Worse At The Weekends

My wife and I decided to get away this weekend. A change is as good a break, someone might have said once. We thought we'd go somewhere easy to reach - just a single train ride from Bath - so we chose Weymouth.

In hindsight, I can't believe I was stupid enough to use FGW for a weekend break. The journey down on Saturday morning went smoothly enough. In fact it was almost entertaining; if sitting in a live episode of Little Britain is your cup of tea. We were surrounded by yoofs "Yeah, but, No but"-ing their way from Westbury, Frome and Yeovil all the way to Weymouth.

Interestingly, after listening to the said yoofs discuss tactics for fare evasion (going to the bogs when the collector arrives, hiding their booze and asking for child tickets etc), they all got away without buying tickets after the train manager announced that his machine was broken and would people please buy a ticket at their destination. It'll be no surprise to you that none of them did upon arrival at Weymouth.

At least half the people getting off at Weymouth had no tickets - I hope FGW don't use a lack of revenue as an excuse to shut down this line.

After a wonderfully relaxing weekend, we went to get the 14:00 train back to Bath. This is the first of only 3 trains that run on this line on a Sunday, the others at 18:00 and 20:09. However this train was cancelled. The SWT staff at the station had no idea why is was cancelled, or indeed if the 18:00 would run, only that a bus was being provided. I phoned FGW to find out why it was cancelled, since there was a train on the platform, and was informed that it was due to staff illness.

Outside, sure enough, a bus was on the forecourt to take us as far as Westbury where we'd have to pick up the no doubt already packed service from Portsmouth.

The journey didn't take too long as we only went to one of the intermediate 10 stations (Yeovil Pen Mill) on the way. I hate to think what information was available at the others, particularly the unmanned ones. I suppose most people just had to wait the four hours for the next one.

We arrived just after the 15:58 had left Westbury, and no-one will be surprised it didn't wait, then again, we could have been hours yet, had we stopped everywhere. A long wait was therefore on the cards, but thankfully the coach driver offered to take anyone who wanted, a lift back to Bath or Bristol given that he was headed back to Bristol. So we got back on the bus and arrived in Bath around 45 min late. It could have been a lot worse had the kind driver not gone above his duty.

Question is though, given that the bus was dispatched from Bristol, the staff illness mustt have been known a wouldn't have been easier and cheaper to send a train crew in a taxi? Or was the staffing shortage so bad that there was no spare crews anywhere?

Hidden Charges

I went to book some train tickets for this weekend on the trainline.com. There are a series of hidden costs; First you have to uncheck the boxes for optional travel insurance from Columbus at the riduculous cost of £1 per journey. This cost is ridiculous because you have to be delayed by four hours before you can claim anything, and you'll be covered by your household/travel insurance for most of it anyway.

Then you move on to the payment screen. There is a £1 charge for postage. Fair enough, that's a bit steep for an envelope and stamp, but cheaper than most ebay sellers. But what if I'm prepared to collect the tickets myself? Well then you pay a £1 ticket arrangement fee. WTF! This fee wasn't applicable when they were being posted, but now I'm doing all the leg work myself there's a different charge. Effectively this £1 is a trainline.com tax. But their taxes to not stop there.

Next there is a £2.50 Credit Card fee. Why is this? There is no charge for debit cards, so why credit cards? Unusually I'm not being facetious, I am genuinely interested if there is a real reason for this. But I doubt there is an argument that can stand up in the face of the fact that you will not be charged a credit card fee if you buy the tickets in person from the counter.

I am fully aware that the trainline is not the only company to do this. Another pet peeve of mine is Odeon cinemas. They charge a 50 pence "card handling fee", again a totally nonsense charge that you do not pay if you turn up in person. However this charge is made all the more nonsensical when despite it's implication that it is for handling the payment, it is charged per ticket. 4 tickets, one payment, but four card handling fees. Hmmm.

I'm sure that the costs companies more to sell tickets in person that via automated call centres, or on the internet, so it would be understandable to pay a premium for the personal service, but to pay more for the cheaper service is a nonsense.

Anyway, I decided I was not going to pay a £3.50 tax to buy my tickets on line, so I decided I would get them in person at Bath Spa station on my way home. I arrived at 7.30 and there were two windows open at the ticket office. Both were devoid of customers. However I was told that I could only buy tickets for that day. Or tomorrow. But not Saturday. Why not? Apparently the advance ticket windows are only open until 7 pm. It used to be that then one of the windows would become "All Tickets", but now there is no room for flexibility. Even when there are two people serving, and just one person to serve.

I suppose they want people to go on-line and pay the outrageous tax.

Monday, Not Fun

Wow - just goes to show you shouldn't tempt fate.

After telling you all on Friday that, despite being occasionally busy, things have been, generally tolerable on the trains recently, this morning things went well and truely belly up, and I experienced one of the longest delays of my 20 months or so of commuting. An hour and a half delay. Yep, a whole 250% increase on the usual journey time. Plus it could have been a lot worse had I listened to the mindless optimism of the train manager....

