Are First Great Western crap, or what?

Question

My daily commute is getting worse every day. The new timetable is a joke, they can't run it on time and when the trains do turn up they are too small and hence overcrowded.
Added to this, one of the ticket machines at my home station has been faulty for 6 weeks -- I've told Farce Grate Worsten about it FOUR times now, and each time all that happens is that I get the same grovelly apologetic email telling me how they aim to fix faults within 24 hours. It's got to the stage where I've written to the Chief Exec of FGW about it, and my MP. It's a joke.
'Great Western'? Brunel must be spinning in his grave. This company couldn't run a Hornby train set, never mind a passenger service. They should be stripped of the franchise NOW!
Anyone else agree? Got any horror stories to share?

Answer 1

Crap is putting it mildly.

First Great Western is part of the First Group and their bus sunsidaries have the worse record for vehicle maintenance for any of the large transport groups.

In the last five years, First PMT, First Glasgow and First Edinburgh have each had the number of vehicles on their operating licences cut by 25-33%.

I really do not know why, with such an appalling record, the Government continues to gift rail franchises to First.

Continue to write to your MP, but send a copy to the Rail Regulator and the Minister of Transport (Civil servants HATE getting letters!).

Also send a copy to Moir Lockhead, Chief Executive, First Group, 395 King Street, Aberdeen (Try asking Moir if he would allow his herd of Highland cattle to be treated in a similar way - he owns a farm in Aberdeenshire!)

Answer 2

I don't work for FGW but I do know that their crowded trains are largely a result of the fact that the government dictates to them (and almost every other company) how many carriages they can lease and what type of trains they can run. The government is also largely responsible for the major cut-backs in the timetable last year which re still the case now.

They are one of the worst train companies but they are at least on an upward curve however small it may seem.

Answer 3

Nope FGW is one of the better operators, if you want a crap service try using Silverlink, First Capital Connect or TransPenine, now they are really rubbish services.
As for overcrowding. Suggest you look at some of the South Eastern, Southern, South West Train Services into and out of London during the rush hours.... Sometimes people ar standing for more than 50miles on there commute into work due to overcrowding.

Answer 4

First Great Western is appalling and at a time when punctuality and the quality of the rail service generally has generally risen quite considerably, their dire performance is in danger of reflecting on the entire industry. They accepted franchise terms from the Department of Transport which requires them to make huge premium payments to the Treasury. In order to make a profit therefore, they constantly
need to cut costs; they have constantly cut the size of their train fleet, despite introducing enhanced frequencies; the trains they operate are generally ageing and not terribly reliable; also judging by the amount of broken down and defective trains I have experienced, First Great Western's maintenance regime is also deficient. The Franchise is a huge one, encompassing commuter services between London Paddington and the Thames Valley, Inter City Services between London, Bristol, South Wales, Hereford, Worcester and Devon and Cornwall, a cross country route
between Portsmouth and Cardiff via Salisbury and numerous local services in the West Country. Over crowding is legion throughout their network and of course the franchise should include the provision of many new trains. The only relatively new trains in the fleet the 14 strong 125 m.p.h. 'Adlente' trains have mainly been withdrawn with the start of the December 2007 timetable, and replaced by 10 refurbished 30 year old
high speed trains. Unlike the Adlentes these have manually
operated doors and also accelerate slowly compared with the newer trains, so have to stop longer at stations and take longer to complete journeys; the 4 train defecit is also intensifying the rolling stock shortages and causing more cancellations, so this is a large unweildy poorly managed rail franchise being operated with too small a fleet of ageing
trains, often unsuitable for the routes they are operating. A few months ago the long standing managing director of FGW Alison Foster was replaced because of their dire performance by Andrew Haines. Haines has made things worse because he has upset the staff; morale is lower than ever and most seem to refuse overtime or generally don't co-operate; hence more cancellations often at very short notice.
First Great Western won't improve until it is given to another operator and the terms of its franchise are changed to provide more trains which are better maintained and managers learn to relate to their staff better; this will involve both the Department of Transport who set up the franchise terms
admitting they were in error, and First Group the largest transport group in the country, admitting they are not up to the job of running Great Western. As we know in never resign Britain, this is a difficult feat to achieve.
Rail franchises as they are now being awarded are too short and too prescriptive. Twenty ot twenty five year franchises with the penalties of immediate loss or huge fines
for poor operation would and could include more investment in new rolling stock from the operating companies. Companies must of course pay Corporation tax on their profits, so the Department of Transport additionally inflicting
premium payments, only causes non regulated fares to rise
further and for the companies to impose constant cost cutting, as is the case with First Great Western. The policies of the Department of Transport as inflicted on the rail companies, also clearly involve flogging trains to death long after they have completed a sensible operational life, and only ordering small builds of new trains, at a therefore high per unit cost, rather than having an on going revolving policy of national fleet renewal involving large builds of new trains.

