first rubbish western

[Pompeyfan]

i can't see govia loosing its southern franchise to FG any time soon. i havn't had a single problem with them and there services to portsmouth are mostly o time. not sure about brighton or london though.

would it be possible to create some more 172, but stick a corridor connection on the front? i think that would be the best soloution for a 158 replacement....

[enotayokel]

I can. If First offer more Premium then DaFT will go straight for it!

[AlistairW]

i can't see govia loosing its southern franchise to FG any time soon. i havn't had a single problem with them and there services to portsmouth are mostly o time. not sure about brighton or london though.

I couldn't see Virgin Rail Group loosing Virgin Trains and I couldn't see National Express loosing Midland Mainline either, never under estimate the stupidity of the DfT.

But saying this, I think the DfT and the government couldn't face the wrath of passenger groups and the media if First won another franchise anytime soon.

[richard222]

Sky News are reporting FGW's staff are being balloted over strikes.


Ouch



Richard

[JohnBuzz]

once on a FGW class 158 going home to dorchester after a visit the svon valley railway
well when we where aproaching yeovil the train suddenly stopped and the gaurd was walking down the train and when the train suddenly stopped e lost his balance and fell over and his head smaked into the frour OUCH!!

[MoonKid47]

I think the DfT and the government couldn't face the wrath of passenger groups and the media if First won another franchise anytime soon.

Look what First have already:

First TransPennine Express
First Great Western
First ScotRail
First Capital Connect
Hull Trains
First GBRf
Croydon Tramlink

ect ect...

[AlistairW]

I think the DfT and the government couldn't face the wrath of passenger groups and the media if First won another franchise anytime soon.

Look what First have already:

First TransPennine Express
First Great Western
First ScotRail
First Capital Connect
Hull Trains
First GBRf
Croydon Tramlink

ect ect...

True but they haven't won anything since FGW and FCC back in April 2006, or, as far as I'm aware, even been short-listed?

Cheers,
Ali

[enotayokel]

They were for East Midlands and Cross Country (though they were eliminated soon after)

[arabiandisco]

Not sure when it was awarded, but we on the SWT network narrowly avoided the horror that would have been "First South Western".

[AlistairW]

Modern Railways fell through the door this morning with train reliability figures in, it lists every class by operator and then compares the failure rate with that of last year. Merely out of interest I felt I'd post all of the trains that have fallen in reliability over the last year by more than 5%.

Pacers
First Greater Western Class 143 - 28% fall in reliability

BR era DMU's
South West Trains 159/0 - 11% fall
First Scotrail 156 - 8%
Northern 156 - 8%
First Greather Western 150 - 12%
First Greather Western 158 - 6%

New Generation DMU
Hull Trains 222 - 46% (due to low fleet availability)
First Greather Western 166 - 11%
First Scotrail 170 - 7%

So out of all the DMU fleets across the country and all of the operators Worst Group have successfully dominated by consistently having the worst fleet performance ratings.

They really are their own worst enemy.

Cheers,
Ali

[enotayokel]

The 159s fell by 11% - Considering how far ahead they were last year I wonder if they have kept their top spot

[AlistairW]

The 159s fell by 11% - Considering how far ahead they were last year I wonder if they have kept their top spot

Yes by just under 7,000 miles (24,311miles) Vs 2nd position with just 17,585 miles, which are SWT 159/1's.

[XPTE]

Every time I get FGW from Paddington-Bristol(Temple Meads or Parkway) and vice versa, it pretty much is allways on time. And I'm probably in a very small minority of peple who are actually dissapointed by this. I get to the station, look up at the departures screen to see if it's delayed and 99% of the time it says "on time". And I think "ah rubbish. It's on time again!". Seriously. As it would make the journey a little different from the norm if it's running quite late, in that it is then schedulded to miss out some station stops or even run non-stop between Bristol and Paddington. And/or because it's running late it misses it's paths and is "riding the yellows" behind a number of other services enroute. Makes for a more interesting journey and different from the same old same old journey. Typically, if the trains are on time it's pretty much green signals all the way usually. But like I said, the trains are usually all on time. So punctuality on these services isn't bad atall.

