Slight disappointment re: the free money

I was very excited last night to find a letter had come from First Great Western. I was slightly less excited to find that the rail voucher enclosed was for the grand sum of £4.00.

Yes, you read that right. 400 of our British pence. This is Andrew Haines' compensation for the less-than-excellent service throughout December. Although, to be fair, that will buy 5.12 copies of my favourite Take a Break magazine, which provides much needed opportunities to laugh at other people's misfortunes during train delays.

For example, this week's edition, bought as compensation when I missed a connection last night, had finished my book, and found myself with nothing to read, contains the following headlines - Child with a Junkie Father - "wake up daddy, I'm scared"

They Were Burnt Alive - "Yobs murdered my pets"

Amazing! - I became pregnant - and shrank!

Britain's Got Love Rats - "You can run, John...but you can't hide!"

Quality entertainment I'm sure you'll agree. However, I can't help but be slightly concerned that the cost of sending out all these £4.00 vouchers may be more than the value of the vouchers themselves.

Still, I am now armed with four rail vouchers, as a result of all my careful complaining last year. Sadly, they add up to a mere £34.00 at the last count. Which probably won't even cover the recent fare rise. Still, it's something. As various celebrities continue to say annoyingly in Tesco adverts, "every little helps".

We can strike too!

As if by magic, my question from the last post has been answered. This comment from Tony at More Train Less Strain was received:

"If anyone from Reading or Maidenhead would like to help to co-ordiante a fare strike on the 28th January we want to hear from you.

Email: tambrose31@yahoo.co.uk and join the 6 fare strikes curently planned."

So, what are you waiting for? Join the strike and make your feelings known.

Even if the drivers and guards don't go ahead with their strike action, we can, and we have lots to complain about.

Also, an interesting discussion on overcrowding is taking place on the Insider's blog In Defence of First Great Western. Go and have a look. He explains it all in a clear and understandable way, but my question is: why is the system in such a mess that First Great Western hasn't got enough carriages (ie: why is no-one making any new ones?), and why does it have to run and ask the government every time it wants more? Why isn't it in control of its own trains? It's a rum old world I tells thee.

Can we strike too please?

So, guards and drivers at FGW have voted to go on strike. Apparently, they're fed up with FGW's "confrontational" style of management, and they don't like it when managers drive the trains.

Hey, guess what, I don't like it when managers drive the trains either! I want my trains driven by train drivers please.

The problem is, we passengers can't go on strike, so we'll have to put up with even more cancellations and delays, because the company can't get it together to look after the people who work for them, or at least keep them in dialogue long enough for them not to go out on strike.

Sometimes the words "piss-up" and "brewery" come to mind when I think of the way that FGW try to run their bit of the railway. The words "bull" and "china shop" occur to me too, when you look at the way they deal with problems.

Look, we know there aren't enough trains, the staff morale is low, the tracks need fixing and the stations aren't big enough. We know all this. We just want you to sort it out. All we can see from our end is the cost of our tickets, and the constant failure to get us from A to B. Surely you can see why we might be as annoyed as the drivers who object to managers driving the trains. My message to First Great Western is take your hands away from your ears and stop shouting "la la la, I can't hear you". It's good to talk, as they say.

Stop press: free money alert!

I should probably visit the First Great Western website more often than I do.

I must admit that, considering the nature of this blog, it is very remiss of me. But, better late than never. A peruse of some of the other websites which are not best friends with FGW (a list of links to which you can find on the right), has led me to find the following link. My thanks to Economy Klaus from First Late Western for being on the ball and bringing it to the attention of his readers.
It is a letter from Andrew Haines, FGW's Chief Operating Officer, apologising about December's bad service, and offering season ticket holders two day's worth of travel vouchers as an apology.
All you have to do is write to the Freepost address provided and give a copy of your ticket, and, hey presto, free vouchers come through the door. My letter is already written and posted. Hopefully the aforementioned vouchers will arrive before I renew my ticket in February.
So, a slightly more Happy New Year after all. I stand corrected.

Let it snow!

