Reading Roars!

This post has been fermenting in my head for some time.  At last, here are my top 10 tips for a better train journey.  Please submit your tips.  Care and share, as they say!

1. Avoid the Monday morning queue(s).  These can be very long indeed at Reading Station.  Buy your ticket the day before.  Or get a season ticket.
2. Location, location, location.  You need to be in the right place, at the right time, on the station platform, in order to board the train first and win that seat.  Don’t stick with the herd.  Keep your eye on the incoming train. Move slickly this way and that.  Timing is everything.  And practise.
3. When boarding the train, grab the first vacant seat that you see.  There may not be another one.
4. There may be vacant seats marked as reserved.  Check the reservation labels.  Take one of the seats anyway.  You will probably be ok.
5. MP3 players are very handy.  On occasion, you may have to sit next to an irritating loudmouth talking on their mobile for the entire journey.  Laptop users can be similarly irritating. 
6. At Paddington, loiter around the barrier and keep an eye on the departures display.  You will have less distance to cover once the platform number is announced.
7. Invest in a comfortable pair of shoes and improve your level of fitness.  At Paddington, walking briskly, or even running, helps if you want a seat.  Wheely cases are de rigeur these days, but they also slow you down. 
8. Common sense helps.  If the Paddington platform number for the next Reading-bound train is unnannounced but there is one train waiting, at Platform 1 for example, it’s probably going to be that one.  Stay close to the platform.
9. When boarding the evening train at Paddington, walk through First Class and help yourself to a crisp copy of the Evening Standard.  Because you’re worth it.
10. And finally, act selfishly.  It’s a terrible thing to write.  However, it’s something, regrettably, that you absolutely must do as a train passenger these days.  Make sure that you get on that train.  Make sure that you get that seat.  And then blame the system.

The First Great Western Scrutiny Meeting was held in Reading’s elegant Old Town Hall last night.  I attended with a few scraps of paper and biro (I haven’t reached the Twitter stage yet), expecting some interesting exchanges.  I wasn’t disappointed.  It was an informative and useful session, and I hope that it won’t be the last.

It was brave of Andrew Haines, Chief Operating Officer at First Great Western, to agree to face questions from Councillors and the public.  I thought he did rather well, even coming across as quite likeable. 

Having said that, there were dollops of unnecessary management speak here and there - especially in the PowerPoint presentation given at the beginning.  The words “A burning platform for change” were highlighted in an early slide, for example, along with a “vision” consisting of the following fairly generic objectives:

• A genuine passion for improvement
• Putting customers first [a chap in front of me shook his head as these words were read out]
• Real engagement
• Part of the solution, not part of the problem

In the same presentation, Andrew revealed that there are “some signs of improvement”, with FGW now off the bottom in the table of worst operators (instead ranked 16th), explained that FGW was investing in customer information systems and unveiled a timeline of important milestones such as the “long overdue” Reading Station project (scheduled for completion in 2015).  Even the Olympics were included (2012).  

The question and answer session followed.  Here are some of the highlights (and please step in if I made a mistake here):

• There were questions put to the panel about value for money.  It was explained to the audience that the cost per track mile (38p, according to a member of the audience) was relatively higher because the charge imposed by Network Rail to use the line to Paddington (the so-called Track Access Charge) was higher (and beyond FGW’s control, as are other infrastructural issues)
• Andrew was asked about his earnings and bonuses by a season ticket holder paying more than 3.5k per year on rail travel.  He declined to reveal these (somewhat fairly, I thought)
• An audience member asked Andrew, somewhat bluntly, “who should we take our immediate anger on?” Andrew suggested picking up the phone.  He proceeded to give out his email address, as requested (again bluntly) - but not his phone number
• A salesperson audience member, who travels all over the UK, raised the issue of passengers standing in the middle of the carriage, adding that customers are not treated with respect.  She added that some of her journeys into Paddington take an hour in the morning. Andrew responded by saying that he couldn’t fix capacity alone and that a hard look will be taken at engagement and reliability
• A question was asked about the toilets on board FGW trains
• Andrew agreed to return in 6 months time for a similar meeting, if invited

I left the meeting feeling grateful that it had taken place (definitely a step in the right direction) but at the same time doubtful that we will see tangible improvements any time soon.  For this is what we (customers) want, I believe. 

The situation is indeed complicated, as someone concluded at the end of the meeting, but I believe that some progress can be made by making quick, visible improvements such as drivers/train managers providing regular updates/alerts to passengers, fixing tannoys, even doing more in the area of online communications (a Twitter feed, for example, would be useful, in my opinion).  Low-hanging fruit is the management speak, I think, for it.

I should add that I was delighted to meet Councillor Daisy Benson and Mr muckspReading (both asked pertinent questions in the meeting).

