Reading Roars!

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.