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FGW - read this and weep

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chuckles1066

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So I returned to the rail network this week after a 16 month break as I had the misfortune of having to attend a training course in Bath (ahhh, "happy" memories from the winter of 2010/11).

5 x tickets @ £9 a throw, nice work if you can get it, good job I get to claim it all back.

I see Filton Abbeywood still have three or four members of staff demanding to see tickets on the bridge so I guess the MOD-ticket-dodging problem won't go away although one very nimble and cheeky chappy alighted from a service and did use the tracks on Wednesday to avoid having to confront them. God bless that ruffian.

Hey ho, times change, people don't.

I observed the usual shortformed FGW services in operation (so some things definitely don't change, "this service consists of two coaches instead of three due to unforseen circumstances"......yeah, right) along with the overcrowding that I remember so fondly.

But what's this?

I'm standing on the platform at Bath Spa this afternoon, listening to Phil's still out-of-synch announcements (the train isn't standing at platform 1, you plum, it's only just pulling into the station) when I spot that the 2.47p.m service to Bristol looks like a proper train.

Yep, not the scabby **** FGW serve up, this train looks the real deal.

For one, both lights are working on the front - this is an eye-opener.

It pulls up and seems to be a South West Trains unit originating out of London Waterloo no less.......all very clean and tidy from the outside, nice, shiny red paint and windows that appear to be transparent.

The doors swish open very smoothly and I clamber aboard. The seats are clean (and very comfortable), there are proper computerised announcements accompanied by a graphical display for those hard-of-hearing types (rather than the "live", unintelligble stuff I'm accustomed to) and the one member of staff I observed actually looked happy in his work.

FGW (Mr Hopwood, pay attention boy) really need to travel on a grown up train service to see how it's done.

Thank you for your time, this week brought back many memories.
 
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Flamingo

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Oh bugger, I thought you had bought a bike, or emigrated...
 

Schnellzug

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Someone who prefers automated announcements? My heavens. :|

I think there's usually only one headlight on the front, incidentally, that's the usual arrangement.
Do they really say "due to unforseen circumstances"? i've never heard that phrase since the days of British Rail. :|
 

chuckles1066

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Oh bugger, I thought you had bought a bike, or emigrated...

Never fear, I changed my job anyway (no more treks to Bath) so the rail network is just something that others have to endure.

But I know you enjoyed my latest observation :o
 

Flamingo

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Do you think we should have a whip round? For the bike that is! ;)


You can't please everybody all of the time, but you can't please some people ever...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Never fear, I changed my job anyway (no more treks to Bath) so the rail network is just something that others have to endure.

But I know you enjoyed my latest observation :o

Every time I stop a train at Patchway and nobody gets on or off, I think of you...
 

chuckles1066

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You can't please everybody all of the time, but you can't please some people ever...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Every time I stop a train at Patchway and nobody gets on or off, I think of you...

You obviously don't get to be onboard the early morning services.

But hey, we're all friends, I don't have to use the rail network any more so I can take an impartial stance :lol:
 

6Gman

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I see Filton Abbeywood still have three or four members of staff demanding to see tickets on the bridge so I guess the MOD-ticket-dodging problem won't go away although one very nimble and cheeky chappy alighted from a service and did use the tracks on Wednesday to avoid having to confront them. God bless that ruffian.


Thank you for your time, this week brought back many memories.

Quite. After all, where's the downside to such behaviour?

OK, he could have ended up under a train and ended a driver's career.

And he could have caused hours of delay to unsuspecting members of the public.

And he's defrauding honest passengers.

But hey, you say God Bless Him!
 

bnm

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Have to agree with the comparison between a SWT 159 and whatever FGW 15x shows up on services between Bristol and Bath.

Some of the FGW 15x fleet really is looking a bit 'scabby'.
 

chuckles1066

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Have to agree with the comparison between a SWT 159 and whatever FGW 15x shows up on services between Bristol and Bath.

Some of the FGW 15x fleet really is looking a bit 'scabby'.

Thank God one grown up is reading this thread, fair play to you BigNose.
 

bnm

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Have to agree with the comparison between a SWT 159 and whatever FGW 15x shows up on services between Bristol and Bath.

Some of the FGW 15x fleet really is looking a bit 'scabby'.

Thank God one grown up is reading this thread, fair play to you BigNose.

But..... it's the only part of your anti-FGW rant I agreed with. I share the concern of others in your apparent condoning of someone taking to the tracks to avoid a revenue block.
 