Things did not look promising at first, arriving at the station, departure board warns of a 16-minute delay. I can live with that. In fact, I quietly welcome 10-15 minute delays as it means I have time to go to the snack bar* for a freshly made bacon sandwich and a cup of tea from the local cafe rather than the station facilities, twice as nice, half the price and supports a local business fighting for its life as the south end of Bath is a building site for the next two years and their current walk-by trade = zero.

Anyhow, after coming back with breakfast, the usual 2-minute increments were stacked up until the delay was a full half hour, but the 06:56 pulled in just before the 07:28. The delay had been caused by a faulty power car according to the train manager. "bet we get no further than Temple Meads on this train", I said to my lab mate who for the last few months has been commuting with me.

Though, we did get out of Bristol, with a fitter on board, we broke down short of Filton. "We'll be going to Parkway for a powercar test and I'm sure we'll be on our way soon" the train manager announced optimistically after finally moving off after around 20 minutes. "We'll be on our way soon" he announced again after 10 minutes or so at Bristol Parkway. Anyway, not believing the guy (he must have been new, bless him), I phoned rail enquiries and discovered another train to Cardiff in a few minutes, telling the few people around me, we made our way over to the other platform. Eventually we were an hour and a half late. We'd have been later if I'd have listened to the train manager.

This evening though, I received an unexpected bonus, courtesy of FGW's uselessness. The 19:49 from Bristol, calling at Oldfield Park, so my 20:22 made an additional call. There were some Mardy people on my train, who had been cold at Temple Meads for a while, but for me it was a shorter walk home. You win some, you lose some.

*If you too are a Bath commuter and have ten minutes to fill, rather than spending a fortune in the station Pumpkin or Crusty Sandwich fooderies, take one-minute walk up manver's street (straight ahead - see map) and though Railway Street on the left, is a building site, defiently holding on, just around the corner is the Snack Bar . Very friendly staff and perveuyours of a most excellent bacon sarnie.

Friday Fun

It's been a while since I've had a moan about FGW, this is due concurrent bouts of commuter and blogging apathy. To be fair to them, there does seem to have been some improvements recently too. Which is no bad thing. But after a crappy journey home this evening I thought I'd have a little whinge.

Every Friday is the same, the 5.30 train to Portsmouth is jammed to the rafters. I normally try and avoid getting this train by going for a pint or two after work and get a later train. However this evening I was absolutely knackard and had a stinking headache so I braved the student shuttle. So called because as well as the usual daily commuters, who usually fill this service on their own, we also have dozens and dozens of weekend travellers and their assorted luggage.

Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge people using the train to get away for the weekend, it's a great idea, but it would be nice to have an extra carriage on this service. However, in recent months I have been educated by various bloggers, but in particular the excellent Insider, and I know understand that there are no more carriages, and FGW's hands are tied by a Labour Government's transport policy that barely cares about public transport in the home counties and frankly don't give a shit if it doesn't start/finish in London.

So anyway, given that there are no more carriages, and I'm sure this problem is not unique to Cardiff, I believe a little should be done to encourage the weekenders to get earlier or later trains. So why can't FGW stop selling their cheap tickets on this service. Most of this evening's suitcase brigadge has their big trainline tickets (why are these not the same size as usual tickets?) and were kicking regular season ticket holders out of reserved seats. Slightly unfair I'd say given that technically season ticket holders can't book seats. So why not remove the cheap tickets from these services as an encouragement to use earlier and later trains.

At worst, the same people will get on the train and FGW would make more money, so it's surely a solution that would appeal to the management.

The Fugger's Nuts

I have no idea what day Private Eye actually goes to press. I suspect, given that the next issue is due to hit the news-stands on Friday that it will hit the rollers tomorrow or Thursday. So hopefully plenty of time for much derision of the hilarious testimony of Mohamed Al Fayed at the inquest of Princess Diana to make it to the pages of the satirical magazine.

Firstly, let's be clear, I do feel for Al Fayed, it must be terrible to lose a son, especially is such tragic and public circumstances. However his ramblings are frankly those of a total madman. I half expected Lord Justice Scott Baker to sum-up and ask for a straight-jacket for Mr Al Fayed and a team of white-coated men to be standing by.

If you missed it, and it was a shame that the Northern Rock re-nationalization was taking up a significant proportion of press-coverage, then you missed one of the classic mentalist rants of all time.

The Fugger suggested all of the following had a hand in the "murder" of Diana; Prince Charles, The CIA, MI5, MI6, Tony Blair, The French Emergency Services, The French Secret Service, Henri Paul, Lady Sarah McCorquodale (Diana's sister) and the Paparazzi amongst others.

However he reserved his most insane rambling for a man more usually associated with being on the distribution end of embarrassing gaffs; Prince Phillip. He said the prince was a racist (which is possibly true, to a certain extent), a Nazi and had the original last name Frankenstein (It was actually Battenberg). Al Fayed also continued to claim that Diana had coincidently phoned him in the hours before the accident to tell him that she was pregnant.

