Seeing Red

I cannot tell you how eye-poppingly angry I was last night at First Great Western. Of course this is not true. I can, and am about to tell you in great detail, so please brace yourself.

Here goes: I was at the pub after work, as someone was leaving, so I stayed for a few drinks. I left the pub at half past nine, aiming to catch the 2221 from Paddington, getting into Slough at 2243, and with a comfortable seven minutes to wait until my Windsor train at 2250, getting me home around eleven, in plenty of time for a reasonably early night.

I got to Paddington in plenty of time to catch the train, but of course they left us standing on the platform in front of the few grubby carriages, no-one thinking to open the door and let us sit down like the tired human beings we all clearly were. They announce the platform and open the doors immediately the train arrives on South West Trains - why don't they do this on FGW? Still, I digress.

They finally opened the doors and I settled down with my book, unaware that 2221 had come and gone until an announcement revealed that the driver was late arriving at the station "but should be here in approximately three minutes". The driver being late is one of the worst excuses of all time, as it's entirely avoidable. Why the hell was the driver late?

The train finally pulled out at 2236, fifteen minutes late, meaning that I missed my connection at Slough, and had to ring home for a lift. If I'd waited for the next Windsor train, I'd have been home at about half past eleven.

So far, so normal, you might say, but this is why I was so angry.

I had chosen FGW over South West Trains on the basis that the journey was considerably quicker, at least on paper. But here's the thing. It would have been better for me to take the longer tube journey to Waterloo, catch the 2228 (leaving seven minutes later than the Paddington train) and stop THIRTEEN times at stations on the way to Windsor, and I still would have arrived home earlier than if I'd waited at Slough for the next Windsor train, having missed my connection.

Let me say this again: The fast train from Paddington to Slough, stopping ONCE, followed by a six minute trip to Windsor from Slough, took longer last night than a South West Train service stopping thirteen times, and leaving seven minutes later.

This is just simply not good enough, and I'm absolutely furious about it.

I'm delighted to say that South West Trains have now cancelled their planned strike action, so I have no reason to set foot back on FGW for the time being, which is probably a good thing, as I would be freely flinging I Hate First Great Western badges around with great abandon.

The only good news for those poor souls who have no choice in their train provider is that the free off-peak First Class upgrade is back. It can't make the trains go faster, but at least you can have a free cup of tea while you wait. For your voucher, go here.

Anyway, rant over, thanks for listening. Sorry to go on, but it could have been worse. I was so angry last night, only the lateness of the hour prevented me from logging on and updating my blog then and there. I think it's safe to say it's lucky I didn't, or your poor ears might have been insulted by my terrible language.

The Sarkozy Effect

Well, my goodness Windsor is clean at the moment. It's normally pretty tidy, one of the advantages of having the Queen as a neighbour, but at the moment it's absolutely spotless. I have also seen more policepeople on the town's streets in the past two days than in the entire six months I've lived there. A state visit is all rather exciting. Unfortunately, I've missed the whole thing because I've been at work, so as a commuter have only witnessed the imminent closing of roads and police dogs sniffing around in bushes, but I enjoyed the hustle and bustle and sense of expectation all the same.

Since I last wrote, I've been dutifully sending out badges, which it seems are still in big demand (thank goodness, since I ordered quite a lot of them, so don't be afraid to ask!) and avoiding the FGW issue altogether by travelling on South West Trains. Unfortunately the honeymoon appears to be over, because the train drivers' union ASLEF has announced four days of strike action, which will hit SWT on the 31st of March. Notice how they've now become abbreviated to SWT because they're in my bad books - that'll show them!

So, it's back to First Great Western next week, and back to Paddington Station. I have to admit to being quite a fan of Waterloo. The platforms seem to be announced with at least ten minutes to spare. The trains are always at least eight, and sometimes twelve carriages long, and they mostly appear to be clean, warm and on-time. I'll be sad to revert to the stress of running between platforms, waiting on cold stations and missing my connections.

Perhaps if we could get the Queen using a bit more public transport, the system could be smartened up a bit. There's no way they'd let her stand on the station at Slough on a freezing March morning, or sit in a carriage that smells of sick from the previous evening's drunken idiots. At least you'd like to think not anyway.

What about Wales?

Last night I returned home to find that the postman had been unable to deliver a package because it needed to be signed for. I'm hoping it's the badges, how exciting. This means they will soon be winging their way to those that have asked for them.