Answer 5

I don't want to waste peoples time with horror stories but surely everyone who travels with First must have one. The strange thing is that the company is really successful in a financial sense. Any day now they will be promoted to the FTSE 100. If one of the most successful companies can get away with treating their customers with contempt what does that say about the other rail companies. Mark you if you think their trains are bad you should try their buses.

Answer 6

They are learning to crawl - have you seen the apology letter on the website? If not, I have copied it and paste it here in full:-

'18 December 2007

Dear Customer,

First Great Western Train Service

Over the last few weeks we've not been giving you the service you deserve, and the level of disruption many of you have experienced is simply not good enough.

I know from my own experience just how frustrating it can be when your train is late and I want to say sorry for our recent poor performance and the inconvenience it has caused. Signalling and track problems, overrunning engineering work by Network Rail, freight and passenger train failures, trains without enough carriages and crew shortages have all caused problems.

I want you to know that I am committed to getting these problems sorted.

So what are we doing? Network Rail is spending around £750m now and over the next 18 months to make the region's track and signals much more reliable – and we're working closely with them to reduce the impact this work has on customers. An example of this is the major work that takes place over Christmas when one of the biggest and most problematic rail junctions on our network – Airport Junction near London – is replaced with more modern, reliable equipment.

We're currently recruiting and training an additional 40 drivers and 60 guards to reduce the number of crew shortages, and we are strengthening our management team to ensure we deploy all our resources more effectively.

Our programme to install new engines in our High Speed Train fleet is almost complete – 95 power cars now have the new engines. Alongside this, we have already started work on a major reliability improvement programme to all of our other trains. We are still getting too many train fleet related delays and cancellations and our engineers know this is a top priority for us in 2008.

Our new timetable, which was introduced last week, is providing more seats and more services. There were a number of problems at the start on some routes and we have acted quickly to address these.

Our Passenger's Charter provides compensation to individual ticket holders that have experienced delays in excess of an hour. This can be claimed from our Customer Relations department using the form overleaf.

In addition to this, and to thank you for your patience, I'd like to offer season ticket holders compensation equivalent to two days' travel in rail travel vouchers.

Please submit your claim by contacting us at the address below. You will need to enclose a copy of your ticket and send to the address shown below, marking the letter MPR10368: Customer Services, Freepost SWB40576, Plymouth PL4 6ZZ.

We are also happy to accept email claims if accompanied by scanned images via our email address: [e-mail].

My team and I know that you will judge us on our results. We are committed to improving your train service.

Andrew Haines
Chief Operating Officer'

Go on - get your two days compensation!

Answer 7

I work for Networkrail and get free travel because i've worked for the railways since before privatisation....And all I can say is I'd vote for any govenment that would bring back BR.

Travelling by rail now is a horrendous thing to do!
Trains are more unreliable,dirty,uncomfortable and crowded..and nearly every cause of this is due to private companies cutting back as much as they dare without incurring the wrath of their shareholders.

If railway "enthusiasts" like me are deciding to find other ways of travelling..then you know how bad it's got!

Answer 8

I go to college on what is now London Midland (previously Central Trains). You think I have it good? think again. We got provided with a 2 car train for the equivalent of a 5 car train 1 day. Punctuality? OK, i suppose, but could be better. It's a good job i can catch Chiltern Trains from my stations ;)

Answer 9

First Group have a reputation as a crap company, both from the point of view of passengers (sorry, "customers") and employees.

The only people likely to be happy are the shareholders. That's privatisation for you.

Answer 10

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