Ah, New Year. A time for fresh new beginnings, soon-to-be-broken resolutions, and the feeling that a new page has been turned, an opportunity to get fitter, get a better job, get to work on trains that run on time, and are not crowded. Ah.
I, like many of you, went back to work yesterday after a longer-than-usual break. It's delightfully quiet on the trains this week, I got a seat on the tube from Paddington this morning, which is unheard of. However, despite being delighted about arriving at work early, the only reason I did so is because the fast train from Slough that I usually miss was badly delayed, so I caught it. Everything was delayed at Slough this morning. It seems the system still isn't working, and they can't blame passenger numbers, because most of us aren't even there to get annoyed by it.
So, what has the New Year brought for First Great Western? Well, fare rises for a start. That got everyone talking on New Year's Day, probably because there wasn't much other news. I won't be getting all irate about that until February, when my season ticket runs out, but expect to hear some pretty loud bellyaching then.
No, I'm most aggravated by the fact that I'm really looking forward to the promised snow, and it hasn't come. Also, if it does come, I shall be forced to be annoyed about it messing with the trains, rather than stomping about enjoying it and throwing it and making it into snowmen as I did in my childhood. Being grown up is rubbish and forces you to be grumpy about things that used to be fun. Remember how cool it was to travel by train when you were a child? Perhaps we should try and recreate that innocence of youth, and be genuinely surprised every day when we arrive at the station and find that the train isn't there. Then we could all play clapping and skipping games while we wait for it to arrive. At least it would confuse the hell out of the staff, who seem pretty grumpy themselves about working on the trains, something they too would have thought brilliant as children.
Or maybe we should bring the age of steam back. Even adults think steam trains are cool. Choo choo!

We wish you a Merry Christmas

I imagine most of you will be settling back this weekend and enjoying Christmas already, so in the spirit of the tradition of playing word games whilst slumped on the sofa after a massive roast lunch, I thought it would be fun to give you a few anagrams of "I Hate First Great Western" that I've been slaving over whilst at the office today.

Not really, the part about being at the office is true, but I found a brilliant anagram-making website, so here are the best five:

Reintegrate a Fresh Twist

Sweethearts a-Frittering

A Teenager Writes Thrifts

Thereafter is a Grits Newt

Twit Rehearses a Gift Tern

Very silly, but made me laugh. And if you'd like to have a go, visit http://www.angelfire.com/biz/WLAW/anagram.html

And here's the best one made out of the letters of my full name:

Red Jellies, Ooh a Nun!

Have a great Christmas everyone, and come back with your gripes and grumbles in the New Year. It'll be the blog's first birthday in January, so I'll have to think of something special to do to mark the anniversary.

Tidings of comfort and joy

When I became a commuter, a few years ago now, I soon realised that I had also become a bit of a bore, because talking about our horrible commute is what commuters do. A lot. And probably quite angrily. So it's always nice to find others in the same boat, who can share their stories about "the day it took 17 hours to get home from work", or "the night I went to prison after finally punching the drunk man on the late train who wouldn't stop talking loudly and incomprehensibly into his mobile phone".

In that spirit, here are two other blogs you might find sympathetic to your complaining needs. Thanks to Lee from the First Great Western Coffee Shop, who is also a useful port of call when your nearest and dearest tell you if you mention First Great Western one more time, you'll be banished to bed with no supper.

http://www.thirdratewestern.com/

http://www.trainfellows.blogspot.com/

I'll add these to my links list too. It seems the number of places to go when you're fed up with FGW is growing. Soon, you'll only have to switch on your computer to hear a collective "Aaaargh! Wait until I tell you what happened on the way to work/from work/at the station."

I imagine we make up quite a varied and disparate bunch of people, coming as we do from up and down the Thames Valley and the West. But with just one voice: "I Hate First Great Western!" Someone should write a blog about it I reckon.

Ho, ho, ho! A merry Christmas commute to you

Hello peeps

Apologies for my rather substantial absence, and sorry if you were under the impression that I'd disappeared entirely. Things have been rather busy at work, and, I find myself having to admit, my commute has been fine recently.

That is no excuse of course, as I know there are many of you still struggling with delays and overcrowding on a daily basis, so I'm back to assure you that I'm still here, and still reading your messages with interest.

Sadly, I also currently find myself badgeless, as I have now sent out 600 of the little fellas, and have run out of my present stock. If demand..er, demands it, I shall reorder in the New Year, but until then, apologies, and to those who have them already - you are now the possessors of a limited edition item, so don't lose them!

But, back to business, and a timetable change has occurred during my absence, something that always upsets a fair few of us. I was a bit disappointed to discover the disappearance of some of the daytime fast trains to Paddington from Slough. I expect this will begin to get on my nerves in the next few weeks, when I shall be on late shifts. How has it affected you?

I'd also like to assure the staff member who has commented on my previous post that, honestly, we know commuters are a bit pushy and annoying and the badges are not meant as an insult to you personally. I myself am very fond of the nice people I talk to on the platforms, most of them anyway, and usually find them helpful and sympathetic to my complaints.