When asked if he could provide any evidence for any of his claims, he said that he was unable to provide any because of "a steel wall" at the security services. So basically - the total lack of evidence was proof of a cover-up! As if all those people could actually organize themselves in such a complex plan. Civil servants just aren't that good. They can't even make sure that CDs full of data reach their intended destination. Organise a most ridiculously complicated plot without a sniff of evidence reaching the public. Not a chance.

Al Fayed proved his loony status after his day of giving evidence by going outside and accusing a BBC reporter of being "part of the establishment" and "working for MI5".

My favorite statement of the day however was read out on Radio 4's PM programme. They had asked the office of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, if he would like to make a statement on the allegations made by Mr Al Fayed. The reply. No.

No doubt the Harrods owner will take Tony's silence as a sign of guilt! Taxi for Mohamed.

The Great Unwashed

It’s Monday morning, It’s teeming down outside. Rain of biblical proportions. The train pulls in (late, of course) to Bristol Temple Meads. These things combined, make for a pretty miserable morning. But what’s this at the station? Life is about to get a whole lot worse.

Standing on the platform are hippies. They’re the early risers from Glastonbury. Actually, to call them hippies is unfair. Glastonbury is not attended by hippies any more, if indeed hippies still exist. No, Glastonbury is now attended by white, middle-class, sixth-formers and students.

And these students smell. They smell really bad. A group sit on the table across the aisle from me. Another group further back the carriage stink like their pockets are full of shit and their squelching makes me think they probably are. The regular commuters make sympathetic faces at each other.

I noticed this phenomenon last week, when a handful of early arrivals to Glastonbury were on the train on Wednesday and Thursday last week. Yes, that’s correct, they smelt bad before they had even got to Glastonbury. So that’s the type of person who goes to Glastonbury. Students with little interest in personal hygiene.

My friends have often asked me why I have never been to Glastonbury, or any other big commercial festival for that matter. It seems strange to them that as a lover of live music, and of camping, this would not be my idea of heaven. It’s not. It’s my idea of hell.

I have been to day festivals in Hyde and Finsbury park. I’m not a fan of standing three miles away from a band I love watching their distorted instrumentation on a big screen virtually incomprehensible due to the sun. And no matter where I stand I always seem to get hit by a bottle of piss.

The thing I love about camping is the peace and quiet. I like to go to a National Park with my tent, do some walking, read a book and enjoy an ale or three in the local hostelries. Sharing the camping experience with tens of thousand of other people who are intent on falling over onto my tent is my idea of hell.

And the final reason Glastonbury is not for me; I am the proud owner of a reasonable standard of personal hygiene.

A New Record

Today a record was achieved that I believe will never be broken.

Did I run 100 m in 6.5 sec? No.

Did I eat 36 boiled eggs for breakfast? No, but I'd like to try someday.

No, I was put into a foul mood in the fastest time possible after leaving the house. Just 3 seconds.

I closed the door, turned around, and my bus went past a full 10 minutes before it was due to.

I shouted and waved my arms from my front garden and pointed at my watch. The driver didn't see me. A passenger did. He laughed.

Bastard.

Fares Fair?

I am gob-smacked. Truly gob-smacked.

I have spoken before, of how by travelling into London you get a better deal that if you commute around the South West. But I didn't realise quite how much a better deal you get. Having read some comments about season ticket prices on I Hate FGW's blog, I have investigated the price of tickets from Bath to London and from Bath to Cathays. Here's what I found:

Bath Spa - London Paddington
Daily Open Return: £121.00
Weekly Season: £174.80

Thus a weekly ticket costs 1.44 times the price of a daily open return.

Bath-Cathays (just outside Cardiff)
Daily Open Return: £16.60
Weekly Season: £70.80

Thus a weekly ticket costs 4.26 times the price of a daily open return.


That's not even close to being fair. In fact, put another way it means that commuters to London travel Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for free.

It means that commuters in the southwest get Friday afternoon for free.

Oh, and don't forget, if you travel to London you get relatively comfy, high-speed trains that are in the process of being refurbished. You get an on-board buffet, toilets, tables, optional first class and plug points at your seat.

If you travel between Bath and Cardiff you get the crappiest trains FGW can find (they gave all the nice ones away). These trains are often dilapidated, the toilets don't work, the windows leak when it rains, the air-con doesn't work and on half of them there is no room for a 6ft man to sit down comfortably, let alone tables to do some work.

How does FGW justify this disparity? I'll write to them and ask.
I think I'll let the local rag and my MP know the situation, while I'm at it.

New London 2012 Olympic Logo

I'm no expert in branding or marketing. That's why I earn piss-all working for a public body.

However, despite not being an expert, I reckon this is embarrassing, child-like and really rather shit. However much it cost, it was that much too much.

New London 2012 Logo.

What's it meant to be? What was wrong with the rainbow stripes in the same shape as the Thames? I thought that was quite cool.

According to the press-release the new emblem is:

dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012

Which basically means they are gonna change the colour every few months and charge us even more money. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad the Olympics are coming to the UK. I'm just also happy that I'm not a London tax-payer.

Bank Holidays

Apologies, that this is a little out of date now, I started writing this post on Tuesday and have since had a bit of a mad week. But after just reading Mr coldbrain's mishaps over the bank holiday, I thought I'd finish it off and post it anyway.

