GWR Shortage of Traincrew Weekend and During Week

[Warwick]

I worked my uncontracted "booked" Sunday yesterday- I will do an extra "unbooked" one next Sunday. My rest day this week is Thursday- I'm working it. That's NO day off this week and one instead of two off next week. Anyone see the problem ?

Like I stated in my post, companies should be made to ensure a sufficiency of staff to run a seven day service on a seven day roster with the appropriate renumeration.

 

[Warwick]

It would require more staff on the books so that means costing the TOC more money. Enough said ?

TOCs - like any companies should look at the costs before taking something on. I'd love to have a Jaguar S type R. I could afford to buy one but I couldn't afford to run it.

 

[Dai Corner]

TOCs - like any companies should look at the costs before taking something on. I'd love to have a Jaguar S type R. I could afford to buy one but I couldn't afford to run it.

Ultimately, the taxpayer meets the cost of anything specified in a franchise through a higher subsidy or lower premium payment. If the DfT specify Sundays as part of the working week TOCs take this into account in their bids.

 

[43096]

Even by the low expectations one has of GWR these days, yesterday was an omnishambles.

The 'missing in action' MD needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. If GWR carry on like this the calls for him to do a 'Horton' will become louder and louder.

And yes, I fully expect the GWR apologists to come along and say its not their fault. Piffle. GWR bought into this clusterfupp by accepting the contract extensions. They have failed to deliver equally as badly as Network Rail. No Plan B drawn up despite knowing for the past 4 years that the infrastructure improvement timetable was slipping.

100% agreed.

Great Western is an utter shambles on every level. Operational mess, training is a mess and the fleet is appallingly unreliable. All of that is the MD’s responsibility. To make it worse there is no public recognition or apology for the abysmal service being delivered to the punters. Hopwood needs to be fired. Now.

 

[cactustwirly]

100% agreed.

Great Western is an utter shambles on every level. Operational mess, training is a mess and the fleet is appallingly unreliable. All of that is the MD’s responsibility. To make it worse there is no public recognition or apology for the abysmal service being delivered to the punters. Hopwood needs to be fired. Now.

Well Hitachi delivering the 800s late clearly is all GWRs fault!

 

[221129]

Well Hitachi delivering the 800s late clearly is all GWRs fault!

The 800s aren't late though.

 

[cactustwirly]

The 800s aren't late though.

Well that's what's been said from those 'in the know'
They were 3 months late, which means that driver training is also 3 months late

 

[43096]

Well Hitachi delivering the 800s late clearly is all GWRs fault!

It’s always someone else’s fault.....

Lack of communication, lack of acknowledgement that there is an issue, lack of any sort of contingency plan (like a reduced weekend timetable that is deliverable) and fleet reliability (non-IEP) is all down to GWR. Nobody else.

 

[cactustwirly]

It’s always someone else’s fault.....

Lack of communication, lack of acknowledgement that there is an issue, lack of any sort of contingency plan (like a reduced weekend timetable that is deliverable) and fleet reliability (non-IEP) is all down to GWR. Nobody else.

I agree with you on communication, it could be better.
That said the previous few weekends before weren't as bad.

Technically fleet availability is down to Agility trains not GWR

 

[jimm]

In future, I will bear in mind that when you have an hourly train service, on a line where the stations are unmanned, with in most cases no nearby amenities, and two consecutive trains are cancelled, leaving you to wait 2 hours in the middle of nowhere, it's not a lot and certainly nothing to complain about

(To be fair, it had been reported to me that there were more cancellations than that, and I failed to check if that was indeed the case. mea culpa)

Anyone might think there was no way of checking these days if trains are running before going anywhere near a station - in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of Evesham. All the cancellations on the Cotswold Line on Sunday were up on Journeycheck and in journey planners during the morning.

Even on days when I am not aware of any cancellations, I always check before going to a station, as it only takes one late-running train occupying a single-line section somewhere between Oxford and Hereford to put a hefty delay into other services.

The 800s aren't late though.

Yes, they are. As has been explained elsewhere on this forum. All of the five-car sets should have been available to GWR for passenger service weeks ago. Four of the 36 are still not available.

