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...

Will I also hate Virgin?

I'm being given the opportunity to try out another train service this week, as my work takes me to Birmingham. Not sure how that happened, but there it is.

The only things I've noticed about Virgin to date are the amount of time the trains seem to spend sitting at the platform at Reading station (long), the length of delays the services are able to rack up on a long distance journey (epic), and the fact that the staff look like airline cabin crew in their swish new red trains. This is probably not enough information for me to make a proper comparison with the services of First Great Western, so I shall be taking copious notes.

This latest development also means that I have a seat reservation on the 18:45 from Paddington to Reading on Wednesday which I won't be using. Any takers?

Bum on seat, part 1: E27a

The system works! Not a phrase you hear often in relation to FGW, but it seems that despite suggestions to the contrary, season ticket holders can reserve seats.

As I have mentioned before, I am the proud owner of a reserved seat on nine services from London Paddington over the next three weeks, and last night was the first: seat E27a.

The tube was functioning surprisingly well, so I arrived in good time for the train and did not have the satisfaction of booting someone out of my seat, but I was still pleased to see the little cardboard ticket poking from the back when I boarded coach E. The train was full by the time we left, and there were people standing, but unfortunately I was too happy in my private area of reservedness to remember to hand out badges to those passengers less well off than myself. Hey ho.

If you'd like to try this for yourself, the e-mail address you need is charlotte.mcconnachie@firstgroup.com, let me know if the system works for you too, or if I happened to catch the customer service team on a good day.

The importance of sitting down

Great news to impart. I have successfully booked a seat on nine trains from Paddington over the next few weeks, starting next Tuesday.

I have the seat numbers in my possession, and will unceremoniously be chucking people out of any that are occupied, so I'm sorry if it's you, but it's a jungle out there in commuterland, and it's survival of the fittest.

So, this disproves something I saw written on the FGW website, which says that season ticket holders can't reserve seats. I think it's actually the goodwill of the FGW Customer Service staff I have to thank rather than any change of policy, but I'm not complaining, as long as there's a seat there for me to sit on. I'll report back next week on how it goes.

My only problem is that sometimes I don't get that train, but I'm going to try very hard, just to make sure I give the seat reservation system a good trial, all in the name of research of course.

In other news, still no sign of a cheque in the post, sadly, so I continue to await my refund. It'll be 28 days on Thursday since I received the second letter replying to my complaint, so a third letter will be despatched on that day to try and hurry it up a bit.

And I'm not even going to mention my 50 minute wait at Paddington Station on Friday night at 11:45pm, after a late shift, when the train failed to turn up because it was delayed in the depot. Whoops, I just did. I tried to mention my blog to some of the hundreds of people waiting with me, but sadly most of them were drunk, so I'm not sure my point got across very well. Still, if I only get one more visitor it'll be worth it. No, it won't, I need hundreds more. Spread the word!

Why the duck?

I've received an e-mail from Sharon at the "Forward" programme to confirm that it's now closed and there's no other promotion in its place. So, my dream of first class upgrades and free cups of tea is no more.

But, in better news, she's confirmed that season ticket holders can indeed reserve seats for no cost, despite the website suggesting that a £5 fee could be charged for each reservation. So, I've given her a list of dates, and wait to see whether the system works. The first reservation I've asked for is tomorrow, so fingers crossed I could have a guaranteed seat for my bum at the end of the day. I'll let you know.

To answer the question I posed in the title, I've used a picture of a duck because I'm getting a bit stuck for pictures that don't involve a FGW train, in order to illustrate the seat reservation issue. So, instead I've decided to throw caution to the wind entirely, and take full advantage of the lovely images provided by Free Foto. I hope you like it.

Summer is here...

...and with it comes the sweaty unpleasantness of the underground as I battle towards Paddington and hope for a seat on the train home.
But maybe soon I won't need to worry, as a small white ticket will hopefully save a seat for me, and allow me to make my way on to my regular-ish train without having to worry that I'm going to stand all the way to Reading.
A free reservation system is offered as part of FGW's Forward Customer Programme, which is designed for season ticket holders and regular travellers. Apparently there are all sorts of other benefits, but I've only just found this out, as I'm not a member. As you will see from the Forward Customer Programme page on the website, it offers all sorts of benefits, including free weekend car parking, free hot drinks from the buffet, free first class weekend upgrades, and access to the first class lounge. These are things I want! Unfortunately, when you read on, you discover that the programme is currently closed to new applications, as they're reviewing it. I've never heard of it before, have you? Maybe I've not been paying attention, but as far as I know I've never been offered membership, or ever seen the service being advertised or promoted. I've asked for more details on the scheme, but I'm expecting that, like most things at FGW, the reply will be slow in arriving, so if you know anything about it, please let me know, as I feel like I've been missing out all this time.

Does the reservations system work?

I spend a lot of time sitting in reserved seats. Not ones that I've reserved, but ones with tickets in the back that someone else has reserved, but that the reservee doesn't actually turn up to park his or her bottom in. Our annoying friend, Mr NVN, whose comments I've been blocking due to their insulting nature, did actually make an interesting point. He suggested that we should all stop moaning about not being able to get a seat on the train, and reserve one, which costs nothing.

A lot of people do reserve seats. In fact, there's one carriage every day which is liberally peppered with these reserved labels, and there are always people hopefully hanging around waiting for the train to leave, so they can nab them.

Several times a week, when there's no seat available, I take my chances and sit in one of these reserved seats, and nine times out of ten no-one turns up to turf me out. So, are these people just reserving seats on several trains, to make sure they get a seat on one of them, or are they getting on the train and finding out there is a seat available, and sitting in that instead? And, if hardly anyone's turning up to use their reserved seats, what's the point of them?

This week, I think I will try and reserve a seat on the train I normally manage to catch in the evening from Paddington, the 18:45 to Swansea, and will let you know if it's an easy thing to do and whether the system works. I'd be interested to know whether the system has worked for you.

On another subject, it seems my celebration at finally receiving a refund from First Great Western was short-lived, as I am still to receive a cheque from their finance department. How long do you think I should leave it before I start charging them interest?