Reading Roars!

According to The Times (“Commuting by coach in the lap of luxury“), National Express will be running a daily coach service from Reading to London, stopping at Hammersmith, Trafalgar Square, Victoria Street and finally Victoria coach station.

On offer will be:

• leather seats
• Wi-Fi
• an SMS alert service
• a fare that is 60-70% cheaper than a monthly rail ticket

Journey time is a fairly lengthy 2 hours (though it can take that long by rail sometimes, when trains are delayed).

I have been keeping track of First Great Western mentions in the press. It appears that pressure is mounting on the train company.

Chancellor Alistair Darling recently told FGW to “get a grip”.

In Cardiff, tougher words were said by Jenny Randerson AM (“Train service branded ‘Worst Great Western’“) :

First Great Western is rapidly gaining the title of the worst train company in Britain. It is now the Worst Great Western.

This is having a serious affect on the economy of South Wales and I want to challenge Transport Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones to join me in condemning First Great Western. With the huge fare rises announced recently, this is just unacceptable.

I believe it is time FGW was told to shape up or risk losing all of its rail franchises.

In Reading – and this is the bit that particularly interests me – FGW managers will be asked to face commuters in a public meeting planned by councillors. The move follows the passing of a Lib Dem motion saying that the council believes that “First Great Western’s performance in running the commuter route to London is well below par and that its fares are overpriced.”

Lastly, an article has appeared in The Guardian about new FGW Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Haines, an appointment welcomed by commuter watchdog Passenger Focus. According to the article (“Rude awakening on the 6.30 from Paddington“) , Haines is working a six-day week on the franchise (as well as on four other rail services). He says, realistically:

My experience of business transformation is that it does not happen overnight.

Haine adds:

First Great Western underestimated the scale of the challenge. It underestimated the strength of passenger feeling … be it timetable changes, be it fare rises, be it service levels. It was a complex task, integrating three franchises into one, re-engineering and refurbishing a high-speed train fleet in three years.

It’s a tough job. I hope he gets it right.

The Evening Post has published a summary of traffic and transport complaints submitted to the Reading Independent Transport Commission by local residents. The Commission has been gathering comments since November last year.

On the whole, residents’ views have been rather negative. The Evening Post reports:

Of the 541 submissions the think tank has received, a mighty 523 have described Reading as awful.

Ouch.

Without getting into specifics, I believe that traffic has significantly worsened in the town in recent years – and that it will continue to worsen still.

I also believe that our problem is far from unique. Traffic is horrendous in other parts of the South East. It seems to be a widespread problem. London’s Tube, the oldest underground network in the world, feels tremendously inadequate these days. Our skies are crowded: we have 5 international airports in London and yet there are calls for a 6th Heathrow terminal (T5 is not even open yet!) and a new airport in the Thames Estuary. Do I need to mention our trains again?

We are struggling and in need of some big ideas. Let’s be brave. Bangkok and KL have monorail systems. European cities from Geneva to Istanbul have modern trams. We have services and infrastructure that are frankly rubbish. Time to act, I think.

“Has the London commuter hit Reading?,” asks Evening Post columnist Allie White:

walking past the station the other day felt like stepping into Charing Cross at 8am on a rainy day. There were scores of solo commuters wearing grim expressions, jostling past each other. If you caught the eye of one of the workers, they would scowl at you before fixing their eyes squarely on the pavement again.

It was a dog-eat-dog world for slightly cheerier commuters if they dare cross the path of one of these people.

Having commuted in London in the past, I thought the Reading commuters seemed even more fed-up than their counterparts in the capital. Perhaps this could be down to Londoners being far more used to packed travel conditions and spending the first hour of their day pressed into an armpit or a sweaty passenger.

I think it’s down to Reading commuters spending the first 45 minutes of their day on a packed train before spending an additional 35 minutes pressed into an armpit or a sweaty passenger on the Tube.

Allie is right about the dog-eat-dog world. Out on the platform, it’s a game. It’s a game, I’m sorry to say, that I have seen no elderly, infirm or disabled person play. It’s about being in the right place at the right time. A handful of seats await those who scramble on board the train first. Get your calculations wrong and you may find yourself stuck in the carriage without a seat and without the possibility of turning back. You’re stuck in the aisle, which is the probably the worst place to be (though standing by the toilet can’t be fun).

I think it’s fair to say that not all commuters wear grim expressions, however. Some (what I call the ‘mustn’t grumble’ brigade) cope with the circumstances pretty well, cracking jokes and that. Others, such as myself, wear blank expressions, with or without iPods. I don’t think I scowl. Scowling is rude, isn’t it?

The writer behind the influential I Hate First Great Western blog has had enough:

at the risk of making myself blogless, this year I’m going to channel my energies towards working from home, and leave the world of First Great Western behind.

It’s a shame. For us, I mean. The blog, I’m sure, prompted the creation of two FGW-affiliated blogs with similar-sounding names: In Defence of First Great Western and I Work For FGW.

For anyone interested in FGW, these last two blogs are astronomically important. They are of greater value to me than the very corporate-looking First Great Western website. I do not see fancy Flash and polished corporate-speak on these blogs. Instead, I see real FGW personalities eager to connect with us, the customers, writing informally and without restraint. They have names and they invite comments. It’s much less “talk to the brand” and more “talk to Ollie”.

