The Cotswold Line Trains

Mon 31 Dec 2007, 13:35

I find myself in full agreement with the sentiments expressed by Nick Johnson in the Commuters Blog regarding the information supplied by FGW. The current situation is deplorable, disgraceful and unacceptable and, what's more, it is getting worse not better. Some examples:

1. I went home on Christmas Eve. I checked the status of my train on the Internet before leaving home and it was said to be running on time. Fifteen minutes later I am at Charlbury station purchasing my ticket from the machine when an audio announcement states that the train is running 29 minutes late. The new departure board in the platform-side window says the train is on time. Who to believe? I ask the woman in the ticket office whether the train is on time and she tells me it is. I complain about the erroneous audio announcement and am told "It's been like that for the last six years." Apparently that qualifies as an explanation these days.

2. To my knowledge, there are now at least five sources of train-running information on the concourse at Oxford station at present: (i) the old orange dot matrix displays; (ii) the new plasma screens flanking the old ones; (iii) the ground level so-called "whizzy board"; (iv) the video screen near the old Travel Centre that plots the actual position of trains in the Oxford area; and (v) the man or woman staffing the information point near the ticket barriers. On a recent visit to Oxford, sources (i) to (iii) were all displaying different expected arrival times for my train. I raised this point with the member of staff at the help desk and he said "I don't take any notice of those screens, I've got my own one here", indicating a monitor that was displaying a fourth diiferent arrival time for my train! Why can't we, the passengers, have access to the same information as the staff? Why are we treated like second-class citizens in this respect, as with so many other aspects of train travel?

Some questions for FGW:
1. Why was the (tiny) new departure board at Charlbury placed in such an inconspicuous position, so that it is difficult to read and very easy to overlook?
2. Why are the old video screens at Charlbury still in use when they so often display inaccurate information?
3. Why not have one accurate source of information at Oxford rather than four or five mutually conflicting ones, four of which are probably wrong at any given time?
4. Why can't the video screens/audio announcements at Charlbury be switched off if they are dispensing erroneous information? (Dave told me once that he had requested permission to do this but it had been denied by his superiors because passengers must be able to have access to information. Evidently FGW believe that wrong information is better than no information when in fact precisely the opposite is true.

In his post, Nick stated that "Is it beyond the wit of even the most bone headed, incompetent, fat cat FGW senior manager to ensure that when one information system is installed the other contradictory one is taken out?" Unfortunately, although it may not be beyond their wit it is almost certainly beyond their inclination. So long as they are getting paid vast sums to run a catastrophically bad rail service and so long as the company is still making a profit then nothing else matters. We all know that it is highly unrealistic to expect the trains to run reliably or on time in 2008 so how about this as a New Year's resolution for FGW: "Henceforth we will endeavour to provide our passengers with clear, reliable and accurate information regarding train services and to eliminate all sources of false, misleading and conflicting information."

Is this too much to ask for? We all pay a great deal for the "privilege" of travelling with FGW. In return we are treated to a "service" that ranges from shabby to utterly absymal. Surely we are entitled to receive accurate information regarding the whereabouts of our dirty, smelly, packed-to-the-vestibules late-running train? I sense another letter to Andrew Haines coming on!