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November 30, 2007
A pile of 160 train tickets for tomorrow
I have a stack of 160 (yes one hundred and sixty!) train tickets for tomorrow from Melksham to Swindon and return - 52 adults and 28 children for the Santa trip organised by the Melksham Railway Development Group.
Astonishingly good value ... the tickets came to a total of £168.40 which is less that JUST ONE First Day travelcard from Melksham to London which - according to the web site - would cost you £186.00 for next Monday! Second class (sorry - STANDARD class) the quote is still £126.00.
If eighty people can make the local journey of about half an hour for less than two people are asked to pay for the long distance journey, which takes perhaps 3 times as long, then is it any wonder that passengers on the long distance service feel their being severly overcharged, and the train operator complains that he cannot make money on the local services?
Posted by gje at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2007
First Great Western's Melksham service branded "a disgrace"
I attended a meeting of the Melksham Trust yesterday evening - chaired by the Mayor and attended by a number of movers and shakers. A very interesting presentation by Adam Nardell, the regeneration manager for West Wilts District Council.
It was the mayor - not myself - who brought up the train service, though I was asked to provide an update from the floor. Adam described the current service as "a disgrace", and that was the unanimous view of the meeting - notable than on this topic there was no difference of opinion what so ever.
Posted by gje at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2007
Cancellations, Changes and Crass Christmas
* Two trains cancelled on 9th, one on 13th, and I wonder if we'll see some trains not running again this week.
* The new timetable - publicly - looks nearly standstill, with one slight improivement that we must hale as a step forward at least - the return of a single southbound train on Sunday. The morning train (06:42) going on through to Southampton, and the evening one coming up from there (18:27) is to be applauded too, but half a cheer rather than three cheers as there would be if we had three more round trips
* Away from the published timetable, things don't look good. For saying as there's a Sunday improvement on paper, it's more than taken away by bustitutions for the initial weekends - the new train runs on the very first day of the new timetable from Chippenham only. Then is a bus ....
* Bewteen Christmas and the new year wesee the trains turning around at Chippenham (nice to see it can be done) with a wait of FIFTY FIVE MINUTES for anyone who changes from Swindon. We asked for a 17:30 departure from Swindon; well - we have it. But then it's still not into Melksham until after a quarter past seven. Is someone taking the piss, or what?
* I have three delegates coming up from Salisbury to Melksham for 4 days this week - that's 24 single journeys - and I don't expect that even one single journey will be made by rail. And I have two other vivitord on Wednesday. Last year, they wopuldl have arrived on the lunchtime train but one has already said"bus" and the other "car". What a far cry from the reasonable through service that Wessex trains provided.
Posted by gje at 07:25 PM | Comments (1)
November 10, 2007
Rail user groups do NOT represent rail users?
"How WRONG you are" I thought to myself as one of the attendees at the Rail Future National Conference last Saturday spoke about how hard it is to get young people onto trains ... and how incorrect he was to alledge that the generation after his won't leave the car at home. But looking around the room and seeing it dominated by ranks of older men, I could understand how he might have that impression.
I don't like to just think that someone may be wrong - I prefer to look at the evidence and be rather more thorough than just thinking it - for it could have been that HE was right and I was wrong. So I looked at the evidence of pictures I have taken of passengers as I have travelled around and I even took another picture as we left Ely the next day.
Evidence - to me - that the membership at the RailFuture National Meeting wasn't demographically typical. And that's not limited to just that meeting either - I can point to other meetings I have attended in Bradford-on-Avon and Westbury and Bristol and Taunton ... and tell you that there' too, the demographics seem to differ between Rail Users and Rail User Groups. Which means that the rail user groups don't truely represent the people they perport to. Goodness me - this is strong stuff and a dramatic conclusion indeed.
So - who DOES represent the rail passenger effectively? How about Customer panels? Passenger Focus? Campaign for better transport? Town and parish councils in areas served? Your MP's office? ... or how about "no-one does it properly"? Alas, I have no answer to this!
Interestingly, and embryonically, there are elements under which our forums - at "Save the Train" and the "First Great Western Coffeeshop" do represent passengers quite specifically. After the comments made in Ely, and seeing the different age metrics of the real users and the user groups, I took a quick poll on the "First Great Western" side and came up with the following age brackets:
Up to 20 - 22% of active members
aged 21 to 40 - 48%
aged 41 to 60 - 26%
aged 61 and over - 4%
Which strikes me a being a reasonable mix, age wise at least of the people you'll actually see on the services if you go doen to the station today ...
Posted by gje at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2007
Staffing-go-round - but the campaigners carry on
"What's the next step in your campaign?" asked the lady from the local paper when she called to check up on a [train] story last night. "I'm meeting the Labour Party candidate for the new Chippenham seat in about an hour and 20 minutes" was my reply ... and I suspect that she was expecting a less immediate answer!
I'm getting to feel something of an old hand at this campaigning business - when I started, Wessex Trains were in charge and then First Great Western, headed by Alison Forster, were teh people who run our service. Now First Great Western is headed by Andrew Haines, with John Curley as the route director, and I understand that those appointments are regarded as medium rather than long term. On the political side, Derek Twigg has given way to Tom Harris, and Alistair Darling to Douglas Alexander to Ruth Kelly. Our own constituency boundaries have been redrawn, and from a solidly blue Michael Ancram (who is, however, still our representative in parliament), we're now looking at (in alphabetic order)Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, Duncan Hames and Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds as our prospecitive candidates for the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. Our West Wilts District coucillors were "all change" in May, and the government has decided that the whole district council tier is to be abolished in Wiltshire in the next year or two ... at which point we'll have fresh elections for Wiltshire Council ... with a new set of wards to be contested, doubling the number of representatives.
