The Bristol Railway Archive

Sources: BBC News

Monday 11 December 2006

Save Severn tunnel website

Tuesday 12 December 2006

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BBC News

Commuters protest over rail cuts

Rail commuters are to stage a protest against cuts to services between Bristol and South Wales.
Passengers successfully fought to keep morning services from Severn Tunnel Junction in Rogiet, Monmouthshire, to Bristol Temple Meads.

But First Great Western still decided to reduce evening return services.

Campaigners, who will stage a protest at Bristol on Monday, say up to 50 commuters going home after work will end up crowding onto one train.

"It's not just the local area," said campaigner Lucy-Jane Cypher.

'Best resources'

"There are people from the Forest of Dean and those who drive from Cardiff because it's cheaper and easier, to catch a train from Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol.

"The catchment area is massive, that's the problem."

A spokesman for the train company said: "The new timetable represents the best use of our resources to benefit the maximum number of people.

"Earlier this year we conducted a major consultation on the draft of the new timetable.

"As a result of the comments we received, we were able to make numerous amendments to the timetable. This included the last minute change we made adding two stops at Severn Tunnel Junction station during the morning peak.

"However, regrettably it has not been possible to make every change and some people inevitably will be disappointed.

"We will look at the possibility of adding additional evening stops in future timetables."

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Save Severn tunnel Press Release

À Last night over 50 commuters from Severn Tunnel Junction, in South Wales, demonstrated outside Bristol Temple Meads

À Commuters are angry that cuts to vital evening services went ahead

À Concerns about getting home within a reasonable time scale are causing stress


On Thursday last week First Great Western announced last minute additional stops on the morning trains from Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol Temple Meads. These went live yesterday. Requests for stops on vital evening services continue to be ignored.


First Great Western will now include 0654 and 0754 Severn Tunnel Junction stops on its 0630 and 0730 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour train services, which had not been specified in the December timetable.

Says David Flint, Campaign leader behind the efforts to restore the vital cuts: "We are disappointed First Great Western haven't listened to our requests, and have ignored our recent market reaserch."

"Commuters travel from as far away as Cardiff, Monmouth and the Forest of Dean to pick up commuter services into Bristol. Usage of the station has grown 10.3% in the last two years: this against a national average growth of just over seven per cent. Peak trains are already overcrowded yet First Great Western are cutting the number of stops and rolling stock."

"Those cuts inflicted on both Severn Tunnel Junction and Patchway commuters will badly affect those wishing to return home each night"

"From a recent survey conducted by the Save Severn Tunnel campaign, they concluded that, as a result of the cuts, usage of the 17.20 from Temple Meads would increase from 23% to 41%.... which is a potential increase from 40 to 69 commuters. Add to this the extra Patchway station commuters and we could have over fifty extra people trying to board this train, which is already overcrowded!"

"Commuters need to know they can get home. With children to collect from either the Nursery or Child Minder, these are typical reasons why there is commuter uncertainty about the future of rail travel. Our survey concluded that over 23% of commuters from Severn Tunnel Junction will start to use cars. What a poor reflection on Government transport policy, and what a disaster for Bristol's already grid-locked roads."

"We call on First Great Western, Network Rail, the Department for Transport and the Welsh Assembly to think again. We want the 16.54 and 17.54 from Temple Meads to stop at Severn Tunnel Junction, and will not give up our fight until these are restored."

"We can see no reason why these stops on routes on which trains are already travelling, which means no extra staff, rolling stock or impact on performance, cannot be made. They have been achieved for the morning service, so why not at night?"

you must remember that the FIRST GW are not in the business of pandering to customers only to share holders so the Severn tunnel jct customers are not worth any money and all this nonsense about providing a service is the sum total of amature thinking and be warned the gang at Swindon have not finished yet they will run down the local sevices so that they can claim the the track space to run the hst services to time! happy train running

On the beeb this morning.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6285629.stm

From The Times

To hell with the coffee. Just make the train run
Tim Bullamore

Did you show your rail ticket this morning? If you were travelling on First Great Western, I hope not. Maybe you went a step farther and refused to pay. Perhaps you presented the train manager with one of the ôcattle-classö tickets that were issued by campaigners.
Good for you. Talking to the rail operator is getting nowhere. Overcrowding, delays and ever rising fares have left passengers with no option but direct action. ItÆs time to leap over the ticket barriers, burn our rail passes and send a message that the misery must end.

