Troubled Start to new Timetable

[madhattie]

From the Bristol Evening Post

Passengers complained of delayed and overcrowded trains on the first day of First Great Western's new timetable.Customers travelling to Temple Meads station in this morning's rush hour said the new timetable did not appear to have improved services.

Many trains heading into the city, including services from London Paddington, Exeter St David's and Weymouth, were delayed by more than 15 minutes and train carriages were packed.

Tony Ambrose, of customer action group More Trains Less Strain, said if trains ran on time, passengers might be slightly better served by the new timetable.

But he said: "It's only any good if they come on time. We hoped First Great Western would have tried harder.

"My train from Bath was 18 minutes late and had people standing in the lobbies and the doorways. It's day one and it's an awful service, which customers will have to pay even more for from January 1.

"We want the franchise to be moved from First Great Western because they've been shown to be unable to run a good train service at a reasonable price.

"Its trains are, on average, 20 to 30 years old and break down. There are problems with staffing as well because if someone doesn't turn up to work, the train doesn't run."

David Redgewell, spokesman for Transport 2000, said services from Frome and Weston-super-Mare were overcrowded this morning.

He levelled the blame at the Government for failing to allocate First Great Western enough rolling stock.

Mr Redgewell said: "Every unit was running but the problem was, there weren't enough of them.

"On the train through West Wiltshire, passengers were standing in the toilets. At Nailsea and Yatton the trains looked more like London Underground trains than they did last week. But it's better than I thought it was going to be and First Great Western did a good job with the resources they've got."

Rail operator First Great Western has said the new timetable will be a "major advance". It says the new schedule will encourage commuters to use high-speed innercity trains instead of local services, which stop at every station along the line.

The company insists the timetable, which took 13 months to design, will provide a more regular spread of trains and fewer delays.

Leaflets were handed out to passengers last week advising them to avoid some of First Great Western's busiest trains running to Bath and Weston-super-Mare in the evening rush hour. Campaigners for improved rail services believe the leaflets were a coded warning to long-suffering passengers to expect overcrowding.

However, First Great Western claims the leaflets were handed out because there is still a lack of knowledge amongst passengers about which services are busy.

A spokesman for First Great Western said delays early today had been caused by Network Rail overrunning with work on the lines. He said: "They occupied the line over- night and it affected some services.

"We made every effort to smoothly implement the new timetable.

"Unfortunately, overnight engineering work by Network Rail overran and affected our services in Bristol and Swindon this morning, causing several delays which were not related to the new timetable.

"We are working with Network Rail to resolve these issues. We are monitoring things closely to ensure that the new timetable delivers the capacity and flow improvements to Bristol and Bath as planned."

Simon Carpenter, who travels into the city from Frome, said: "It was late because the train crew who were supposed to take over at Westbury didn't turn up.

"Without a reliable train service people just won't use it. There are not enough trains running on the line from Weymouth."

Up to 150 passengers who use the Severn Beach line were left waiting in the cold this morning, when their rush-hour train to Bristol was cancelled. Following the train fault, First Great Western provided a replacement 20 minutes later.

John Hall's wife Janet normally catches the train from Sea Mills but was forced to take a bus.

Mr Hall, who lives in Stoke Bishop, said: "I checked the internet to make sure it was running but it had been cancelled. As far as I could tell, there wasn't any attempt by First to provide substitute road transport."

[madhattie]

And I love this follow up letter on the EPost website:

At least the folks quoted had a train service this morning. First Great Western cancelled BOTH trains that should have called at Melksham (population over 20,000) this morning ... fist available train, if it runs, will be at 19:08

Graham Ellis, Melksham, Wiltshire

[horace]

I find this quote from FGW laughable

"However, First Great Western claims the leaflets were handed out because there is still a lack of knowledge amongst passengers about which services are busy. "

I mean you are standing with your nose stuck in the ear of the person next to you, you cannot get out at your station and you are supposed not to know what services are busy!!

FGW should go back to what they were a bus company, they are definitely not a train company.

[horace]

On BBC Points West last night FGW seemed to be blaming every one but themselves, it was possessions over running, it was the government for not allocating them enough rolling stock, it was the amount of people using the trains. Now i must admit that Chris Vacher is not a Paxman when it comes to interviewing but the plethora of excuses coming from FGW was amazing. but it was the synical little smile for FGW at the end of the interview that summed it for me, it was as though the guy was thinking "I,ve got away with it"
It must be time for them to give up, and better still for the government to realise that this is no way to run a railway.

[tonyperks]

Sorry but am I missing the point here?, but arn't they supposed to run trains for their Customers sounds like petty moaning "oh weve got too many passengers" sorry but I think any growth in rail usage should be welcomed not bemoaned, 10 years ago they would be running cap in hand to the gov' for a subsidy so they could run!!, As for the rolling stock maybe its time to fetch some back out of places like Long marston and Caerwent, Stop chopping it up and sending it to china and bloody well use it!!