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Pages: [1] 2
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Topic: Getting Worse (Read 4145 times)
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Graham Ellis
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Week before last - 10% of Monday to Friday trains cancelled
So far this week - 10% of trains scheduled so far cancelled
I know the numbers are small ... which is why each and every cancellation counts!
Looks like the 2 trains this a.m. did run, but there's chaos on the line instead!
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courgettelawn
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Almost every train I've taken between Salisbury and Soton has been delayed this week. Yesterday the 10.30 from SAL to Southampton Central was delayed due to a fault on the train which was fixed at Bristol TM. However this information was not forthcoming until someone asked the guard on the train. It have even 'disappeared' from the departure board before it arrived!
Have FGW stopped bothering to excuse their delays and cancellations now?
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sumila
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FGW have recently been extremely short of staff. At one point last week there were some 23 shifts uncovered Guards/train managers drivers etc. They seem to have a problem with staff retention - which, I think, roughly translated means their staff are as fed up with FGW as the travelling passenger is.
Give it all back to Network Rail. As one company working together, we would vastly improve on what FGW laughingly describe as a train service.
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Industry Insider
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FGW have recently been extremely short of staff. At one point last week there were some 23 shifts uncovered Guards/train managers drivers etc. They seem to have a problem with staff retention - which, I think, roughly translated means their staff are as fed up with FGW as the travelling passenger is.
Give it all back to Network Rail. As one company working together, we would vastly improve on what FGW laughingly describe as a train service.
Bit of a cock-up last week with Network Rail's overnight engineers possesion between Pangbourne and Tilehurst wasn't there? A planned 05:30 finish turned into roughly 15:00 with only the Up and Down Main lines open up between Didcot and Reading until then and hundreds of delay minutes and enforced cancellations placed upon the TOC's as a result. |
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sumila
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FGW have recently been extremely short of staff. At one point last week there were some 23 shifts uncovered Guards/train managers drivers etc. They seem to have a problem with staff retention - which, I think, roughly translated means their staff are as fed up with FGW as the travelling passenger is.
Give it all back to Network Rail. As one company working together, we would vastly improve on what FGW laughingly describe as a train service.
Bit of a cock-up last week with Network Rail's overnight engineers possesion between Pangbourne and Tilehurst wasn't there? A planned 05:30 finish turned into roughly 15:00 with only the Up and Down Main lines open up between Didcot and Reading until then and hundreds of delay minutes and enforced cancellations placed upon the TOC's as a result. I suspect you must be FGW staff, industry insider. Like them, you seem to be able to turn everything around and blame Network Rail. The point has been missed that FGW were seriously short of staff, and that was the reason for the cancellations. It seems to be the culture of FGW to leap upon the bandwagon during any incident or fault and attempt to dump as many delay minutes and cancellations as it can on Network Rail. There may well, as there usually is, be a very good and valid reason for the possession overrun. The original work may have uncovered some other really important work that required carrying out immediately. It may be that the original work needed longer to complete than planned. This sometimes happens, and as unfortunate as it is, the work when completed safely (and that's the key word 'Safely') and correctly, benifits the travelling public. FGW refuse point blank to ammend services and work with Network Rail when such overruns and other incidents occur. They cause more delay by doing that than we ever will. With two lines open - we were able to offer some type of service. With missing staff, FGW couldn't. Perhaps if FGW were to work with Network Rail rather than fighting reasonable proposals all the time, and thinking about their own profits, a reasonable service with far fewer delays could have been provided. The point I make about One company means a 'Not for Profit' company - just as Network Rail is now. We plough everything back into the business as we do not have to turn a quick buck to satisfy shareholders. We are now putting right the years of, what I suspect, was the cutting back on the infrastructure due to previously having shareholders to satisfy. And I can tell you, that failures are far lower now than when I joined the company during its shareholder days. It works, and I know we are getting there. The same, however, cannot be said of FGW. Me and my colleagues, would dearly like to work alongside FGW in order to provide an efficient, reliable and punctual service. We really would. We are continually frustrated by FGW's attempts at underminning that goal. Unfortunately, FGW appears to have forgotten that the word 'TEAM' is not spelt using the letter 'I'. |
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sumila
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Bit of a cock-up last week with Network Rail's overnight engineers possesion between Pangbourne and Tilehurst wasn't there? A planned 05:30 finish turned into roughly 15:00 with only the Up and Down Main lines open up between Didcot and Reading until then and hundreds of delay minutes and enforced cancellations placed upon the TOC's as a result. Thinking about the above quote. During that week, the Weekly Operating Notice which lists engineering possessions for the Great western Region, had approximately 200 engineering possessions of various types and varying length of times, each varying in complexity. This enforces my earlier point that as many delay minutes are dumped on us for any reason that FGW can come up with. One possession out of nearly 200 overran and it was lept upon - you saw the comments made, above. Looking at this in the positive - that was nearly 200 engineering possessions within time. How many FGW trains in that same week were cancelled/delayed as a result of their own failings - bet it was more than one!!! Here's an interesting exercise. Let's add up all the delay minutes caused by the possesion overrun. Then add up all the delay minutes on the same day caused by the serious staff shortages that caused FGW services to be cancelled/delayed in addition to cancellations/delays caused by their poorly maintained fleet and other FGW failings. Now compare the two figures. Wonder who'd win, or indeed lose, that one? |
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Industry Insider
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I suspect you must be FGW staff, industry insider. Like them, you seem to be able to turn everything around and blame Network Rail. The point has been missed that FGW were seriously short of staff, and that was the reason for the cancellations. It seems to be the culture of FGW to leap upon the bandwagon during any incident or fault and attempt to dump as many delay minutes and cancellations as it can on Network Rail.
