First Great Western train service

I've travelled on FGW trains into London Monday to Friday for 6 Months. The service has been pretty good. I do have a car but travelling to London by car would be stupidly inpracticle.

Problems that have caused my train to be delayed:

Tresspassers on the line, not FGWs fault.
A fatality at a station, more than likely not FGWs fault.
A fallen tree, not FGWs fault.
People leaving things on the line, not FGWs fault. (This could be solved by legelising Chav Hunting)
Signal Failure, not FGWs fault.
Damage to the train from a brick thrower, not FGWs fault. (This could also be solved by legelising Chav Hunting)
A freight train blocking the line, signal operators fault.
Mechanical Failure of train power car, yes that could be FGWs fault.

The fact of the matter is I've done about 100 trips to London in just as many days, covering over 10,000 miles. Don't go off complaining about trains always being late if you only travel on a train once every ten years. The world doesn't revolve around you get used to it.

some of the comments here are a bit unfair, leaves do slow trains down, because they form a slippy residue on the Rail head as does light rain/frost/snow meaning trains are more prone to wheel slip/spin, and take longer to brake from 60mph a modern electric train takes 3/4 of a mile to stop in emergency brake application. in good conditions, in poor conditions with out having all the passengers flung about the carriage is much harder. metal on metal makes it hard to get much traction anyway, its only because of the immense weight of a train that it can get good traction.

hot weather does cause the track to expand and become hard to use (it is only Mild steel so it can be bent into shape) cold weather (I don't know how but it seems to brake trains)

Last Late Western really suck, I have to get their trains everyday. they are falling apart, over crowded a three car train turns up to transport 600 or so college students (they know fall well turn up for the 16:21 service) monday to friday. they turn up late up to 2 hours late, and leaving nearly 800 people on a platform (totally Unsafe) to pile on a small train.

they are really bad and the worst train operator in the country with some of the oldest rolling stock, understaffed and they are under paid and over worked.

That's an unfortunate tale Anna but an all too common scenario with travel by FGW. I travel around London and SE daily for work and use part public transport/part car depending on the usefulness of rail connections. There have been many switches of franchise operators and varying levels of improvement to services. In fact 'First' used to run the trains in Essex and that was always a fantastic service into and out of London - reaching distant locations surprisingly quickly, with regular departures and shockingly reliable punctuality (literally within 5 minutes of scheduled arrival time tops). And in London itself, if one method of transport is ruled out for the traveller by last minute screw ups there's always an alternative route to take for those savvy enough. However, when travelling anywhere in the West it's become a necessity to rely on the polluting private car because I can't deal with the consistent lateness. Oh and yes as Railway_Bob demonstrates FGW staff are often entirely unsympathetic, but I have enquired with some FGW staff in the past who have told me this shocking service is the bane of their own lives and they can't stand the stress it causes everyone involved!

Sorry about the typo in previous posting should read.....they travel to work/meetings in cars or taxis once again, at the tax payers expense.

Dave writing to MP will achieve nothing but a standard response. I am sure Alison Forster, previous Great Western Director, got her fat bonus and so will the new MD, Andrew Haines. Like those who were running Metronet despite its demise. No doubt many MP's are on executive boards of the train companies. It is pathetic. 90% (general public/workers) keeps the other 10% (rich/well off) in their place. It does take a genius to determine which percentage most MP’s fall in, evidence is readily available on the internet and widely published. Ask yourself; are there any poor MP’s in England? Dig deep and you will find that most are millionaires, if not multi.

It’s a country run by aristocratic buffoons? Lets face it, the MP's rarely use the NHS (they go private), send their kids to state schools (they go public) and they only use public transport as a last resort (they travel first class at the tax payers expense), they travel to wok meeting in cars/taxis the once again at the tax payers expense. I challenge, both Andrew Haines and Tom Harris MP the new transport minister appointed by Gordon Brown to travel on FGW for a week.

The whole train network and the London underground are a nightmare to use. The trains are packed, the tickets cost an extortionate amount of money and the companies have the cheek of checking your fully priced tickets which are for a seated passenger, yet one usually stands throughout the whole journey. It’s the same scenario all over the country, irrespective of the train franchise. What about Health and Safety? Why are the train companies not prosecuted for allowing overcrowded trains to run?

