an appropriate council member or officer to attend in your place. You are also welcome to pass this on to other parties and invitethem to attend on a less formal basis.
So that I can plan the meeting, I WOULD like some idea of numbers - it would be much appreciatiated if you can RSVP.
I look forward to seeing you at the start of next month
Graham
Graham Ellis
"Save the Train" - http://www.savethetrain.org.uk
Campaigning for the return and retention of an appropriate TransWilts service
404, The Spa, Melksham, SN12 6QL
01225 708225
graham@wellho.net
===========================================================
"Save the Train" - TransWilts Train service between the major
population centres of Wiltshire.
5th March 2007, at Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY.
19:00 (tea and coffee) for 19:30. We will meet attendees off the 19:08 train at Melksham, and ensure that everyone gets home afterwards.
Draft Agenda:
1. Welcome
2. Where are we now?
3. How can we get an appropriate service returned?
(If we get good news later this month, we may be able to skip)
4. Community support to build, sell and retain the new service.
What do we need to do?
5. Action plan - who, how, mechanisms.
6. Conclusion
It is anticipated that the meeting will close at around 21:30.
======================
This is a special meeting organised by "Save the Train". We have been campaiging for an appropriate train service for West Wiltshire to Swindon, and from Swindon and Chippenham to Trowbridge, Warminster and Salisbury, for 18 months.
A petition to the Prime Minister, which has just closed, drew nearly 1700 signatures including 8 Members of Parliament, 5 MEPs and many councillors, and became the top domestic public transport petition on the PM's web site (8th out of over 400 on transportation and infrasturcture). That's very respectable for a locally based petiton with no formal organisation that ran for just three weeks.
The petition and the wider campaign has received good press exposure - a half page in the Sunday Express, a shorter piece in the Daily Telegraph, and an article in the Metro which actually reprinted the current minimalist timetable. An item on HTV West showed just how poor by comparison the bus alternative is from Melksham to Swindon, with me taking well over an hour to make a journey that would have taken less than 30 minutes by train, and pieces on "You and Yours" and "Westminster Hour" on Radio 4 should be noted. And those appearances are in addition to enormous local support from newspapers and radio stations in the area.
At Westminster, Ann Snelgrove, James Gray, Michael Ancram and Andrew Murrison - that's all the MPs for the Swindon - Westbury section - stood up and spoke in favour of an appropriate service during a debate, and Robert Key and Sandra Gidley, MPs for the extension to Salisbury and on to Romsey, have also signed up.
We have received overwhelming encouragement from other organisations at a local and regional level, and we now hear reports of much more serious discussions involving the Department for Transport and the First Group amongst others. Communications from both organisations within the last few days indicate a door that is pushed far more open to our proposals that at any time previously, with serious attention being given to both the financing and the timetabling of the new service. And these are THE two key players.
=================================
Who are "Save the Train"?
An Internet / Web Site based group who use (or used) the TransWilts train service, or would use it if appropriate services were provided. Formed in August 2005 by Graham Ellis as a result of seeing the threat to the service that he used in a letter in the local Newspaper, the web site and campaign has grown from strength to strength.
Main site: http://www.savethetrain.org.uk
Forum: http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php
We also run: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/
Graham's own site: http://www.grahamellis.co.uk/
Business site (training courses): http://www.wellho.net
Business site (hotel): http://www.wellhousemanor.co.uk
We work well with other local groups such as the West Wilts Rail User group and the Melksham Rail Developemnt Group, and we are members of TravelWatch South West (formerly SWPTUF) and Railfocus. And although we're very much an active and campaigning group, our whole philosophy is to work with the service providers for the benefit of both passengers and operators.