Where was I... Oh yes.... Bank Holidays - they're not all they're cracked up to be....

In one respect, like most people, I find the prospect of a four-day working week very appealing; even the weekend after seems to benefit from the fact I am not quite as knackard as usual once Friday night comes around. But I detest the way that most of the population goes completely mad with excitement at the prospect of 50% extra time in their weekend, and as a result, I am seen as socially retarded for not doing the same.

Our local, westcountry news last Friday brought us news of massive traffic jams as the whole country attempts to cram into the Devon/Cornwall peninsular. Do these people not realise this beautiful part of England is there all year round? Cornwall is not a cruise ship which pulls up alongside Devon three weekends a year. Why do people feel the urge to go during a Bank Holiday weekend?

A similar travel chaos greeted me on Friday afternoon as I caught my usual train home from Cardiff. Usually busy, but able to get a seat, on Friday there were people and suitcases everywhere and I had to stand all the way to Bristol. What’s so special about Bank Holiday weekends? If you want a long weekend on the South Coast then book a Monday off work and do it another weekend when there’ll be less people on the trains, less people on the beaches and you’ll get a cheaper hotel. Easy innit?

So, last weekend, instead of getting caught up in the excitement I had a normal weekend of lie-ins, pottering about, DIY and shopping. Normal weekend activites, but for three days instead of two. It was ace. Too often after a bank holiday, you come back on Tuesday absolutely shattered from travelling all weekend, cramming lots in and getting stuck in a traffic jam on Monday evening. This weekend was literally and figuratively refreshing. I went to work on Tuesday so rejuvenated that I was actually enthusiastic about getting started on some work. Weird.

I think the problem is that we don’t get enough of these holidays, and when they do come along, it’s such a surprise and novelty that everyone goes a bit silly. We have only 8 in this country (and 5 of those are Easter, Christmas & New Year) compared to France’s 11! So discounting religious festivals, we have 3 public holidays, and the French have 6. Twice as many! And remember this is a country that strikes if made to work a 25 hour week!

There is already a campaign for St. Georges Day to be a bank holiday in England (St. Andrews Day & St. Patricks Day are holidays in Scotland and Northern Ireland). But I don’t think this goes far enough. I suggest we stick another in the autumn, so that when the August holiday passes we don’t flick through our calendar and forlornly realise the next holiday is four months away. I suggest Armistice Day, 11^th November. We already mark this day with a minute’s silence to remember those who died in two world wars, so it’s a great candidate to be updated to a whole day off. It also nicely dissects the August to December holiday void. Further support for this day as a holiday comes from the fact it is already taken as a holiday in France and Poland and I'm sure other countries as well.

By adding April 23rd and November 11th our public holidays would number a european average, and with a bit of luck, holidays wont come as such a surprise to everyone and they'll stay relaxed and calmly to the pub. You know it makes sense.

Democracy

as defined in the dictionary;

noun.
1. government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

2. a state having such a form of government.

3. a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.

4. political or social equality; democratic spirit.

Read that definition again, and take in every last word of it.

We, in the United Kingdom are supposed to live in a democratic society. We are given the opportunity to vote for our MEPs, MPs and councillors. Hell, if you are a member, then you probably have a say in who's on the committee of your local Women's Institute or pub darts team. Almost every aspect of our community is based upon the fact that we all have the same rights (point 3), and as such have an equal right to chose who we want to take the supreme power as our elected officials (point 1).

Democracy works only if our democratically elected officials can be held to account by the people who voted for them (more on this later). In this way, if (or more realistically, when) an official is seen to be corrupt, or not doing their job to a sufficient standard, we can vote for someone else and ask them to do the job instead. Simple really.... when it works.

However it doesn't always work out that simply, and two key blows to the democratic system are on the horizon this week, and I'm pissed off about both.

Firstly, Gordon Brown. Know anyone who likes him? No, me neither. But that's beside the point. Know anyone who voted for him? Unless you live in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath the answer to this question is, No.

Take another look at definition 1 for democracy. The supreme power (running the country) should be exercised by an agent elected by the people under a free electoral system. And yet the supreme power of this country is about to pass to a man that no-one has voted for. So why is this happening?

Well, it's a long story, which I'm sure you all know, but basically Ant got a new toy in 1997, and he said he'd only play with it for a while, then he's let his mate Gordie have a go. However, Ant played with his toy for ages and ages, and when he finally got bored of playing with the toy, everyone decided Gordie should be allowed to play with it a while, after all, he was promised a go.

Two grown men fighting over who gets to play with a toy. Sounds stupid, doesn't it? But this isn't a toy, it's the running of this country, and who does that job should be decided by the people of this country, not by one man who promised another man he could have a go later. It's absurd.

I'm not naive enough to think that just because Blair is resigning I should have a say in who replaces him, but this country voted for a Labour government at the last election. The Labour party was at that time led by Tony Blair, a man elected by all members of the Labour party. If I was a member, I'd be livid that I don't have a say in who replaces him.