This is a day of mass protest on the railways in the West Country. The main operator, First Great Western (better known as Late Worst Western or even Sh*te Great Western), seems to have reverted to the post-Hatfield meltdown that all but paralysed the network a few years ago ù only this time it is self-inflicted.

Among its more bizarre actions, FGW has removed a carriage from most of its intercity trains, disposed of 20 per cent of its rolling stock, extended journey times, increased fares and ravaged suburban services. At essential commuter stations, such as Oldfield Park and Keynsham, passengers are physically unable to board.

Every commuter has a tale of woe. As well as the missing carriage, my own beef centres on the lengthened evening journey time from London to Bath. A few years ago it was scheduled to take 85 minutes; today it is 105. But the train goes no slower; instead, the 21.45 from Paddington pulls into Reading at the same time as previously, but now a train manager proudly announces our ôearly arrivalö ù and we wait 20 minutes. Who are these silly people at FGW? WeÆve not arrived early; theyÆve simply moved the goalposts in order to meet their targets.

And what was FGWÆs next trick? It removed the cheap tickets from this, my regular service (yes, IÆm one of the fortunate ones who doesnÆt pay an eye-watering ú121 to travel just 100 miles and back). Bastards.

What about turnround times? Most of us accept that genuine delays do occur. But with scheduled turnround times at Paddington often barely more than 15 minutes, an inbound train arriving just a few minutes late is going to affect the outgoing service.

FGWÆs answer to all this? The company is to ôrebrandö its buffet ôin response to customer feedbackö. For rebrand read take out a carriage, put on a trolley and reprice ù upwards. Will the customer who gave feedback to say that he or she wanted ground coffee instead of instant please own up? Hot and wet will do; just get my train running properly and with a seat. Oh, and I donÆt need the ú200 million leather ones either. Any old seat will do.

Let the train take the strain? If only. As the campaign group says, whatÆs needed is more trains, less strain.


Not sure that I can forget overcrowded Wessex Trains services from Bath to Bristol, but the Greater Western franchise seems to have thown up similar problems. However doesn't the Department For Transport have some responsibilty for awarding franchises? Some of FGW's decisions have contributed to this problem but are others to blame for the worsening quality of service?

Just to make life interesting for FGW this story hit the BBC national news at 13.00 today, plenty of footage of the run to Bristol from Bath.

Have just been trawling the Department of Transport site, and found this on the Greater Western Franchise.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 612354.pdf

Makes interesting reading page 16 on the SRA's view local Bath services and suggests that relacement to the HST fleet would be c 2014.

"Commuter flows to and from the main urban areas are carried by local, regional and some long distance trains. Over short distances on the approaches to Bristol some passengers have to stand in the busiest peak hour, although the level of standing is currently within the loading guidelines defined by the SRA.The reallocation of rolling stock proposed in this Strategy will make a small number of higher-capacity diesel units available to increase capacity on these services (Option D2)."


This is SRA/DFT newspeak for overcrowding.

Passenger count information has been analysed to assess the utilisation of seating capacity across the RUS area in order to identify crowded services where capacity may be insufficient and poorly patronised services where over-capacity may exist. Not all crowding or low patronage will require action. Current SRA policy is that commuter train operators should plan to provide sufficient capacity so that there is no standing for journeys exceeding 20 minutes and that standing should not exceed train capacity by more than an average of 4.5% in either morning or evening peak or 3% across both peaks combined. Train capacity is based on allowing 0.45 square metres floor area for each passenger û which broadly corresponds to 35 per cent of the number of seats. This is known as the Passengers in Excess of Capacity (PiXC) regime.

During each peak hour, in the vicinity of key locations, there are typically one or two trains on each corridor where load factors approach or exceed 100%. This results in standing for short periods, for example, between Trowbridge and Bath (15 minutes). Across the peak period as a whole, there is spare capacity and, as illustrated by Figure 3.8 in the case of Bristol Temple Meads, average load factors are less than 100%. Unlike London commuter services, there are currently no regional commuter services where crowding exceeds the capacity provision measured in accordance with the PiXC regime.

Haven't yet found anything specific on DFT's responsibilities for timetables.[[/b]