It’s always someone else’s fault.....

Lack of communication, lack of acknowledgement that there is an issue, lack of any sort of contingency plan (like a reduced weekend timetable that is deliverable) and fleet reliability (non-IEP) is all down to GWR. Nobody else.

It's always GWR's fault. Perhaps we could put someone else in charge. Someone like Go-Ahead or Arriva perhaps...?

Lack of communication - in what way? As I said - no doubt thanks in large part to JN114 and colleagues - information about what services were affected on Sunday was available in good time.

Lack of acknowledgement that there is an issue - try this http://www.clpg.org.uk/blog/cotswold-line-service-problems-a-response-from-gwr/
I have posted this link on this forum several times now, so I don't think anyone can claim it is some sort of localised privileged information.

Lack of a contingency/weekend timetable - how exactly was someone supposed to plan a special timetable around what looked like a largely localised staffing issue around Bristol this Sunday just gone? Someone in that area may know exactly what was going on there.
But looking at West Country services or indeed the Cotswold Line, I can see no reason whatever to have butchered the planned service on those routes 'just in case' - when it appears that pretty much all the staff expected on duty turned up for work. The Cotswold Line cancellations look to have been down to the lack of just a couple of staff, whether drivers or train managers. Had IET training at Oxford not been delayed, then that depot may well have been able to provide cover for any absentees in Worcester or London.

Fleet reliability - it's not a secret that Hitachi recruitment in London and Bristol in particular has had an impact on staff numbers at GWR's depots nearby. Skilled engineering staff don't grow on trees, same as train drivers don't.

 

[43096]

I agree with you on communication, it could be better.
That said the previous few weekends before weren't as bad.

Technically fleet availability is down to Agility trains not GWR

Read what I wrote: non-IEP. If you can explain how Agility/Hitachi are responsible for that, I’d be amazed....

 

[43096]

Anyone might think there was no way of checking these days if trains are running before going anywhere near a station - in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of Evesham. All the cancellations on the Cotswold Line on Sunday were up on Journeycheck and in journey planners during the morning.

Even on days when I am not aware of any cancellations, I always check before going to a station, as it only takes one late-running train occupying a single-line section somewhere between Oxford and Hereford to put a hefty delay into other services.



Yes, they are. As has been explained elsewhere on this forum. All of the five-car sets should have been available to GWR for passenger service weeks ago. Four of the 36 are still not available.



It's always GWR's fault. Perhaps we could put someone else in charge. Someone like Go-Ahead or Arriva perhaps...?

Lack of communication - in what way? As I said - no doubt thanks in large part to JN114 and colleagues - information about what services were affected on Sunday was available in good time.

Lack of acknowledgement that there is an issue - try this http://www.clpg.org.uk/blog/cotswold-line-service-problems-a-response-from-gwr/
I have posted this link on this forum several times now, so I don't think anyone can claim it is some sort of localised privileged information.

Lack of a contingency/weekend timetable - how exactly was someone supposed to plan a special timetable around what looked like a largely localised staffing issue around Bristol this Sunday just gone? Someone in that area may know exactly what was going on there.
But looking at West Country services or indeed the Cotswold Line, I can see no reason whatever to have butchered the planned service on those routes 'just in case' - when it appears that pretty much all the staff expected on duty turned up for work. The Cotswold Line cancellations look to have been down to the lack of just a couple of staff, whether drivers or train managers. Had IET training at Oxford not been delayed, then that depot may well have been able to provide cover for any absentees in Worcester or London.

Fleet reliability - it's not a secret that Hitachi recruitment in London and Bristol in particular has had an impact on staff numbers at GWR's depots nearby. Skilled engineering staff don't grow on trees, same as train drivers don't.

Well aware of that link and you miss the point. Firstly Hopwood apologises for delayed response - which is a sign of poor communication. Second, how are passengers supposed to know that document exists - they don’t all read this forum or are members of the CLPG!? Can you post a link to anything on GWR website that amounts to an apology for the abysmal service that has been delivered for many months now.

GWR have largely got away with it in PR terms as the major issue now is at weekends (so not “commuters”) and there is a limit to how many train companies will be in a media firestorm at once: GTR and Northern have taken the flack.