I noticed whilst making a list of everyone's addresses, that there seem to be an awful lot of requests from Wales this time. Are things particularly bad in Wales, and is this recent, or have FGW been letting down the Welsh for a while now? I'd be interested to hear from you.

At the moment I am blissfully unaware of any FGW problems, because I am finding that using South West Trains to get to and from Windsor is a far calmer and more reliable experience, and the difference in the time is negligible, which is funny, since there are 13 stops between Waterloo and Windsor, and you would think it would be much slower.

Anyway, I don't mean to gloat while things are going well for me, as I know the rest of you don't have the choice to use a different train company, at least at the moment, though what with all these threats and rumblings from the Department for Transport about First Great Western losing its franchise, you never know. I'd be very interested to see if anyone else would be capable of running this, admittedly, very difficult part of the country's rail network.

Introducing Terry Mechan

Hello all, hope you're having a good and trainless weekend.

I am very happy to say that my inbox at ihatefgw@yahoo.co.uk is filling up with requests for badges, which will be sent out as soon as I receive the new batch from the badge-making elves, who are busy painting them in the FGW colours as we speak.

In the meantime, while you wait, please enjoy the genius of Terry Mechan, who has taken his feelings about First Great Western and put them into song form in a Jonny Cash style, which you can listen to here.

I think we should invite him to busk his way up the First Great Western line and play for us on the platforms while we wait for the trains. I for one would definitely throw him a couple of quid for turning our frustrations into such an amusing ditty.

New badges on the way

I'm delighted to announce that after a short absence, the badges are back. I think it's something about the beginning of March that has galvanised me back into action, as I feel like we're finally emerging from winter hibernation.

I've received several requests over the past few months, I have saved all your details, and your badges will soon be arriving through your doors.

If you too would like a completely free badge expressing your feelings towards First Great Western, please send an e-mail with your name, address and the number of badges you'd like to ihatefgw@yahoo.co.uk

I'm also happy to receive photographs of you sporting your badges, so please send those to the same address.

I don't hate South West Trains

I took the South West trains service from Windsor to Waterloo today, as allowed by my new dual availability ticket, and from thence, a Northern Line train to my destination.

I was at work 15 minutes early, I had a seat throughout, and I enjoyed the scenic views of Staines and Feltham as we sailed through (okay, that bit is a slight exaggeration). It went slowly, but, crucially, it went slowly exactly to time.

It was brilliant. I'm a convert.

Next week I shall be testing the system by trying to use it in both directions to see what happens.

The former drill of either running between platforms or standing and shivering for ages, whilst relying on four separate services to get me to my destination was clearly madness.

Slowly but surely wins the race. Tortoise Power!

DfT and FGW don't tell the truth shocker

The Times newspaper reports today that London Travelwatch has accused ministers of colluding with First Great Western to conceal the true extent of its failures. Read the full story here. It seems that 311 cancellations over the past 11 months went unreported, according to the DfT.

Well, safe to say, I am un-flabbergasted and not at all surprised by the allegations. We all knew things were worse than FGW let on, and I suspect no commuters will be shocked to hear this news, as we've all known for ages that the system has been crap over the past year, to the extent that even a lazy person like me started a blog to complain about it.

At least the new management is, as it puts it, "blowing the whistle on itself".

In happier news, I have taken advantage of the "double discount" currently available due to the crap service before Christmas, and have renewed my season ticket this morning. Having taken the advice of a station manager who commented on an earlier post, I've got myself a ticket which can be used for trips both on FGW's services, and the South West Trains service to Waterloo from Windsor and Eton Riverside.

This means that I can opt out of FGW when the constant train-changing gets too much.

I might experiment with a journey on SWT next week and see how that goes. I think the trip will take longer, but since it's two trains instead of four, I might be able to put up with that.

I like this new management team that admits to its mistakes and offers cheaper tickets as an apology. That's all we really wanted from the start wasn't it?

Well, I suppose what we wanted was a good train service, but I'm beginning to wonder if that might just be pie in the sky. For now, an admission, an apology and a discount are working for me. Any chance of that off-peak upgrade again? That was good.

Half a Cheer

Latest News for those in the more Westerly areas of the FGW region. Full report from the BBC here:

"First Great Western is to pay for more trains and better passenger compensation after poor service on lines to Wales and the West Country.
The Swindon-based train operator agreed the £29m investment package after discussions with the government. Extra drivers and guards will be recruited to resolve a staff shortage.
FGW announced that five extra three-carriage trains will be leased for the troubled Cardiff to Portsmouth service. Compensation for delayed passengers next year will increase by half, on top of the doubling of compensation already announced for this year.
There will be extra discounted tickets available, better information systems and £4m will be spent on staff training."

