Hello!

Hello, I have just joined up as FGWs poor performance also affects me daily and I have heard a lot about the good work being done by this group.
However, unless I am missing something, I have not yet heard or read anything describing the problems that those commuters like myself have travelling from Chippenham to Bath and Bristol.

I have now been commuting from Chippenham to Bristol every day for over 2 years and in that time there have been several fayre hikes (at least 5 or 6) and a reduction in the service provided, to the point that the December timetable changes have really messed up my working day. Does FGW care? unlikely
The problem with Chippenham is that it often gets left out, all we have is a basic service on the London to Bristol trains with no other options, unlike Bath commuters who also have trains travelling to and from Westbury, Southampton etc to catch as well.
Before December The first train Bristol bound was at 7:02am, followed by 7:46am (which in itself was bad enough having three quarters of an hour between trains), but in December the first train became 6:41am!!! I can't get to this train anymore, because I live in Calne and catch the bus to the train station and the first bus of the morning is no longer early enough! and a wait until 7:41am for the second train is unacceptable in my opinion (when I first started commuting 2 years ago we had trains at 6:56am, 7:27am then 7:57am - much better)
So now if I am lucky enough to get a lift to the station, I can catch the 6:41, get into Britol for 7:10 and into work for 7:30am! a bit early really when i was used to starting at 8:00am (at least I work flexi-time, others don't have that luxury) But otherwise I have to catch the 7:41 - when I first had to catch this train I was astounded at the number of people on the platform, the train is consistently overcrowded because a lot of people can't or don't want to make the effort to go earlier. It is ridiculous!
Some fellow commuters have it much worse. There are several people who travel from Chippenham to Filton Abbey Wood, the 7:02 before Christmas used to stop there, but not anymore now that the train has been changed to an old HST instead of the more efficient Adelante service and it now goes all the way to Swansea every morning instead of stopping at Cardiff. These commuters now have to catch a connection from Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood, and if one or other train is delayed in either direction - you can imagine the problems.
Then there are a couple of my friends who work in retail in Bath. They are supposed to start work at 8:00am, the 7:41 gets to Bath too late to be useful (and would put their jobs at risk for lateness), so the effort has to be made to catch the 6:41, therefore arriving at work well before 7:30. Having no flexibility in working hours means that they have to sit and wait around before starting work - it makes a very long day.

These are only a few of the problems suffered by the commuters from Chippenham, problems which weren't really issues before the timetable changes. Why must FGW mess with the timetable when it worked perfectly well before? (wait I'm kidding myself here, the performance was woefully inadequate regarding lateness and cancellations beforehand, but it was just bearable)
Many of us protested at the change of the 7:02 to 6:41 during the consultation process, but it really doesn't seem that FGW care one jot what the paying commuters think.
If it wasn't for the terrible traffic problems in Bristol, I think I would finish learning to drive and take a car to work every day. Well done to the government and their big plans to get people out of their cars and onto public transport!!!

Thanks for putting up with my little rant
Alex