Worst Great Western

moonrakerz

I have the misfortune to have my local train service provided by the biggest bunch of cowboys since the Jesse James gang - First Great Western.

Since they took over the cross country route, Cardiff-Portsmouth and side routes, they have faced an endless stream of criticism about the so-called service they provide.
Their first action was to get rid of all the three coach trains used by the previous operator and replace these with one/two coach trains rescued from scrap yards.As a result the trains are grossly overcrowded and are extremely unreliable.

Two days ago, in a desperate effort to stop the franchise being taken off them they announced a £29M package of "improvements". The details on TV were a bit thin - not surprising when you read the details !

More than half this money is being spent on non rolling stock related items:
£7M on Customer Information System (CIS) at stations, you will now know much more quickly that your train has been cancelled.
£4M on staff training
500,000 extra discounted tickets - NOT for the commuters though !

Finally, the most interesting one:

• Increasing rolling stock by leasing five additional Class 150 units to release Class 158 units for use in strengthening the Cardiff-Portsmouth service from May 2008 which will increase capacity by 40% on most services on this route.

The Class 150s are 20 years old, the ones on this route already are falling apart. Where are these 158 units going to be "released" from ? Someone is going to lose their half decent 158s and get them replaced by the clapped out 150s - some improvement !

Bring back Dr Beeching ! please

Crabman

We suffer from Worst Late Western here too (Great Malvern - London line, sorry don't know the name of it) where you can almost guarantee a delay if you're needing to get into the city.

No idea why they were awarded the "Greater Western" franchise, certainly not due to their reliability record. Now they've "refreshed" their HSTs and virtually eliminated the table seating so even on an evening train back home with few people on board there's no chance to stretch out even a little!

KeithP

Down here near Portsmouth, I did see a 3-car train a few days ago, heading for Cardiff. First time for ages.

moonrakerz

Crabman wrote: »

We suffer from Worst Late Western here too (Great Malvern - London l

Funny you should mention Gt Malvern !

The FGW timetable has been carefully cobbled together so that the company can say they are meeting some strange "Service requirements" in the franchise.
Wessex trains basically ran trains:- Cardiff-Portsmouth, Bristol-Weymouth and a few odd Bristol-Southampton.
FGW now runs such popular through services as Gt Malvern to Frome; and the best one is a sevice from Westbury to Warminster (5 miles), this train then "turns round" and does Warminster to Gt Malvern (first stop Westbury of course !)

It is blatantly obvious that this bizarre timetable has been put together solely for the benefit of FGW, not its would-be passengers !

The only decent trains along this route now are the ones doing the Waterloo - Bristol - Waterloo run for South West Trains; clean, modern and on time !

ah_heng

FGW... again. I have been delayed by them numerous times and yet they said nothing they can do about it. Very disappointed with FGW. There's one day when I blew up. It was one horrible delay (more than an hour) and when we reached the station, they were checking on us for tickets. !@£$%^&*() qh WHAT THE HELL!!!!

moonrakerz

They really are trying to improve things now - they've just re-painted the waiting room at my local station :mad:

dzug

Alas it ain't all Great Western's fault - it's the DFT telling them what trains they can have and run. Not that they do it that well anyway.