It is a joke that way less than 45 Labour MPs (be they Brownites or not) had the balls to back John McDonnell so that at least a token gesture of democracy could take place (though that gesture would probably have been Gordon waving two fingers). Even Robert Mugabe manages to arrange fake elections in Zimbabwe so that he could point and say "look there's democracy in action." It's gonna look a bit stupid now when Brown lectures the Iraqi people on "embracing democracy." Why should they Gordon? You've shown quite brilliantly that it's much more effective to gain power with dodgy deals, back-handers and bullying.


So, on to my second point, and this is turning into quite some rant (obviously been saving up for a while since my last post), so I'll try to keep this short.

On Friday an amendment to the Freedom of Information act is being debated in the house of commons. This amendment, if passed, would make make all communications between MPs (your elected representatives) and public authorities, exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Basically it would mean that your MP would become unaccountable. You would not be able to find out for example, what expenses they claimed, or what opinions they had given to local planning applications etc. This motion is presented by the Tory's and is also supported by a number of Labour MPs.

That's not what democracy is about. Your MP should be accountable to you. That way you can tell them what you think about them next time you have the opportunity to do so.

This is what democracy is about: Go here, write to your MP, tell him/her that you believe that as democratically elected officials they should be accountable and their actions visible. And that you urge them to stop this bill going through parliament. If enough of you write, they will listen; that's how democracy works. And you can always look at how they voted on this site, and ask them why they were such a pillock next time they knock on your door.

Picture from flickr.com

Rude Companies

A and I are getting married later this year. It's not going to be a massively lavish do, but with all our friends there it's gonna be one pretty sweet party.

Given there are more than 6 months to go, we are pretty organised too; we've booked the church, hall & caterers, A has found her dream dress under budget (best not to ask what the budget was though!) and I have nearly nailed down the bestest student band in the world to play at the reception.

Hopefully it's plain sailing all the way now. Just filling in around the edges, if you will. So last week my job was to try and find a company to set up and run a bar at the venue.

A and I are both fans of real ale and we had hoped to have one of the local breweries run the bar for us, so that we could show off the best local ales to our guests. So imagine my joy when walking home from the station last week I spotted an Abbey Ales van driving through Bath, with the slogan "Mobile Bars - We Bring The Beer To You" (or something to that effect) written on the side. Woo Hoo - I'm in luck here, and I don't even need to dig out the yellow pages.

Next day I rattled off an e-mail with my details asking how much they charge for their services. Hoping that all breweries ran the same service I also fired off an enquiry to Bath Ales, who, in my humble opinion brew superior beers to Abbey ales, and would be my first choice beverage provider.

Two days past and I heard nothing. So I consulted the yellow pages and fired off e-mails to four more companies, this time specialists in providing bars at, what would otherwise be, dry social events.

That was last Thursday, and I've heard diddly-squat from them too.

Six companies; none of whom have even the courtesy to e-mail me back and say "Sorry we can't help you". How do businesses survive if they don't even reply to enquiries from people offering to pay for their services?

I know you always get a much more satisfactory answer from actually phoning people and speaking to them, as e-mails are very easy to ignore, but this is the 21st century, people expect to get replies to e-mails. It's just rude not to.

Pictures from flickr.com

Air Con & Ticket Barriers

These are things that have annoyed me today, (I've had a bad day):

1. The climate control in my building.

It’s shite, and controlled by morons.

It’s been scorching hot outside all week, the sun is heating up all rooms with south facing windows and all the bloody air-con does is circulate hot air. We got a thermometer today and measured the temperature in the office at 28°C. A bloody humid 28° at that. It’s unbearable, and it’s only April. Much more of this, and by the time June and July comes there is gonna be lots of seriously irritable people at work.

Well, I’ll be seriously irritable.

The problem of crap air-conditioning is compounded by the building services people, who in their infinite wisdom, have deemed that because it’s April, it’s still winter. As a result the radiators are still on. Can you believe it? Thankfully in our office we can turn them off individually, but others, in the corridor for example, have no such facility and are pumping out heat. It’s beyond a joke.


2. Stupid people and ticket barriers.

This happens to me nearly every day. But having sat in a sauna all day at work, you can imagine that today it riled me more than it does most days.

What is so difficult about putting your ticket in the machine?

And why can’t you have your ticket ready before you reach the gate. There are only 5 barriers at Cardiff, so at most there is are only 3 barriers letting people into the station. Tonight there were only two; in front of one, a fat man with a suitcase was trying to find the slot for the ticket to go in. In front of the other, a dumb blonde was fumbling around in her purse for a ticket she had bought only seconds earlier. Between them they stopped access to the trains for about a minute, while a queue of around twenty people formed.

This evenings nincompoops, can possibly be forgiven, in that the did not appear to be commuters, yet every day I see the same people who haven’t got their tickets ready when they get to the gates, or do not know that they have to take their ticket from the top of the machine for it to open. You’d have thought they’d have learnt by now.

But then again, by their very nature, stupid people don’t learn.

Picture taken from macspite on flikr.com

They Don't Know What They're Doing

Today I have received a letter from FGW regarding their lack of compensation for a 30 minute delay I suffered, and their total incompetence in dealing with it, I previously summed it up here.