Ollie is the FGW staff member responsible for I Work For FGW. He said a few days ago that his employer “appears” to like that the blog is running. Me too. His blog displays prominent links to sites critical of FGW, such as I Hate FGW and First Late Western, as well as (ahem) Reading Roars!, and yesterday he revealed that he knows what visitors are interested in and that he is responding to their needs:

Based on some pieces that people search for I am planning on making a ticket page available with some decent information, as a fair amount of visitors have come after searching about Goldcards and ticket prices. I won’t be able to list all prices, obviously. I will however provide some information to try and make the ticketing process easier.

God bless bloggers everywhere.

Another five days of rail travel over and I’m now enjoying the (beautifully sunny!) weekend. I found time today to participate in a Rail Crowding Survey handed to me a couple of days ago at Reading Station.

The survey began with the words:

Thank you for taking part in this survey on crowding on rail services in London and the South East. This research has been commissioned by the Department for Transport and is undertaken by MVA Consultancy, completely independent of your train operator. We are looking at people’s views and opinions on crowding on rail services and would greatly appreciate a few moments of your time to help us with this important study.

The survey proceeded to ask for details about the journey I was making when handed the questionnaire. It was the usual morning trek to London Paddington and I didn’t have a seat.

As I was unable to park my rear anywhere convenient (other than the floor), I was stumped by question 9:

What class did you travel in this for journey? (Please tick one box only).

The two options were Standard Class and First Class. I was technically in neither class, as I was in between carriages. I don’t believe there is any difference between First and Standard standing areas. I drew a third box, named it “Neither” and ticked it. Cheeky? No. I was asked for my opinion.

Question 16 asked:

How did you spend your time on this journey? (Please tick all that apply).

During my journey, I had Metro in one hand, a small umbrella in the other and my coffee was on the floor. I was switching my attention between Metro and the coffee cup that was vibrating during the journey. I didn’t put the umbrella on the floor as I didn’t want to dirty it. I ticked “Reading a book/magazine/newspaper”.

I wasn’t keen on the About You section either (the last section):

The information you provide will be used solely for statistical purposes and will remain confidential.

Eh? What statistical purposes? Question 37 asked if I was male or female. So what?

On the whole, however, I thought the survey was rather good. There were a series of questions presenting diagrams of two train seating areas and asking which option I preferred (Train A or Train B) based on the information provided (journey time, fare and percentage of seats occupied).

Now I’m hoping for a similar survey about the London Underground. Should be a crowd pleaser.

More train woes.  This morning my First Great Western train to Paddington crawled along the track at an average speed of 50mph, marginally faster than the speed of an Ostrich.  Choo choo! Just to compare, a new super-fast train was unveiled yesterday in France.  The AGV will cruise at a speed of 210 mph and was described by its train maker Alstom as the rail equivalent of the A380 “Superjumbo”.  We, too, have a jumbo: a jumbo mess resulting from rail privatisation.

Services between Reading and Paddington tonight were considerably slower still.  Due to a “fatality in the Burnham area” trains were either delayed or cancelled.  I was seriously contemplating catching the Heathrow Express to the airport then the Rail Air coach back to Reading. Eventually, I was allowed to board the 19:48 train two hours later than scheduled.  Two hours!

What will tomorrow bring?

Brazil is currently enjoying Carnaval. Our dazzling equivalent is the pancake race. Sadly, not everyone’s happy. One town not celebrating this year is Ripon, up North, whose race was cancelled because of (it is alleged) health and safety regulations. I experienced health and safety nonsense myself this morning, when travelling on a First Great Western train.

Stepping on the Paddington-bound train at 08:08, I was surprised to discover an entire coach without passengers. The lights were out, indicating a problem. That didn’t stop a couple of commuters joining the train, who immediately made their way into the carriage to occupy its seats – only to be stopped by an FGW staff member. We were not allowed to enter, we were told, because of “health and safety” due to the lights not working.

We were forced to stand instead. Somewhat bafflingly, this was not deemed a health and safety risk in itself.

As I expected, there were a couple of sardonic comments made by other passengers. No one, however, made the rebellious move of entering the Forbidden Territory. We’re far too polite for that, leading me to believe that this sort of grudging acceptance will take us nowhere. We, myself included, give in too easily.

First Great Western. What’s great about them? Guards on FGW trains have voted to hold a 48 hour strike, prompting the following words on I Hate First Great Western blog:

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.

Quite.

The same blog received the following comment from Akaju sesli sohbetMore Train Less Strain (“Campaigning for a decent rail service”):

If anyone from Reading or Maidenhead would like to help to coordiante a fare strike on the 28th JAN we want to hear from you. Email tambrose31@yahoo.co.uk.

Why not? The passengers have nothing to lose but their trains.

Much has been said in the papers recently about the rail chaos caused by engineering works and above-inflation increase in rail fares.  Will we (those who pay to use the trains) see improvements in 2008?  Please excuse my pessimism, but I doubt it.  Read the excerpt below from the Thunderer column in The Times.  Sound familiar? It was published 12 months ago:

Talking to the rail operator is getting nowhere. Overcrowding, delays and ever rising fares have left passengers with no option but direct action. It’s time to leap over the ticket barriers, burn our rail passes and send a message that the misery must end.

This is a day of mass protest on the railways in the West Country. The main operator, First Great Western (better known as Late Worst Western or even Sh*te Great Western), seems to have reverted to the post-Hatfield meltdown that all but paralysed the network a few years ago — only this time it is self-inflicted.