Of course I work for FGW, Sumila - that should be evident from my posts. The difference between me and you is that I am able to give a balanced opinion on issues on this forum. My posts on FGW are both positive and negative wheraes you seem to blow the Network Rail trumpet at any given moment at the expense and very easily critisised FGW. The truth of course is that BOTH companies are in deep trouble with customers, stakeholders and regulatory bodies as many of Lee's posts over the last few months have proved. Many of FGW's front line staff are of course fed up with the recent record of the company, but the majority of them (such as myself) continue to take a pride in our job and do our best just like your signallers. I wasn't turning the blame on anyone. I was merely responding to your post on a FGW staffing cock-up (of which there are many) with a similar Network Rail one. The possesion in question was lowering a tiny section of track to give more clearance for freight vehicles under a farm track bridge. The over-run DOUBLED the amount of time that was allowed to complete the work. Badly planned or unfortunate? I'll let everyone draw their own conclutions. |
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Graham Ellis
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In a complex industry with a lot of older equipment (fixed and moving) that hasn't been maintained as full as it shoud have been, with specifications and companies and people changing too, everyone is bound to provide a less than perfect service at some time of other (and if there were so many spare resources lying around that there was always a spare at hand, we would grumble at the cost)
It's refreshing to see somewhat more honest admission of "oops - got that one wrong" when things do go wrong - but of course it's not always easy / obvious for the delayed traveller to know whether a "buck-pass" is genuine or not. Real objective, surely, must be to get the issues dealt with so that they're exceptional, but then to remember that there WILL always be the occasional exception where thing foul up royally!
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courgettelawn
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Does anyone know how often train operators are audited for keeping to their SLC? I just cannot imagine FGW can carry on like they have been. I feel hopeless on their behalf, it seems an impossibility for them to improve according to their current plans. I also fear another new year price hike. Last year on a daily fare it was something like 27%.
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Lee
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Does anyone know how often train operators are audited for keeping to their SLC? Here is an e-mail exchange that I had with Peter West of the DfT in January 2007 on related matters : Dear Mr West , I am writing to ask you take urgent enforcement action to secure First Great Western's compliance with the Greater Western Franchise service specification. As you can see from the link below , FGW are clearly not complying with section F5. http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/fulltime.htmlThe situation is completely unacceptable from a passenger point of view. For example , NO trains at all called at Melksham station on 16/01/2007 OR 17/01/2007. There was no problem with the line , as two expresses were diverted over it. Please could you reply stating what action you propose to take as soon as possible. I have copied in certain Melksham passengers who are just as anxious as I am see this situation resolved. Yours Sincerely Lee Fletcher The reply : Apologies that I have not been able to respond to you sooner. The franchise agreement works a little differently from the way you understand it and there does not appear to have been a breach of it in relation to the Melksham line specifically. However, this does not mean that either we view what has been happening as acceptable and you may be aware of strong statements to this effect by Ministers in Parliament. Equally, FGW have assured us that it has been taking a wide range of steps to bring operations back to proper levels of service. I see from your e-mail of 29 January to Alison Forster that you are aware of the steps which FGW has been taking to restore operation of the services it inherited from Wessex Trains to an acceptable level of reliability. We continue to monitor the situation closely and, as I have said before to you, the sort of information coming up from users is a helpful part of this picture. Regards Peter West Franchise Manager |
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courgettelawn
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In other words there is no political will at all to pull FGW up on their inadequacies. Oh well, we'll just have to keep 'working with them' to report problems. I have just contacted them regarding the high level of cancellations on the Pompey-Cardiff line in recent weeks.
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Graham Ellis
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And so it carries on ...
Last Sunday - the second of the two trains from Westbury was cancelled.
This (Wednesay) morning:
05:29 Gloucester to Westbury has been cancelled. This is due to a train fault.
If the week starts at Sunday, that's at least 2 trains out of 11 gone as I write ... and it could be 3 as yesterday's 07:17 shows up as "no report". 18% or 27% ....
Perhaps it would be a good time to remind our rail operator that cancelling trains on the TransWilts does NOT just mean people are delayed for 30 minutes to the next train. The next train - in the case of this morning's cancellation - doesn't run (or rather isn't scheduled) until over 12 hours later! So it's phone up for a lift, divert the journey if you can, give up and go home, or wait for a bus or taxi to be arranged.
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Industry Insider
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I think the new boss might be in for a less than merry Christmas, as with the new timetable starting next week there are still several HST's to be 'refreshed', several staff to be trained to drive/train manage HST's, and general staff shortages affecting the whole region. Add to that the seasonal disruption caused by hoards of people going away for Xmas and many of the regular commuters still wanting to travel, and I can see it being a bloody time for all until around February when things should start to improve. I hope I'm wrong!
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