Firstly Sue Smith the team manager apologises;

I have now had the opportunity to review your case and agree we did make mistakes for which I apologise.

Well that’s something I suppose. Though there’s an automated voice at every station that apologises for delays, so actually apologies from FGW are pretty frequent, but rarely feel meant.

We did record the wrong journey and having checked our records these show that the delay to your connecting service at Bristol Temple Meads was due to a mechanical problem. [they had previously stated that it was due to driver illness] John is a relatively new member of staff and I will ensure that he has the necessary training to prevent this happening again.

Presumably this training is to look at a database of delays and read off what caused my delay. That’s pretty simple training, which makes me believe that he’d had no training at all. She continues;

He was however correct not to compensate for a delay under an hour. I appreciate that this contradicts Alison Forster’s [FGW Managing Director] letter. I have spoken to her office and I regret that an error was made in her reply. The 30 minute delay compensation period relates to previous Thames trains services and not to previous Wessex Trains. We adopted the policy that the companies had in place when we took on the areas they covered previously.

So my questions to my fellow commuters is thus: Is this true? Was Wessex trains compensation policy to pay out for delays of 30 minutes or of 1 hour? I don’t know, I was only commuting with Wessex trains for about two weeks before FGW took over. Also if you’re a former Thames Trains commuter do you get compensation for delays over 30 minutes? Sounds like many of you in the Maidenhead area are experiencing these kind of delays every day. Are you getting your money back? Or is this FGW trying to explain the cock-up with yet another lie? If you want a copy of my letter to post off with your complaint forms let me know.

Finally, Sue finishes with;

In view of the error, and the mistakes in our response, Alison has asked that we forward Rail Vouchers to the full cost of this journey leg as a goodwill gesture and these are included.

Except that this is another mistake. She actually sent me rail vouchers for the full return price. Twice the amount I was asking for. Idiots.

The basic gist of this is that no-one at FGW knows what’s going on, and someone has been telling lies. The Managing Director doesn’t know when compensation should be paid. The man in the office makes up the reason that trains are delayed. Basically it’s just a big farce, and it is clear to everyone with the exception of the DfT that FGW is not fit for purpose.

Fun With First Great Western

Given the almost daily torment of travelling with FGW, you might think I'd avoid them at all cost during my down time at the weekend.

You're generally right, but if you want to get from Bath to London to visit your fiance's brother, who's back in the country for a few days, then you don't have a lot of choice.

Due to planned weekend engineering works, the usual 1 hour 30 minute journey is now over two hours, and there is only a train every hour. This is supposedly "off-peak" travel, but lunchtime on a Sunday is very much "on-peak", and we were very lucky to get a seat. There were a great number of people standing (or sitting on the floor) all the way from Bath to London. I'd imagine First class was empty though, so anyone who's company was buying their ticket for them could have sat down no problem.

On the way home we arrived at Paddington ten minutes before our train home, but decided against rushing to buy drink and a bite to eat, and instead would jump on the train and guarantee ourselves some seats. We'll get something from the buffet car, we thought.

Wrong. Despite the scrolling electronic sign reading "A Buffet car serving snacks and hot and cold drinks is available on this service" on the concourse and the platform, the buffet car remained shut for the whole journey.

An announcement, was made by the train manager, but only as the train pulled out of the station. He then - obviously already stressed by a number of passengers asking the dame questions - got the raging arse with me when I asked him why it was shut, and more importantly why the signs had said it was open. He said that due to the new timetable (eh? what's that got to do with catering?) there was no catering past 21:00 at the weekends.

As to the signs saying there was catering? The train manager said, "We've asked for those notices not to be up, and instead a sign saying no catering on this train, but every time we ask, no-one listens to us."

I know how he feels. If FGW management wont even listen to it's front line staff, it's no wonder they don't listen to their customers.

Living In A Bubble

On the daily grind to work, I reckon about 50% of commuters I see have something stuck in their ears. I'm no different. I've nearly always got the headphones of my radio/mp3 player/laptop in my ears.

I've often thought that this is sad, that we all live in our own little bubble, and are not sharing our audio experience with anyone. Wouldn't life be more pleasant if we listened to the natural noises of life? The birds singing, the conversations, even the noise of the train on the track can be quite pleasant.

I'd also quite like to talk to some of the people I regularly see on the train. I share 15 hours a week with some of these people and yet I know nothing about them. If you're a train commuter I expect, like me, you have little names for people. Guy who looks like Tiger Woods, Old dude with the comb-over, Girl with the thermal coffee mug, Man with worn paperback and dreadlocks, man with the ace 'tache.

Would it be nice to know a little more about these people. To know their names, say "hi, how's your day?", "How's that book?" or "How do I grow an ace 'tache like that?" We don't have to be best friends. Just a bit of chatter to make life more interesting and enjoyable.

On health grounds it would be good to stop putting headphones in too. My friend H, an audiologist, tells me that using my headphones everyday there is a very good chance I'll be tone deaf by 50.

So all this week I have left my headphones at home, and have made a point of greeting at least one person on each journey with a quick hello, or good morning.