You need to take the green-tinted glasses off and look at the reality of just how shambolic GWR is. Either that, or you are “Hapless Hopwood” and I claim my tenner!

 

[Dai Corner]

Read what I wrote: non-IEP. If you can explain how Agility/Hitachi are responsible for that, I’d be amazed....

Fleet reliability - it's not a secret that Hitachi recruitment in London and Bristol in particular has had an impact on staff numbers at GWR's depots nearby. Skilled engineering staff don't grow on trees, same as train drivers don't.

If GWR were responsible for IET maintainance they could have organised the transfer and retraining of staff to maximise the availability of old and new fleets.

 

[jimm]

Well aware of that link and you miss the point. Firstly Hopwood apologises for delayed response - which is a sign of poor communication. Second, how are passengers supposed to know that document exists - they don’t all read this forum or are members of the CLPG!? Can you post a link to anything on GWR website that amounts to an apology for the abysmal service that has been delivered for many months now.

GWR have largely got away with it in PR terms as the major issue now is at weekends (so not “commuters”) and there is a limit to how many train companies will be in a media firestorm at once: GTR and Northern have taken the flack.

You need to take the green-tinted glasses off and look at the reality of just how shambolic GWR is. Either that, or you are “Hapless Hopwood” and I claim my tenner!

So we should just see red all the time and scream and shout.

As though that will solve anything - which a lot of hard work by people at all levels within GWR is clearly doing, given how bad things got at times earlier in the year, compared with the current situation.

Last Sunday wasn't representative of recent weekends, with way more cancellations happening for some reason. Whether that was down to it being Father's Day, or some specific Bristol area factor, I have no idea. Do you?

If GWR were responsible for IET maintainance they could have organised the transfer and retraining of staff to maximise the availability of old and new fleets.

But they aren't, so I've no idea what point you are trying to make. The DfT decided how it was going to be done - GWR have no control over the various consequences of that decision.

 

[43096]

Last Sunday wasn't representative of recent weekends, with way more cancellations happening for some reason. Whether that was down to it being Father's Day, or some specific Bristol area factor, I have no idea. Do you?

No I don’t, and to be blunt I don’t care what the reason was. It’s up to GWR to resource its advertised timetable and they failed to do that. Again.

 

[bnm]

Last Sunday wasn't representative of recent weekends, with way more cancellations happening for some reason. Whether that was down to it being Father's Day, or some specific Bristol area factor, I have no idea. Do you?

GWR themselves should have an idea. Here's a thought. Maybe they could tell their customers why they offered such a poor service on that day. Maybe they could apologise for the shambles. Maybe they could explain their action plan to prevent reoccurrence. How should they go about this?

Perhaps by getting the person with whom the buck stops to come down from his ivory tower and address the concerns.

 

[Dai Corner]

GWR themselves should have an idea. Here's a thought. Maybe they could tell their customers why they offered such a poor service on that day. Maybe they could apologise for the shambles. Maybe they could explain their action plan to prevent reoccurrence. How should they go about this?

Perhaps by getting the person with whom the buck stops to come down from his ivory tower and address the concerns.

If it was due to 'more than the expected number of drivers choosing to spend Father's Day with their fathers or children' perhaps a relaxation of the rules regarding members of the public in the cab would have helped?

NB: an attempt to inject humour into the discussion, before anyone takes the suggestion seriously.

 

[Tim456]

Which is fair enough but you can’t run a railway based on customs, festivals, beliefs and dare I say it England playing their next World Cup match this coming Sunday.

‘We’re sorry your train is cancelled, this is due to the driver wanting to watch England play in the World Cup.’

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

The poor weekend was (yet again) a pragmatic - I.e. tough - decision to avoid spending RDW opportunities on a Sunday and protect booked turns during the week. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at the start of YET ANOTHER midweek blockade, this time for three continuous weeks, no trains through the Severn Tunnel. Pretty much off the back of the previous Newbury blockade weeks. And straight off the back of this current blockade, we go into an entire July of Newbury blocks, again.

And so it goes on... and on.

