Future meeting with FGW

Ox Rail Action members are in the process of arranging a meeting between Ox Rail Action and FGW’s Regional Director, Richard Rowland, to discuss our monitoring report and our recommendations. We will be asking them about further changes that have been hinted at for May and the changes in December.

There is a petition on the Prime Minister’s website, calling for the removal of the FGW franchise. If you feel strongly about this, then please go and sign up - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/FirstGW/

Also, if anyone was invovled in the fiasco that was Wednesday 7th March’s afternoon journey home, FGW have promised to give compensation to passengers involved. Have a look here for details about how to get yours. They’ll give season ticket holders £50 of rail vouchers and £100 if you cc in Alison Forster.

Further timetable changes

You may have heard in the press at the end of this week that FGW have made some changes to our timetables. The changes will not affect Oxford commuters that much, but if you look here you can see them in full.

The key changes for us are:

05.55 will change from a 5-carriage Adelante to a 10-carriage, and will call additionally at Radley and Pangbourne - I imagine that few people use this train on a regular basis, but the extra stops will probably slow dow this journey a little.

07.33 will change from a 5-carriage Adelante to a 10-carriage. This will be good for Oxford passengers as there will be an even slimmer chance of not getting a seat, but it will largely benefit Didcot and Reading passengers who will be pleased to see some empty seats on this train.

These changes are very small, and there as far as I can see, there are no substantial changes to the evening services either, apart from very slight re-timings. What FGW don’t seem to realise is that other trains are far more deserving of extra carriages - for example the 07.05am service.

Monitoring report published

As promised here, we have now completed the analysis of the information that you have provided on the overcrowding and lateness of morning peak-time services. In the next few days we will be handing out copies of the executive summary of the report and you can get the full report and our press notice here.

The report highlights continued issues of overcrowding and lateness, but will also address other concerns raised by passengers such as lack of heating, problems with passenger information boards, a lack of communication and poor announcements.  Representatives of OxRailAction have been invited to a meeting with Richard Rowland, the Regional Director for FGW, to discuss our report and any changes that can be made. Copies of the report will be sent to FGW and other organisations such as the Department for Transport, the Office of Rail Regulation and the Rail Passengers Council.