Our friend over at I Hate First Great Western, has the eponymous badges ready. You can get yours by e-mailing your details to IhateFGW@yahoo.co.uk .
I'll probably start by wearing it all the time, but if FGW can run, I dunno, lets say, three consecutive days without delays to my journey, then I'll take it off 'till the next delay. Can't say fairer than that. Wont happen though.
To the majority of FGW front line staff, I'd like to say, this protest is not directed at you personally, but you can tell your managers how many people you see wearing them. And besides, it's better that I sit with my badge on, than give you an earful of bile-fuelled rant, right?
In a service update, last night's return service was 10 minutes late leaving Cardiff, due to
"the late incoming workings of a previous train."
Now that doesn't even make sense. And besides, the train had pulled into the platform, appeared to be ready to go 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. What made me laugh though, was following the reason for being late, the train manager then optimistically announced that
"this lost time will be made up before we get to Bristol Temple Meads."
Guess what, he was wrong. He must be new, bless him.
5 comments:
Congrats on your badge! Badges are great.
I would get one too if I hated First Great Western (or knew what it was).
You should be very happy that you have no FGW-related misery in your life.
I'm off to Bath quite soon for a reunion of sorts, so I'll make sure I get one and wear it loud & proud.
Ha! My word verification has 'fgw' in it.
Don't worry about upsetting frontline staff with the badge, most of us hate FGW too!
Obviously I don't specifically know why your Cardiff train was late but there are more factors involved than you may know about. Incoming trains arrive on Platform 4 and are then 'crossed over' by a local driver while the crew have a mandatory break. If it arrived late it could have been crossed over and sat waiting for the crew to have their minimum legal break time. If the crew had come from Portsmouth or were going to Portsmouth that's a long time for the driver to concentrate and not even be able to walk around or go to the loo. If an incident happened and he had not taken his break he would be disciplined and could lose his job.
With so many considerations which are difficult to communicate, it often looks as though the staff are trying to make it as difficult as possible for travellers. But in fact we do our best to keep things running smoothly because it makes OUR lives easier. If you are hassled, we are hassled. We all want the same thing - a nice easy life.
If it arrived late it could have been crossed over and sat waiting for the crew to have their minimum legal break time.
which is why I think more turn-around time should be allowed for in the timetable at destination stations, so there is some "give" in the system.
The extra time could be taken from the crazy amount of padding currently in the timetable, where if a train arrives on time in can be sat waiting at station for up to 15 minutes before it's scheduled departure time.
Thanks for coming by though whistleblower. It's always interesting to hear the opinions of an insider.
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