Signalling problems cause train delays through Bath

“My experience of being crammed into a FGW carriage is entirely genuine, as is my memory of the same carriages under BR.”

“I travel by train a lot. Yes, things like this are a pain in the backside (it's put a real crimp on my day); but travelling by car has similar (if different) problems. It's called life. Stop grumbling folks and get on with stuff. The actual statistics of punctuality and reliability do not correlate with the constant drone of criticism on here. Trains are late sometimes...get used to it. The service could be better...yes...but most people's reported experiences are actually inaccurate and not wholly representative of the service as a whole.”

“Yet another good reason to travel by car!”

“Yes, Network Rail is responsible for the infrastructure, but I can't help thinking FGW probably milk every problem for every penny.

In big public service operations like this is, when a company has an internal problem it'll start to lose money and the problem will get fixed ASAP or workarounds will be found. If the problem is external, then it'll throw its hands in the air, down tools, and start counting up the manhours for the compensation claim.

Stick a contractual boundary between yourself and the problem and it turns a loss into a profit. I'll bet you'll never guess who *always* ends up footing the bill?”

“It does mean we're stuck with First, though. Must be questionable whether the franchise system will ever be reinstated in its present form. The temporary West Coast line fix, with Virgin under a 24-month management contract, seems to make more sense. (Not that sense has much to do with our current railway system.)”

“That's part of the problem - the London trains get far higher priority than anything else - so in this instance where there are limited slots through the problem, the London trains will get a higher proportion of them than the local trains. I lost count of the number of times I got on a local train from Bristol back to Bath, left the station on time, and then had to wait just outside the station for a late running London train to go in front of us. Similarly with the maintenance - the HST units have all had new engines whilst the coaches have had a makeover. Contrast that with the units on the local runs which are shabby, rattling and in one case recently was on the receiving end of someone literally kicking the door to try to get it working! The irony is that when electrification comes in a couple of years, the HST units won't be needed anymore, but the little grotty things will because the Westbury line isn't getting upgraded! But then MP's and other bigwigs don't travel off the London line!

That said I think delaying the franchise is a good idea - firstly it will get the bulk of the electrification work out of the way so bidders can bid on a consistent basis for the whole term, and secondly I can see First struggling over the next couple of years (mainly on their bus operations) which might limit their ability to offer a good enough deal to get the contract. I note they've lost a number of TfL tenders today.”

“Why else do you think they moved to high density seating?"

Because it's cheaper than running a decent service?

.”

“@rogerh3
Why else do you think they moved to high density seating?

As much as I miss the higher proportion of 2+2+tables, I'm very grateful for a seat in which to comfortably snooze on my way to or from work!”

“Given how many additional ones First have crammed into each carriage a seat is the least passengers should expect.”

“Part of your ticket cost will be to pay for the teams of lawyers employed by both Network Rail and First to argue over exactly how much each should contribute to the compensation.”