But even nice people can turn into a horrible baying mob when pushed to extremes, and sometimes, I am ashamed to say, even I catch myself barging old ladies and children out of the way to get that last available seat, something I am not proud of. So, seeing as it's the season of goodwill, a big apology to anyone who's felt the sharp end of my elbow during the past year, I'm normally a very calm person and quite kind really, yes it's true.

Anyway, a very merry Christmas to you all, and I hope you have trouble-free travel throughout the Christmas and New Year period.

To hell with global warming, give me a patio heater!

The weather's taken a bit of a turn for the chilly, as I'm sure you've noticed.

Whilst actually on the train, this is not an issue, as we are warmed in the same way as people stuck up mountains. No, we don't get naked and climb into each other's sleeping bags, but we do huddle close together, whether we like it or not.

No, the part of the day that really pains me is the bit where I stand on the platform with the wind somehow managing to bypass the gloves, the scarf and the extra pair of socks, in its mission to climb into my bones and stay there all day long.

At these times I crave the warmth of a patio heater. Just imagine how happy we'd be clustered around these planet-killing wonder-inventions, all toasty and warm and slightly less annoyed about the delays.

But we couldn't have those, as they're too bad for the environment. So, what else can we do to beat the freeze? I suppose the second-best option is the waiting room, but all too often these are locked, especially in the evenings when we need them the most.

My least favourite place to be when it's cold is the Hammersmith and City platform at Paddington Station. I'm convinced this platform exists in a separate weather system to the rest of the city, as it always seems to be at least three degrees colder there than anywhere else along the journey. And it appears to be something of a wind tunnel. I'm shivering just thinking about it.

So, what are your top tips for keeping warm on the platform? Maybe we could sing protest songs and someone could bring a guitar.

Or perhaps we could just huddle like we do on the train. Next time you feel someone invading your personal space, don't worry, I'm not getting over-friendly, I'm just trying to stave off an attack of hypothermia.

We are not amused, but not so angry

Well, it's been nearly a year since I started the blog, and as the long winter nights start to draw in, I have to say I'm a lot less angry than I was back in January.

And I think there are three reasons for this.

1) Moving house - I can highly recommend living nearer your place of work. It still takes me a fair old while to get to the office, but the delays just aren't as severe as when you have to travel out into the wilderness beyond Reading. Of course, I realise this is not a solution for most people, but it's certainly made a difference to me. And, is it just me or are things slightly better in terms of delays these days? I think they are, at least up my neck of the woods anyway.

2) Getting the full picture - My gratitude to those members of FGW staff who have made such an effort to explain to us why the trains are late, overcrowded and cancelled. Two have even set up their own blogs for the purpose, which is marvellous. It's so much easier to cope with delays if you understand why they happen, even if you don't have much sympathy at the time.

3) Having someone to talk to - Thanks to everyone who takes part in this blog on a regular basis. I find that it's very hard to explain to a non-commuter how awful things are sometimes - people either assume I'm a scary aggressive person, for wanting to give out badges with the word "hate" on them, or just switch off once I start relaying my morning commute to them, blow by blow. It's good to share, even if we're only sharing the need to have a good whinge.

But, on the flip side of the coin, there are things I still don't understand, and which still make me unhappy. And these are they:

1) Why are the train managers given stupid rules to follow that don't make sense?

- Not allowing season-ticket holders to sit in First Class if standard class is full, even though the Conditions of Carriage say you're allowed to ask

- Not allowing standard class ticket holders to upgrade to First Class on the train, even when they're offering you money up front and the rest of the train is full

2) Overcrowding

- It's still not okay to pay a large sum of money to be squished up to your neighbour's armpit on a regular basis, and no-one's come up with a really good explanation of where all the carriages went and why. It's something to do with money and the department of transport, but to be honest, isn't providing the maximum number of seats possible on each rush-hour service something that should be a priority?

3) Customer Service

- Why does the complaints department always try to fob you off with a standard letter, no matter what your complaint? It's insulting and makes us angry. No-one likes complaining, and certainly no-one likes complaining twice, or three times...

- Things seem very unclear. I've discovered that season ticket holders can reserve seats, although I'm not sure if they're supposed to. And I only found out about the off-peak upgrade from someone else with a season ticket, it seems that passengers could do with a bit of the website that would tell us about the reasons for delays, any offers, and other useful information. I'm sure it's all there on the website somewhere, but it's not the easiest to get around.

I shall be investigating, and see if I can find some answers...