It can be frustrating! To establish a case / a rapport with one contact / come to understand one organisation, just to have it replace by another. And be back, to a great extent, to ground zero and having to explain, once again, that Melksham is no small village but actually a sizeable town from which people commute to Swindon and really want to work an 8 hour day like the rest of the population ...
I've grown to be a bit of a cynic at times, and I find myself wondering if one of the reasons that First have put in a new management team is to toughen the stance to people who are looking for appropriate standards of service rather that the minimal level that First's customer, the Department for Transport, has requested. Change is an opportunity for the new Andrews and Johns to test the waters previously tested by the Alisons and Glendas, and see if reductions and changes that brought howls of protest still bring those same howls, or can now be quietly eased in with the change.
But along with this cynicism comes a realisation that there's an opportunity at change too. Last weekend up in Ely, I listened to xxxx talk about the successes of the Cotswold and Malvern line group, and to Robert Stripe talk about the Fen line to King's Lynn in East Anglia. Goodness - he's been involved with that group for a long time, but you can see a town with a 57,000 population and a train service that has risen from 5 a day to 23 and that's an object lesson to us all.
New he may be, but I enjoyed talking with Nick last night; like Duncan and Wilfred, he's very much in favour of pushing for the return of an appropriate service, and he is planning to make representations on our behalf. Much appreciated. And it turns out that he's very much a customer of First Great Western, travelling up through Swindon to Didcot where he changes for Oxford on a regular basis. Ah - it's a small world and there are some of the apsects / players who needed little introduction.
Posted by gje at 06:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
30 late, and a bus not a train ....
13:03, Paddington to Bristol
Train Manager accepts our FirstMinute tickets politely. Then tells next people who want to buy weekend first that he won't charge them as he's not sure whether or not the train is going to be calling at Bath. It seems that he was given a verbal message as we left Paddington and it may (or may not) be confirmed at Reading. And he'll let them know straight away.
Knowing a little about the routes and having some concern, I walk up and ask him about Chippenham and apparently the train may not actually be calling at Chippenham either ...
As he goes on down the coach, he doesn't charge some more folks for weekend first - "I'm supposed to, but I never charge children", and then tells the following set of people - also for Bath - of the anticipated problem. "Overrunning engineering works" he says, assuring them the they probably won't have to catch a bus as it'll just be a question of thinning trains out so it'll only mean a wait fo r the next train.
Speaking to the train manager (who had made an announcment saying that tickets marked 'LEI' can ONLY be used on the designated train and not any other servie) in the buffet, he tells me it's likely to be a bus. He assures me that, in contrast to his initial announcement, they WILL be flexible and accept our "this train ONLY" tickets on the bus. "Once the train company starts messing you around, it becomes more flexible ..." He's going to suggest to Bath passengers they stay on to Bristol and get the local train back, and us Chippenham folks will - after all - have a bus onwards.
"Ahead of schedule, so probably awaiting a platform" at 13:36.
13:45 - announcement from train manager. The train is being diverted after Swindon due to an overrun of engineering works and will not call at Chippenham or Bath Spa. Passengers for Bath have a choice - they may stay on the train which arrived in Bristol at 3 O'clock and get the 10 past 3 back to Bath, or transfer to a road coach at Swindon. Passengers for Chippenham have no choice - you have to change on to the road coach at Swindon. ("Sorry about this - I don't like road coach travel myself ....").
14:15 arrival into Swindon. Of course the barrier wouldn't take our gate pass, nor that of many others who were unexpectedly decanting there, and there were a couple of FGW staff running back and forth like blue arsed flies checking tickets and trying to get all the people who the gates were rejecting through and sorted out. ((Is it just me, or do others feel a sort of finger being pointed at them when the automatic gate refuses to let them through, even though they're travelling on a valid ticket?))
Bus left a few minutes later (no long wait - well done FGW) and we were in Chippenham a minute of two after 3 - only 30 minutes late.
Posted by gje at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2007
Campaigning Mantra - Philosophy behind the case
I'm talking at the Rail Users National Conference on Saturday and part of my presentation relates to our philosophy here at "Save the Train". I have tried to quantify some of it in a campaigning Mantra ...
On knowing the case
* Have a superb case, but understand and admit any weaknesses
* Listen to and respect the experts
* Understand the case
* Understand statistics
* Answer all questions - an open debate
* Sound Bites
On working with people
* Right letter to right person
* Work with other groups
* Keep everyone on side
* Push on open doors not closed one
* Avoid Party politics
* Make your self easily available
* Respect Privacy
On reaching the right place
* Be pracical and flexible within your objectives
* Work within the system and don't try to change the system
* Look for new ways of doing things
* Be Persistant
* Beware campaign fatigue
* Positively celebrate small victories and honesty
* Not just Melksham
Some things to avoid
* Don't ask for too much
* Don't exadurate
* Don't knock other campaigns
* Don't be afraid to say "no"
* Don't be a Luddite
* Don't try to fix it for everyone
* Don't tell a railwayman how to plan or run a railway
* Don't be an anorak
* Don't waste people's time
And finally
* Always have a "where now"
"Where NOW?" Have a look at the full presentation at http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/national/
Posted by gje at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)