I mentioned this a couple of times before, but it would be good if they could re-introduce the true express services between Bristol and Paddington again. Journey times down to just 1 hour 24 minutes and 1 hour 5 minutes between Paddington-Bristol Temple Meads and Paddington-Bristol Parkway in each direction. These faster services had a variation of stopping paterns but they would miss out such stops as Reading, Swindon, Chippenham, and Bath Spa. Whilst there was hourly slower services which would call at all the regular stops that you get nowadays including Didcot Parkway, plus Slough. Journey times for these slower services was about 2 hours. Back in the 1986 timetable for example, from Bristol Temple Meads-Paddington, the fast limited stop services with varying stopping patterns were at xx:10(some of which went via Bristol Parkway) and the slow services were at xx:50. MUCH more interesting than nowadays with the same old xx:00 and xx:30 services with the same old stopping patterns. Thing is whilst it would be great to have that mix of faster and slower services back again, I don't think it would ever happen now. Can't see FGW re-introducing the faster services again, or even another operator(if anyone ever does take over from FGW). Because the people of Bath and Chippenham(in particular) have got used to a half hourly service to/from London Paddington since 1996. And if they got a less regular service(i.e. one train an hour at certain times of the day) they would be up in arms about it! It would be great if at least some limited number of services were faster limited stop services. Maybe some weekday evening services or additional Summer Saturday services down to Penzance(via Bristol) for example.

I could babble on all night about those much more interesting timetables of yesteryear, but I'll stop there.

But as mentioned before, they REALLY need to do something about those Cardiff-Portsmouth's. They are gradually becoming more overcrowded. Put some thought and investment into it to help ease passenger congestion on these services.

Oh yes and the incredibbly overpriced short notice/walk-on fares. Get rid of that structure and offer more sensibly priced fares. It is not allways possibly to book ahead if people need to travel at very short notice, for example some emergency. £62.50 London-Bristol single??!! We're not all bloody millionares FGW! Money doesn't grow on trees! But obviously there must be some people out there who actually pay these crazy prices. If all those people refused to pay these fares and travelled via alternative means instead, then FGW would be forced to slash those ridiculous prices. In my case, I'd be prepared to pay a walk on single fare of £25 single Bristol-London. But £62.50 or £49.50 SINGLE, you have to got to be absolutely kidding!!!! I'll travel by alternative means and get it much cheaper thank you very much. Though admittedly on just one occasion I did pay £54 single, though this was an emergency. But never again am I paying those sort of prices, emergency or not. Only a few years ago(2004) it was actually possible to get on walk-on fares on off peak services for £29.90 single or £41 return. Which is a bit more reasonable and realistically priced. They sure as hell have gone up a lot since then!

Plus the taking advantage of busy travel periods such as Christmas and the Glastonbury Festival for example, make the cheap good value fares actually available to purchase for passengers if they book in advance! I bet you I won't be able to get the cheap fares on the direct services from London Paddington-Castle Cary and vice versa again next June. Unlike FGW, South West Trains were making available to purchase the cheap good value single tickets from London-Bristol on Christmas eve. In this case £8.90. £8.90 vs £22. Absolutely No competition. It's South West Trains who get my booking.

[AlistairW]

Some fair points XPTE but FGW has to pay the government a huge premium, they have to pay their shareholders a huge premium and they have to pay for fitting the trains out with airline seats as well, add all this up and couple it with the fact that demand out strips supply in most cases and there's no way walk on fares are ever going to be reasonable again.

I'd love to see a railway when booking in advance was in the past and you could easily catch a train to any major destination and pay a fair price, not to mention get a seat and have it run to time, even if this is boring.

Cheers,
Ali

[JohnBuzz]

yes i do agree iyt is intresting for the train to run late but its bad for the rush hour
and it allows you to see more goods usauly
i was waiting at bath spa once for a train back to dorchester and it was delayed by 15mins an suddenly with 5 mins to go thre was this EWS goods and the driver did the horn and evry body neary jumped of the platfom because they wearnt expecting it and later on at castle cary i saw the excact same train in a siding