May timetable changes

Some of you may have seen the posters advertising timetable changes in May. Will this mean an improvement in services for Oxford commuters? Well, don’t get too excited – there are very few changes that will affect you:

Early services at 0400 from Oxford to London Paddington are subject to slight change, whilst the 0546 Reading to London Paddington now starts from Oxford at 0506.
The 0725 Banbury to Paddington leaves Reading earlier and now calls at Langley, Iver and West Drayton.
The 0752 from Oxford to London Paddington has been re-timed to depart Twyford at 0844 to provide an additional connection from Henley on Thames.
Some Oxford services now feature High Speed Trains – with greater capacity than the previous Adelante trains – which will also add seat capacity at stations en route.
The 2050 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington will call at Didcot Parkway.

If you need more information, the new printed timetable booklets are available from the station now.

Meeting update

Many of you will know that Ox Rail Action put together a monitoring report in early March this year, demonstrating the continued problems for Oxford commuters, particularly our morning services. As a follow-up to this report, representatives were invited to meet FGW to discuss our findings and recommendations. This meeting, attended by three Ox Rail Action members, Chris Bates (FGW Customer Panel representative), Richard Rowland (FGW Regional Director), Glenda Lamont (FGW Customer Services Manager) and Adrian Ruck (FGW External Relations), happened on the 20th April.

The minutes from this meeting will be soon be are available to read in full but here is a brief summary of the main points:

1. ORA members expressed disappointment that the changes in May would not improve travelling from Oxford in the short-term. Apparently large-scale changes will not be made until the December timetable.
2. The changes in December 2007 will not involve a complete re-draft of the present timetable (FGW is keen not to repeat last December’s fiasco) but will involve some significant changes. FGW will have a draft timetable by early summer 2007 and wishes to consult with ORA when it has this – we will arrange another meeting at this time.
3. FGW is aware of the performance and timekeeping issues that it has with all trains. Some of this (e.g. the 7.33am) is due to trains that were squeezed into the timetable. There are some long-term solutions to this ( i.e. major investment plans for both Oxford and Reading stations) but few short-term apart from the December changes.
4. Complaints about the state of the turbo trains have meant that FGW have brought forward an interior ‘refreshment’ program to next year. In the meantime, if there are specific problems on a turbo train ( e.g. window keeps flying open, smelly toilets etc) passengers have been asked to make a note of the problem, the specific carriage and the train number (on the front, usually starts 165…) to Chris Bates, who will pass this information on to the appropriate engineers – his e-mail is chrisjbates@btinternet.com
5. FGW is investing in customer service training for its staff and setting minimum standards of service. In particular, the issue of the electronic boards not working at Oxford station was raised, and the suggestion of ORA that the station should use wipeboards to give service information when they are working was taken on board.

For the full minutes, please check back to the website in a few days!