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Not so Great Western
Dick Murray, Transport Editor19 Dec 2007
The boss of one of London's worst performing commuter rail operators has promised that the company would do better next year.
Andrew Haines, chief executive of First Great Western, admitted the firm had failed passengers in the past year.
FGW, which carries more than 60,000 passengers a day in and out of Paddington, has been condemned for overcrowded, late and cancelled trains and has faced calls for it to be stripped of its franchise. Passengers staged a fare strike by refusing to buy tickets during the rush hour and the company was forced to apologise for cutting services.
In a victory for the Evening Standard's A Seat For Every Commuter campaign, Mr Haines said a shake-up of the company and a new timetable would mean thousands more seats as well as better timekeeping and reliability.
He said: "We realise there is a long way to go and we will be working really hard. We are putting in £200 million of our own money. There is nobody else spending at the level we are. We have a strengthened and increased management team in place. We have also taken on 100 more train drivers and guards."
Timetable changes introduced this month would mean improved services from the Thames Valley area, with 30 per cent more seats on "crucial" peaktime commuter trains. Ten extra high speed trains had also been introduced.
More fast peak services from Slough, Maidenhead, Twyford, Tilehurst, Pangbourne-Goring and Cholsey have also been introduced with additional early morning and evening trains between Banbury and Paddington.
Network Rail was responsible for infrastructure problems in the Thames Valley area that led to 70 per cent of delays. It has launched a £500 million programme to rebuild the tracks around Reading station, one of the worst "pinch points" in the country where trains stack up every day.
Brian Cooke of London TravelWatch said: "Recent performance on FGW has been absolutely awful and the new timetable provides the company and Network Rail with a last chance to get it right. When we criticised the performance of FGW this year we thought services on the London and Thames Valley routes couldn't get any worse.
"Sadly, we were wrong - they have and in recent weeks, especially in the evening peak, passengers have faced a quite abysmal service."
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the TSSA rail union, said: "Over the last 12 months, First Great Western has gone to being Last Great Western. It suffered the first passenger strike to hit the railways because of poor performance, which included the worst punctuality figures for a long-distance operator."
FGW is owned by transport giant First Group, which also controls First Capital Connect, formerly Thameslink. This year, First Group announced profits of £191million with its rail division accounting for £91 million of that.
• FGW will impose above-inflation fare rises from 1 January, in line with other rail operators. Peak time fares will increase by an average of 4.8 per cent, with off-peak rates going up by between two and nine per cent.
WHERE IT'S ALL GONE WRONG
• MORE than 2,000 commuters were so outraged by overcrowded trains between Bath and Bristol and "scandalous" delays that they went on strike in January. They refused to buy tickets for morning rush-hour services and instead carried fake tickets with the words "cattle truck" in place of "standard class".
• IN the same month, First Great Western was forced to apologise publicly for the state of its services after MPs denounced overcrowding, delays and cancellation of trains.
• OVERCROWDING statistics released by the Department for Transport in July showed some passengers were being forced to travel in coaches carrying 50 per cent more people than they were designed for. The worst FGW service was the 6.35am from Bedwyn to Paddington, which carried 771 passengers on a train with a capacity of 497.
• LONDON'S rail watchdog called for FGW to be stripped of its franchise because its service was so bad. TravelWatch chairman Brian Cooke wrote to the Government in July asking it to investigate whether the firm had breached its franchise agreement after failing to explain its poor performance.
Reader views (5)
There are better train operators who should now be given the opportunity to provide a good service; First Great Western have failed despite the time and money that they have received.
- Linda, London, 20/12/2007 10:07
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Worst Great Western...
- Michael Newport, Berks, 20/12/2007 09:07
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Haines admittance to having failed passengers and committing spending to the network is a classic piece of too little too late. Reliability on the service continues to suffer, seems even worse since the new timetables were introduced & morale amongst their own staff seems low and uncaring with little communication to travellers as to why the latest delay has occurred. FGW should continue to have the threat of the franchise being stripped firmly over their heads.
- Andrew, Reading , UK, 19/12/2007 16:53
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The new timetable has made things much worse, not better. Andrew Haines has lost his grip on reality.
- John Dunn, Bath, Somerset, 19/12/2007 15:27
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So! Which rail privatisation is working?
I can't find any.
- Gerry, Chatham Kent UK, 19/12/2007 14:52
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