First Great Western has been subject to a second fare strike by commuters.
Rail commuters today staged a fares “strike” in a protest against overcrowded, unreliable trains and rising fares.
Hundreds of passengers boarded First Great Western trains services, in south-west England, wearing cattle masks, with some substituting their normal tickets for specially printed vouchers carrying slogans such as “Worst Late Western”.
Having endured this service myself, I have sympathy. That said, I also have sympathy with the train operator as well. Unfortunately, they have little control over what happens to the infrastructure. A points failure, for example, creates a ripple effect, delaying trains throughout the day – and a train that misses its timetabled slot, may well be relegated behind another, possibly slower, service that is running on time. None of this will be the train operator’s fault. They cannot do anything to improve the quality of the infrastructure and can do nothing other than apologise profusely to their customers while fuming at the latest engineering overrun. Such is the nature of our fragmented railway.
They can, however, do something about one of the core planks of the complaint made against them; that of overcrowding. This, after all, was a company that replaced HST services consisting of eight coaches with five-car Adelantes. They are not the only ones. Anyone who has travelled west on a cross country service on a Friday afternoon in particular will be aware of just how miserable a journey can be. Want to experience hell? It’s between Leeds and New Street on the cross country main line. Virgin, too, took seven coach HSTs away and replaced them with four-car Voyagers; possibly the most uncomfortable train I have ever travelled in; competing in the crapola stakes with the truly dreadful Adelante. Noisy, cramped and overcrowded, they make the journey one that you will not forget in a hurry.
The excuse – and it’s a pretty feeble one – is that a higher volume of service makes up for the shorter trains. This assumes that people are able to be more flexible with their travelling times. The reality is that the same people turn up at the same station at the same time of day and try to squeeze into a shorter train.
I don’t do the 07:01 run to Paddington much these days – and I don’t miss it. I try, whenever I can, to avoid the commuter rush if I do have to travel by train.
Now, doesn’t it say something that as rail professional I tend to travel more often than not by road? It’s more reliable, I’m more likely to get there on time and it’s cheaper…
Remember this is the same mentality which wants to bring in road charging to stop people making unnecessary journeys. This would be the journey I have to make to get to the office for the hours my employer expects me to be there (ie normal business hours).
Personally I’m all for taking a sledgehammer to their ivory towers.
Integrated transport system, anyone?
In Bristol there’s been talk for decades about a light rail system. The old rail network still exists in the form of cycleways and footpaths. A light rail system could sit alongside them in comfort, providing a neat method of commuting into the centre of the city. What do the council do? Waste millions on upgrading bus routes that make driving more difficult.
I’ve witnessed these conditions whilst working in Bath. The trains aren’t just too small and too infrequent, they are filthy. It all adds up to give the distinct impression of an operator who really couldn’t care less about their “customers”. Good luck to the protestors – they deserve better. Why on earth is it so very difficult for us to have a decent reliable, clean, regular railway service in places? Other places have seen considerable improvements.
That sounds like the local service to me. The First Group now own the franchise for this as well as the Inter City services. Generally, I find the Intercity Services have a good carriage cleaning service in place with folk walking the train between stations collecting the rubbish. I’ve not travelled on the local service for some while, so I can’t say if matters have improved with the new franchise.
Yes I meant the local service – last time there was a fare strike it was about the local service. It wasn’t exactly clear from the piece in the Groan, but I suspect it was the same issue – as they were Bath commuters, trying to travel to Bristol on the local services.
I agree the inter city trains are fine, but the local ones are terrible – I remember explaining to some horrified American tourists I met on the way from Bristol to Bath that the filthy slow overcrowded train we were on wasn’t typical for the rest of the Country.
From what I understand, this strike was about the intercity services.