Most people have been pretty welcoming to this new idea. Most have said hello back. It even went so far as a three-minute conversation about our commute with one person. This is good.

One person moved seat and plugged their headphones in. No problem, stay in your bubble. I've no gripe with that.

What I have realised though, is there is a reason that people live in their own bubble with their mp3 players. And that reason is mobile phones. Almost every journey has had some loud, obnoxious arse shouting into their mobile phone. Or worse, a bunch of yoofs playing the latest choons to their friends, except it sounds like the band is playing in an exceptionally large tin dustbin.

Mobile phones are a scourge on society. I've got one, but I use it sensibly. I hate talking on the train, I whisper and make the call as quick as possible, walking to the vestibule if I can. People ask me what ring tone I've got. i don't know. It's always on vibrate. Why does everyone else need to know when my phone's ringing?

So if you were the man sitting behind me last night on the 18:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour service, and you were wailing into your bluetooth headset all the way from Cardiff to Bristol (except the Severn Tunnel - Ha Ha!) about "raising your game", "meeting targets", "getting the whole team involved" etc. I'd just like to say, that thanks to you, I'm putting my headphones back in, and I'll hold you personally responsible when my hearing goes. Also, I'll now never know how to grow a really great moustache.

If you've not finished work for the day, don't leave work. We don't want to hear it. You've had your warning. If I catch you again, I'm going to wish bad things happen to your family pets.

photo courtesy of tuxcomputers on flickr.com

More Lies From FGW

Received a letter yesterday from FGW saying that I wasn't due any compensation for a half hour delay on the 9th of March

Our passenger's charter explains that the compensation you have requested is only available when you are delayed by more than 59 minutes

This however is not true, since on February 21st I received a letter from Alison Forster (FGW, Managing Director) which said

Compensation for ex Wessex train services should be paid for delays over 30 minutes.... The restriction of compensation for an hour's delay relates to previous First Great Western journeys only... you should have received compensation and I am sorry you did not.... I have also asked for all operators to be reminded of the distinction in compensation arrangements and I apologise for the error.

But this error has happened twice since I received this letter. I don't believe customer services agents were told about this distinction in compensation payments. So I've written back telling them. See what happens next time.


Also of interest is the excuse for my delay on the 9th March

I regret that your journey was disrupted due to the Driver being taken ill.

Which is strange because I was standing at the front of this train, and was chatting to the driver as he explained to me that the train had failed. He seemed pretty well to me. Yet more lies.

Finally, an interesting point, I have received around 20 letters from FGW customer service agents since January. I've not had the same agent sign a letter twice. Are there that many people dealing with customer complaints? Possible, I'd imagine they're getting a lot. Is there a high staff turn over down there in Plymouth? Also likely, I'd imagine there were lots of temps in dealing with the major problems of Jan/Feb. Or is it that every letter is sent off has a randomly generated name of someone who doesn't exist, so that we can't pin down our complaint on any one person? Maybe I'm getting too cynical.

More FGW Incompetence

I was an hour late for work this morning. And no, it wasn't because I forgot to put my clocks forward.

This morning someone decided to throw a brick at my train sometime on it's journey between London and Bath.

At this point I'd like to point out that I in no way condone random acts of vandalism, but this was no random act. I feel it's unlikely that this attack was carried out for kicks by hooded "yoofs", since it occurred before 6.30 am, and I'd imagine they're all asleep. No, this attack was deliberately targeted. Some commuter venting their anger? Maybe, and if so, understandable, but not excusable.

Upon pulling into Bristol, the train manager announced that we would be delayed briefly while fitters would be attempting to patch up the broken window before we continued our journey to South Wales. 20 minutes later and an announcement is made that since both panes of glass had been broken it was a health and safety risk to continue, in case it "imploded"! So we have to all get off the 8-car high speed train, and wait 25 minutes for the next 2-car "trolley-bus"-style train to Cardiff.

It's not directly FGW's fault that someone had vandalised the train, so FGW have done nothing wrong so far, right? Wrong. Here's where the brain cells should have kicked in:

1. Why weren't the fitters told before we got to Bristol that both panes were broken. Someone could have just looked. It's not rocket science. Though, upon gettinig to Bristol, it still took 20 minutes to work out that both panes were broken... maybe it is rocket science.

2. If the train was unsafe, why was it allowed to continue from the attack site to Bristol, surely everyone should have been off-loaded at the next safe place? If it was safe to get to Bristol - why couldn't it continue to it's destination?

3. And this was the thing that really got me angry. Why did it take 20 minutes to tell us? Was it deliberate that we were told to get off just one minute after another train to Cardiff left Bristol? Was it to avoid overcrowding on that train? If so, it didn't work. It just delayed the overcrowding to the next train.

Was it done to antagonise as many passengers as possible? Because if so, it worked.

My guess is that it was plain stupidity on the part of the train manager who, as usual, wasn't thinking about the needs of the passengers. And I told him what I thought.

I tell you, if I'd have had something to throw....

I Hate First Great Western....