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Mojo

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Sorry? This from someone who condones taking shortcuts across the track to avoid paying for a Ticket?
:roll:

Presumsbly you missed the sarcasm in his post, given the OP's history of criticising the supposed fare evaders at Filton Abbey Wood station...
 

lemonic

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Have to agree with the comparison between a SWT 159 and whatever FGW 15x shows up on services between Bristol and Bath.

Some of the FGW 15x fleet really is looking a bit 'scabby'.

I was travelling on a FGW 158 from Southampton to Bristol on Wednesday. A couple got on at Bath and the man was saying to his wife how this was a new train! I resisted the temptation to say that the train was 20 years old! TBH I think the FGW 158's are in good condition and I think the refurbishment whenever it was done, is excellent, and IMO far better than the EMT refurbishment. The SWT 158/159's are also good though.
 

LE Greys

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Well, here's hoping they can look forward to some nice Scottish 158s coming south before too long. I remember the rattly 150s on the two-hourly Heart of Wessex service (what a waste of a place like Frome to have one train every two hours and none to London) but that was back in Wales & West days. It even turned up a Pacer once. Still, they seem to have been done up a bit since then, but that did not stop one having to do the whole length of Cornwall on one engine last time I was down there. I was just waiting for them to ask us to get out and push.
 

Flamingo

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Well, here's hoping they can look forward to some nice Scottish 158s coming south before too long. I remember the rattly 150s on the two-hourly Heart of Wessex service (what a waste of a place like Frome to have one train every two hours and none to London) but that was back in Wales & West days. It even turned up a Pacer once. Still, they seem to have been done up a bit since then, but that did not stop one having to do the whole length of Cornwall on one engine last time I was down there. I was just waiting for them to ask us to get out and push.

"First class, out and walk, Standard class out and push!"

:lol::lol::lol:
 

chuckles1066

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Presumsbly you missed the sarcasm in his post, given the OP's history of criticising the supposed fare evaders at Filton Abbey Wood station...

Good on you Mojo, there are at least two grown-ups on here.

Somewhat surprised my post was moved to an obscure bit of the forum........but then again, maybe I'm not :D
 

Schnellzug

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Good on you Mojo, there are at least two grown-ups on here.

Somewhat surprised my post was moved to an obscure bit of the forum........but then again, maybe I'm not :D

How on earth was someone supposed to know that you were being Sarcastic? Was all of what you said supposed to be Sarcastic as well? And do you make of habit of being snide to everyone who commens on what you say?
 

Ferret

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How on earth was someone supposed to know that you were being Sarcastic? Was all of what you said supposed to be Sarcastic as well? And do you make of habit of being snide to everyone who commens on what you say?

In fairness, I thought it was sarcasm when I read it! I guess if you're not on the right wavelength at the time you might think it wasn't though!
 

Flamingo

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Given the tone of the OP's previous contributions (which were to twist every thread he posted on into one about the supposed lack of services from Patchway to Bristol and his apparent failure to get a table for four to himself on any service for a ten minute journey meaning it was crowded for the ten minutes), I didn't read it as sarcastic either, to be fair.
 

Charlie2555

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I live on the South West Trains line which uses the 159's and I also sometimes use the First Great Western Line to Bath/Bristol/Portsmouth and I really do notice the difference - Thank God I'm on the SWT Line!
 

chuckles1066

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Given the tone of the OP's previous contributions (which were to twist every thread he posted on into one about the supposed lack of services from Patchway to Bristol and his apparent failure to get a table for four to himself on any service for a ten minute journey meaning it was crowded for the ten minutes), I didn't read it as sarcastic either, to be fair.

Behave.

I posted many times about not being bothered in the slightest about having to stand between Bristol and Bath (I'm fit and it's twenty minutes tops even on one of the stopping sevices).

My beef was having to endure a "service" of one train an hour (count 'em) from Patchway and then finding that train was shortformed so I couldn't get on and had to wait another hour for the next one (hoping, of course, that it wasn't shortformed as well).

Nothing more, nothing less and if you think my stance is in any way unreasonable then we'll have to agree to disagree.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
How on earth was someone supposed to know that you were being Sarcastic?

I'm not aware that I was being sarcastic? That must have been another poster's interpretation of my post.

Was all of what you said supposed to be Sarcastic as well? And do you make of habit of being snide to everyone who commens on what you say?

No, just factual.

But the truth always hurts.......as you've just demonstrated :roll:
 
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