‘Worst Late Western’ – ‘Bottom of class’

The National Passenger Survey results for Autumn 2007 have just been published by Passenger Focus. The train operating company with the least satisfied customers was, of course, First Great Western – an overall satisfaction rate of seventy-four per cent, which was down three percentage points compared with a year ago. First Great Western customers were particularly dissatisfied with:-

• Punctuality/Reliablity: A satisfaction rating of 65% (compared with 73% in Autumn 2006)
• Helpfulness and Attitude of on-board train staff: A satisfaction rating of 58% (compared with 67% in Autumn 2006)
• Delay Management: A satisfaction rating of just 30% (compared with 37% in Autumn 2006)
• Customer satisfaction with South West Trains rose three percentage points to 85%, while the final results for Virgin CrossCountry yielded a satisfaction rating of 81%, a rise of two per cent over the last twelve months.

First Great Western Operational Performance

The Passenger Charter performance results for First Great Western for the four weeks ended 5 January 2008 were ‘woeful’:-

Punctuality

• High Speed Services (arriving ten or less minutes late): 73.8% (target: 90%)
• Bristol Suburban Services (arriving five or less minutes late): 76.9% (target: 92%)
• Devon Services (arriving five or less minutes late): 76.1% (target: 92%)
• South Wales – South Coast Services (arriving ten or less minutes late): 77.1% (target: 92%)
• 6.8 per cent of Bristol suburban services and 5.7 per cent of Plymouth and Cornwall services were either cancelled or failed to operate the full scheduled journey in the same period.

Andrew George (the Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives) raised the issue of the current unacceptable operational performance of First Great Western in the House of Commons on Tuesday 22 January – the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Tom Harris MP) responded:-

‘There is little good news. Performance is still a major concern. I would not try to mislead the House by pretending that it does not give me very serious cause for concern about its future performance.’

First Great Western ‘Doubles’ Compensation Payments

First Great Western has announced that the company is to ‘double’ compensation payments under the Passenger Charter for one year.

Customers renewing season tickets valid for one month or more, will from 27 January 2008 to 26 January 2009, receiving ‘double’ the normal compensation when the First Great Western fails to meet the company’s Passengers Charter performance targets – where a discount of five per cent is normally payable, the customer will now receive a ten per cent discount, while where a discount of ten per cent is normally payable, the customer will now receive a twenty per cent discount.

Customers holding all other tickets, including season tickets valid for less than one months, will also receive ‘double’ the normal compensation for journeys taken between 27 January and 26 January 2009 – for example, a customer travelling on a long distance FGW train which arrives over an hour late will be entitled to compensation of double the fare paid.

Appalling Punctuality Of First Bristol Buses

Bristol City Council and First Bristol buses signed a Bus Punctuality Improvement Partnership in March 2007. The partnership agreement established a target of just 68.5 per cent of buses starting the journey on time in the year to 31 March 2008 – this target was described as ‘ludicrously low’ by TravelWatch SouthWest. The latest monitoring report from Bristol City Council reveals that just 66.6 per cent on First Bristol buses have made a ‘right-time’ departure from the originating terminus since April 2007 – every one in three First Bristol services is starting the scheduled journey late! First Bristol has also failed to operate 3.5 per cent of the company’s scheduled mileage in the last nine months.

New Gloucestershire Bus Service To Link Hospitals

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has signed an agreement with Stagecoach West to provide a new bus service from March 2008 for patients, staff and visitors – the new bus route will provide a shuttle service between the Cheltenham General Hospital and the Gloucester Royal Hospital, as well as a park and ride facility from Cheltenham Racecourse.

And finally,

There have been significant variations between the timetables for Wilts and Dorset bus services 26/27 (Salisbury – Shaftesbury) on the company’s website and the Traveline South West website since 6 January 2008.

Customers would normally assume that the timetables on the bus company’s website were totally accurate, but in this instance, are they?