First Great Western’s Chief Operating Officer will be facing questions tomorrow evening from councillors and the public about the performance of the operator’s rail services between Reading and London. 

The Special Scrutiny Meeting on First Great Western Performance will take place at 7pm at the Old Town Hall’s Victoria Hall.

You can submit your question in writing via the Council website, or simply contact Cllr Ricky Duveen.

Fewer First Great Western customers have been complaining about late trains, according to regional station manager Steve Lewis.  Instead, complaints were about how the train operator “were going to improve the comfort on the services”. 

I agree that comfort can be an issue. This morning, for example, I stood inches from other standing passengers as my Reading to Paddington journey lasted 50 minutes (due to the usual signalling problems). 

Also uncomfortable is news that Network Rail bosses are to be awarded enormous bonuses (totally unacceptable, given what we have to put up with) and that weekend engineering works are expected to continue for several more years. 

All in all, still not looking good if you are a customer.

Following criticism by Transport secretary Ruth Kelly in February, First Great Western agreed to provide a £29 million package of benefits to customers/passengers (a significant pledge that I should have blogged about at the time).

A letter sent by First Great Western’s Chief Operating Officer at the end of last month provided an insight into what these benefits included.  As a season ticket holder, I was entitled toa free off-peak upgrade to First Class and money-off vouchers for on-board refreshments (pastries and the like), as well as a 10% discount if I renew my ticket.

That’s pretty standard fare (no pun intended), so what of the services themselves?  Have they improved in the few weeks since February?  The short answer is: no, I don’t think so.  There is still severe overcrowding on some services and, quite often, delays (First Great Western cannot be blamed for infrastructure issues, however).

It’s a tricky job, I think, satisfying both shareholders and passengers.  It must also be a tricky job for the government (itself being thoroughly tested at the moment), facing calls to act tough on train companies.  Our beleagured prime minister Gordon Brown recently offered the following words:

First Great Western is now required to produce a remedial plan in order to set out how it’s going to get its performance back on track.

Of course, you could say exactly the same of his cabinet, but that’s a different story.

The PM continued:

The Secretary of State [Ruth Kelly] then has the power to take away the franchise if they don’t implement it.

We are determined to be on the side of the passengers and people who want better rail services; I can assure you that we want better services and that remedial plan has got to be of a high enough standard to enable us to tell customers the changes that have been made

Blunter words were said by funnyman Dom Joly.  Dom fronts a new TV series (this time without his squirrel suit) about the art of complaining, called The Complainers.  Last Monday he described First Great Western as “rubbish”, adding that it was the country’s worst rail service.  Then he joined a really rather feeble protest in Bath, discovered new rolling stock lying unused and questioned a government minister about rail services.

All in all, jolly entertaining but the message was clear enough.  Here’s hoping for improvements soon.  Offering money off  on-board snacks (ooh, I think I will buy a drink with that free sausage roll)  isn’t good enough, frankly.

Thames Valley Economic Partnership (TVEP) has suggested the following to reduce M4 congestion (”Businesses demand 21st century transport“):

• A motorway monorail linking Reading with Heathrow
• New toll lanes between the M4’s J4 and J13; and
• Underground busways on special tracks

TVEP’s Shaun Whitaker explains:

Our vision is for an integrated transport system that enables efficient travel by rail, bus or car across the Thames Valley and between the main towns in the region.  This will only be achieved quickly and effectively with close coordination between the public and private sector, and with the support of the Government to address these schemes of national importance.

Creative thinking is a must.  I stressed the new for big ideas in a previous post (”Awful traffic: Reading residents give their views“), even mentioning two new monorail systems deployed in South-East Asia. 

Of course, while it’s good to talk (and we do a lot of that), actually acting on these creative ideas would be even better and I strongly doubt that an integrated transport system can be achieved “quickly and effectively” in the UK. 

Consider Heathrow’s lengthy Terminal 5 project (the building’s architect was selected way back in 1989 and planning permission was granted 8 years after the first planning application).  In a Guardian article published today about the terminal’s disastrous first couple of days (”‘We can’t give you information. We haven’t got a Tannoy’“), passenger Anthony Horowitz forlornly comments that T5’s handling:

so obviously repeats the pattern of the Millennium Dome, Wembley stadium and the Scottish parliament which, you may remember, arrived three years late and 10-times over budget

Integrating transport in the South-East is a big job - a much bigger challenge, arguably, than erecting a large white tent in East London and constructing a stadium with a big arch.  However, fixing our transport woes is a job that we simply cannot ignore.  As TVEP’s Whitaker darkly says:

We are supposed to be the fifth or sixth wealthiest country with the highest GDP and yet we don’t supply a 21st century transport system.