More Train Less Strain, who organise the fare protests, have given the announcement "half a cheer", saying "We're very pleased to see more trains on a particularly troublesome route, but things like more cut price tickets are, to our mind, gimmicks."

Myself, I'm quite a fan of gimmicks, especially off-peak first class upgrades, or free cups of tea. Anything that acknowledges that travelling by train is not that fun and tries to improve it is fine by me.

Of course, the best gimmick of all would be cheaper tickets and fewer delays, but we can only live in hope.

Talking of delays, last night's trip out of Paddington was so bad I had to get off the train three stops early and get a lift home. I do wish suicidal people would find some other way to off themselves than throwing themselves under a train, it really is most inconvenient. I know it sounds callous but really, it throws the whole system into complete chaos for hours.

And, if you're standing nose to nose in a crowded carriage on the one train leaving the station for your destination (who knew there were 10 stops between Paddington and Slough?) please don't chomp away on something with open mouth whilst you're in close proximity to my ear, or you might end up one of those casualties on the tracks yourself. You have been warned.

Back on track

Greetings friends. I've returned from a week up a mountain covered in lovely snow to find that we still haven't had a proper attack of winter at home, and now I'm wondering if we are actually going to see any of the white stuff this year.

Since it was a skiing holiday, we were up at 7am every morning, so I've now come back to work for a rest. As a result, the alarm clock did not, er, alarm me this morning, and I barely noticed the commute, except that the fast train was delayed, so I caught it, which was good. Also, I'm enjoying my current book so much that getting on and off at the necessary stations was feeling like a real inconvenience. If it's still good at the end, I'll add it to the book list on the blog.

My season ticket runs out tomorrow, and I can't help but wonder if it might make more sense to buy a ticket from South West trains instead, as the Windsor - Waterloo service seems to be much more reliable, and only involves one train instead of two, though it takes a bit longer. It's a bit late now to make a decision, and I suspect I will stick with FGW, who are quicker when things are working properly. I look forward to seeing if the "double discount" announced by Andrew Haines a short while ago has a noticeable effect on the price of my ticket. It will still make me quite grumpy to hand over such a large amount of money, but it's so much cheaper than buying weekly and monthly tickets, and so much less hassle.

Mind you, it doesn't bode well for my work-from-home campaign that I'm planning to buy a year's ticket. Hum.

Pants on fire!

Now, I'm not sure how this happened, but my ire is beginning to turn and point (can ire point? If it doesn't, I think it should start, and, why not, let's have it stamping its feet too) firmly in the direction of the DfT. Sure, we all like to hate FGW, because they're the ones running the trains, and they've certainly made their share of mistakes, but it rather gets on my nerves when MPs start slagging off the company, when the DfT are the ones who are pulling all the strings.

Read the following, from the Sky News website: (read the full report here)

Chancellor Alastair Darling criticised First Great Western while in the West Country city of Bristol.
"I know there have been very great problems with this particular franchise that have gone on far too long. Frankly, the travelling public using the line are entitled to expect far better reliability and punctuality in a far better service. First Great Western need to get a grip of it. But I know that the Transport Secretary is very focused on this."
And fellow MP Dawn Primarolo said: "I share the rage of thousands of passengers regularly when I'm on a service where I can't get a seat, I'm tired, and I can't get home.
"I think they (First Great Western) have got to be given a clear ultimatum to improve the service. If they don't, we need to reconsider (renewing their franchise)."



Righty ho, so it's all their fault and not yours at all in any way then? The problem is, I don't believe it. It's just all such a lot of finger-pointing crap, and not in any way helpful to sorting out the problem of GETTING THE TRAINS TO RUN ON TIME!
Yes, FGW have their problems with staff-shortages, being a bit rubbish at giving us information sometimes, and putting up prices, and all of those things are their fault. But if they weren't so shackled by the DfT, they'd be able to sort out some of their problems and get the service improved.
I'm quite riled now. Which is a shame, as I'm off on holiday next week, so was having a lovely term's-out kind of Friday.
I'm all for getting a few "I Hate the DfT" badges printed, but I think there would be a queue of car drivers ahead of us, and who ever heard of a government department listening to anyone anyway. Golly, I've gone all political. Someone bring me a magazine full of celebrity gossip, quick!