I ask: why spend all that money on printing timetables when the trains
very rarely run on time or are cancelled at the spur of the moment. Why
doesn't FGW publish a general statement: "First Great Western trains may
depart/arrive at any time due to no fault of their own but because of:
Network Rail's incompetence, leaves on tracks, extreme weather
conditions (too hot or too cold), the wrong type of snow/frost/rain,
drivers not turning up, not enough staff or trains, late running
engineering works ............. etc etc" I am sure between the train
companies and London Underground they have an encyclopaedia of excuses.

I usually commute into London on the 7.03 FGW from Iver, which is almost
always late. The return journey (4.45PM) in evening is no better. The
displays, when they work, show the trains are running on time, which
are, almost always late. It is quite apparent that the definition of 'On
Time' means one thing to the commuter and another to FGW. When we are
advised the trains are running late, the arrival time continuously moves
upwards because no one really knows when the train is going to arrive or
depart. To add insult to injury, FGW has the cheek of issuing the
insincere statement, 'Please accept our apologies for the late running
of this train'. Clearly FGW could not care less, the commuter has no
choice but to put up and shut up.
FGW has an SMS service to inform the subscriber (commuter) with the
latest train service updates. Subscribe to it and it sends SMS alerts,
which usually give useless information or generally when the service is
diabolical, the SMS informs the traveller that "Great Western Trains are
pleased to announce that a normal service is running."

What is the definition of a Good Service? Once again, it appears that
FGW's definition and that of the general public is very different.
It is appalling that companies like FGW get away with such a poor
service. No doubt, the Directors still get their fat bonuses. I do not
understand how the government expects the general public to use public
transport when it is so abysmal and expensive. The whole train network
and the London Underground are a nightmare to use. The trains are
packed, the tickets cost an extortionate amount of money and the
companies have the cheek of checking your fully priced tickets, which
are for a seated passenger, yet one usually stands throughout the whole
journey. It's the same scenario all over the country, irrespective of
the train franchise.

Now you see the whole point here is, a company advertised a time of arrival and departure. The customer believing these details would of gone based on that information. Your saying it’s the fault of the customer for using the details that the company has given him?

I use First ‘Great’ Western every day on a 1 stop service between Yate and Bristol Parkway, I know I’m not considered a priority in the bigger scheme of things, but I’ve gotten so fed up with the ‘service’ I receive that I’ve started to note down the times of arrivals and departures for my train.

Since the week beginning 22nd of October, the train has only got me to my destination on time twice. Now I can see that what I consider on time and what First ‘great’ Western considers on time are 2 different things. Regardless though let me break this down into physical minutes.

Since the 22nd of October I have used the ‘service’ 17 times including today. Overall the amount of time I’ve spent stuck at a platform comes to 2 hours and 7 minutes.

That’s ridiculous in my opinion, I too wrote to FGW about this and got a similar generic response. It’s quite clear they don’t care as they are the only show in town for the service that I’m complaining about.

I will be contacting my MP about this as I need this train to get to work each day, based on it’s estimated time of arrival I can get to work with time to spare, because of how unreliable these trains are becoming I’m having to work longer hours to make time up that has been encored because of forces outside of my control

As Dave from Oxfordshire says, any train over 10 minutes late counts as "late".

As for the over-running engineering works, that ISN'T First Great Western's fault - that's Network Rail, who maintain the tracks/signals across the UK railway network.

Leaving only 30 minutes for hold-ups ahead of an interview is a really stupid thing to do.

If you want Continental/Japanese style punctuality - move to the continent. Or Japan.

I work at a station and have to deal with idiots like this every day....
Railway_Bob 12-Aug-2007 01:14

As Dave from Oxfordshire says, any train over 10 minutes late counts as "late".

As for the over-running engineering works, that ISN'T First Great Western's fault - that's Network Rail, who maintain the tracks/signals across the UK railway network.

Leaving only 30 minutes for hold-ups ahead of an interview is a really stupid thing to do.

If you want Continental/Japanese style punctuality - move to the continent. Or Japan.

I work at a station and have to deal with idiots like this every day....

For official statistics, "on time" means any train in the peak hour arriving within 10 minutes of its advertised arrival time at its destination.