...is just one of many blogs I've recently found written by angry commuters. It's the name that best sums up my feelings. Though i might have slipped in a stronger word or two.

I've created a new separate link list of angry commuters. We need to share information, as, reading the various posts, people get given lots of different information. Our voice will become much louder if we co-ordinate our efforts and shout louder.

Cardiff Central to...? tells the story of John Shipston's efforts to get to places from South Wales (where I have to get to everyday). There are two (three if you count the occasional Virgin train) operators out of Cardiff, yet John only seems to have problems with one of them. Can you guess who it is?

Commuter blog is Max's story of trying to get from Bath to Oxford, made more difficult by having to change trains at different stops in the evening and morning! My favourite story of Max's is the driver not knowing the way to Chippenham from Swindon.

The now infamous, I Hate FGW blog is the tale of a government-friendly London commuter. Not that this means FGW run her train any better mind. She tells us there'll soon be badges for us all to wear, not the loudest of protests, but a very visual one none-the-less. I look forward to wearing mine.

More Train, Less Strain is not so much of a blog as a collective. It has a good forum to post your horror stories. They also seem to be our official spokespeople, and have such been granted an audience with Alison Forster (FGW managing director).

Oldfield Park is where I used to catch my train to work. But since all FGW timetables should be taken with a ±1 hour warning, I now need to catch an earlier train, so I cycle to Bath Spa. Our blogger here updates delays (and overcrowding) at this commuter station, which now has the most bizarre of timetables. (Though not as bizarre as the poor guys down at Melksham who have a gap in the timetable of nearly 12 hours without any trains)

Tehmina is a frustrated commuter between Salisbury and Southampton, proving that FGW are crap everywhere. I've pinched the nice picture on this site for this blog entry. It's also now my screen saver. Thanks Tehmina.

The Truth About First Great Western is a very professional looking blog. Carter Harrison's main argument is that the government are mostly to blame for the problems we have. Although I agree with a lot of what he says (see elsewhere) I believe he's trying to shift a bit too much blame away from FGW. Maybe he has another agenda? I dunno, read it (and the two associated mini-sites) and make up your own mind. I believe that FGW could, after all, run more, cleaner carriages, on time, and at cheaper fares to try and boost their profits by attracting more custom. There is another way.

Finally I've stuck Train Delays on the list. It's not a blog, but it is a good site for listing your delays, finding out if compensation is due, reading the crap excuses that are given and seeing where FGW falls in the league table of incompetence.

Let me know if you know of any others. Maybe the guys at MTLS should put up a more up-to-date list.

Don't forget to keep writing to your MP, keep writing to the DfT and keep claiming back the money your entitled to. I'll keep you updated. Maybe we all need to get together for a gathering outside the DfT at some point. Actions, after all, speak louder than words.

To Fight or Not To Fight?

I've always cared a bit too much about public transport. I think this has come about for a number of reasons.

• I don't drive, so it's the only way I can get around.
• I like to get around; my mates live all over the country and I work 60 miles from where I live.
• My father worked in the Rail Industry, and as young kids we used to go on holiday by train.
• There is no way we'll tackle climate-change in the UK until people get out of their cars, and they wont get out of their cars until there is decent alternative.
• And finally, I think I have some deep-rooted socialist principles that are fighting to show themselves above my very white-middle-class background.

It distresses me that the railways are being run into the ground, and it pissed me off when my train fare rose by 13 % in January (despite my government-dictated salary rising by 1%). So for the last 4 months I have been waging a war of words with First Great Western and the Department for Transport.

First Great Western, to their credit have usually responded quickly to my letters, often with rail vouchers (or bribes, as I call them) and I've even had a reply letter from the Managing Director (with more bribes). I suppose FGW are good at dealing with complaints because they get so bloody many.

The Department for Transport are a different breed though. Here you are dealing with bureaucracy, secrecy, people who wont answer the bloody questions I ask them. Here you are dealing with Civil Bloody Servants. How can it possibly take 3 weeks to reply to my letters? Especially given that I seem to get the latest automated "somone's complaining about FGW" letter. I think they are hoping I will have calmed down and gone away by the time they reply.

This democratically elected government is supposed to regulate certain fares for commuters, such as weekly season tickets. They are also supposed to protect fares in areas where one company has a monopoly on public transportation. In Bath, First group run every train and every bus. If that's not a monopoly on public transport, then I don't know what is. And yet in my last letter from the DfT;

I should like to confirm that the fares regime is consistent with government policy. The majority of passengers continue to travel with tickets where increases are limited by government regulation.

So that's alright then. The majority of commuters get their regulated, inflation +1% rise, and in the South West we are shafted. And just to rub our noses in it, we are shafted by the worst performing franchise in Britain. For January-February, FGW missed all their performance targets for reliability and punctuality. The have also fallen below all their rolling annual averages for reliability and punctuality for all five service areas they run. They are, in short, fucking crap, and fucking expensive.

So, having had my rant, should I continue to send fruitless letters in the hope that someone somewhere will listen? Or should I calm down, let my blood pressure normalise, and realise that the world is a shit place where the man will continue to fuck us over.

To fight or not to fight - that is the question.