Graham Ellis
Well House Consultants, 404 The Spa, Melksham, Wilts
http://www.wellho.net graham@wellho.net
+44 (0) 1225 708225 (phone) +44 (0) 1225 707126 (fax)
Posted by gje at 06:17 AM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2007
Save the Train v More Train, Less Strain
I'm posting up this comparison ... written in answer to an email this morning ... to help people differenetiate between the two groups
"Save the Train" was started around 18 months ago (August 2005) with the main goal of providing an appropriate train service from Swindon to Westbury and beyond after December 2006, when it was threatened with reduction by over 60%, in spite of dramatically growing usage. Although we had the support of hundreds of people who actively signed up, and produced evidence of ongoing growth that would have continued had the service done so, it was cut back last December. Worse than that, the 2 remaining trains are now timed such that they don't appear to meet the most important customer needs. The 06:19 leaves Swindon (largest town in Wiltshire) almost empty for Chippenham (4th largest), Melksham (5th), Trowbridge (3rd), Westbury, Warminster and Salisbury (2nd largest). The 18:42 leaves long after the regular commuters from Swindon to these places have left by other means - primarily by private car. The Train Operating Company hasn't provided me with any information as to the potential market they see for these new timings, but that have pointed to the need to re-use the same train on other lines to provide peak services there.
"More Train, Less Strain" was formed as a response to the December 2006 cuts in frequency and length of train services from Frome, Trowbridge, Bath and intermediate stations into Bristol, and the unreliability of the remaining services. The changes effect a large number of people and the highly publicised "fare strike" organised by the group appeared to win some respite - although it's very much 10 steps backwards and just 1 forward (a few carriages added back in where many were removed) and questions are being asked as to how permanent, or otherwise, the step forward will prove to be.
I am a resident of Melksham, Wiltshire, served ONLY by the Swindon to Westbury service which we have called the "TransWilts"; I host the "Save the Train" website at http://www.savethetrain.org.uk and I started the recent petition to the Prime Minister at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/wessextrains/ which gathered 1690 signatures in 3 weeks, making it number 8 out of 402 petitions on transportation and infrastructure.
The key players in "More Train, Less Strain" are Simon Carpenter of Frome, Tony Ambrose and Peter Andrews. Their web site is at http://www.moretrainlessstrain.co.uk . Since this is a new group that "Save the Train", their web visibility is not as high and searches via Google on their name currently rank "Save the Train" higher.
I've met with Tony and Peter, and we're in agreement that our groups need to liaise (at the least) as we're both looking for appropriate / decent services using the same pool of trains, with the same operator and regulation system involved. However, the distortions of the current timetable mean we have very different situations currently on the ground, with overcrowded peak hour trains on Peter and Tony's line, and no peak trains at all (passengers now on the road) on the TransWilts.
Simon, Tony and Peter are your best contacts for the future direction of "MTLS", but I can tell you something of the future plans for "Save The Train".
At "Save the Train", we are very much in touch with all the key players and looking to work with them to sort out the current situation which, frankly, does no-one any good. It's pretty pointless running an empty pre-dawn train ... which is empty because anyone who wanted to use it for their daily commute wouldn't have an appropriate return service 8 hours or so later. So we're working with First (who have been looking at the possibility of timetabling a round trip every 2 hours), the Department for Transport (from whom I've received an email overnight suggesting we might like to look at a community rail service initiative), our MPs (supporting all along the line - right across Wiltshire), county, district and town councils, other rail user groups, rail trades unions and staff, etc. We could well be at a "cusp" - though it's hard to tell - where we CAN continue the push to an appropriate service and get that running before the end of the year.
Even before I heard from the DfT, I was planning to call a co-ordination meeting in 4 weeks time and invite all the key players to look at the railway service and its provision from the community's viewpoint - to look at not only providing but also sustaining the service henceforth. That meeting is scheduled for 5th March, in Melksham.
The "Save the Train" website has continued to monitor services and developments, and grow. We have had a number of requests for forums in which services on other FGW lines can be discussed by the franchise's customers, and we are now also hosting the http://www.firstgreatwestern.info site for that purpose. There is merit in co-ordination. We are very much aware that the stengthening of one servicve could lead to the reduction or abandonment of another - indeed, the 06:47 Frome to Bristol grew to 4 coaches in a blaze of publicity, in week that the 06:44 from Melksham was cancelled more often than it ran.
Posted by gje at 06:50 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2007
End game?
A mad, mad week ... the petiton which I started a fornight ago has reached the top 10 out of 380 transport petitions to the Prime Minister, and I'm finding I don't have enough hours in the day for all activities I wish to persue.
At the same time, though, I feel we're getting somewhere; perhaps an "end game" where First, the DfT and Wiltshire are playing off, brinkmanship, against each other. I hope - i dearly hope, that they don't play the game, roll the dice and loose ... like they lost , for last year, for the rail passenger.
Posted by gje at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)