I’m certainly not a GWR apologist, but I repeat again that due to the 105-day delay in the Class 800 deliveries - Jimm is quite correct - the driver training has been compressed and delayed, and only continues to be achieved through RDW during the week, leaving little / nothing in the piggy bank for weekends. So technically, you could in fact place some blame on Hitachi... but I won’t labour the point.

I saw a week-by-week list of the engineering blockades that GWR (and NR) are having to cope with for the remainder of 2018, and it is absolutely staggering. Other than 3 weeks of relative calm in August, there is barely a week between now and Christmas when one route or another isn’t blocked during the midweek. Levels of disruption like this is completely unheard of, and the need for much of it only identified this year as GWEP has progressed.

 

[FGW_DID]

The Oxford blockade kicks off in about a week or so as well!!

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

And Filton isn’t that far away...

 

[bnm]

The poor weekend was (yet again) a pragmatic - I.e. tough - decision to avoid spending RDW opportunities on a Sunday and protect booked turns during the week. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at the start of YET ANOTHER midweek blockade, this time for three continuous weeks, no trains through the Severn Tunnel. Pretty much off the back of the previous Newbury blockade weeks. And straight off the back of this current blockade, we go into an entire July of Newbury blocks, again.

And so it goes on... and on.

I’m certainly not a GWR apologist, but I repeat again that due to the 105-day delay in the Class 800 deliveries - Jimm is quite correct - the driver training has been compressed and delayed, and only continues to be achieved through RDW during the week, leaving little / nothing in the piggy bank for weekends. So technically, you could in fact place some blame on Hitachi... but I won’t labour the point.

I saw a week-by-week list of the engineering blockades that GWR (and NR) are having to cope with for the remainder of 2018, and it is absolutely staggering. Other than 3 weeks of relative calm in August, there is barely a week between now and Christmas when one route or another isn’t blocked during the midweek. Levels of disruption like this is completely unheard of, and the need for much of it only identified this year as GWEP has progressed.

This is all well and good. But coming from anonymous posters on a niche forum is of no succour to Joe/Jane Average who is severely inconvenienced by GWR robbing weekend Peter to pay weekday Paul.

They (in fact the MD) should explain to the punters this policy of protecting Sundays from RDW. They should tell punters there's a new/cascaded fleet training backlog. They should tell punters there's a dearth of mechanics/fitters for the West fleet, exacerbated by having those not poached by Hitachi getting to grips with internally cascaded stock. St Phillips Marsh are very obviously struggling to maintain the Turbos. In the past few days 166206 has failed in traffic three times, yet is still put back out. There's also evidence of poor HST fleet reliability. In just the past two weeks we've had two, thankfully minor, power car fires, and 43002 disgraced itself at Swindon a few days ago, spewing diesel all down the side of the train.

Mark Hopwood should address, explain and apologise. Prominently. Not just once in a blue moon to a small campaign group on one line. Wherever the fault lies in the fractured passenger rail business it is the TOCs that are the public face. They take the public's money, directly through fares and indirectly through subsidy. Its not good enough to abrogate responsibility to your punters and just trouser the profit.

If Mark Hopwood is not willing to explain to his customers why things are currently as they are then I look forward to bumping into him again soon. I've chatted to him on four occasions in recent years. Once at a meeting and three times on trains to/from Swindon. Pleasant encounters. It won't be such a comfortable encounter next time. My respect for him and his position is rapidly diminishing.

 

[43096]

This is all well and good. But coming from anonymous posters on a niche forum is of no succour to Joe/Jane Average who is severely inconvenienced by GWR robbing weekend Peter to pay weekday Paul.

They (in fact the MD) should explain to the punters this policy of protecting Sundays from RDW. They should tell punters there's a new/cascaded fleet training backlog. They should tell punters there's a dearth of mechanics/fitters for the West fleet, exacerbated by having those not poached by Hitachi getting to grips with internally cascaded stock. St Phillips Marsh are very obviously struggling to maintain the Turbos. In the past few days 166206 has failed in traffic three times, yet is still put back out. There's also evidence of poor HST fleet reliability. In just the past two weeks we've had two, thankfully minor, power car fires, and 43002 disgraced itself at Swindon a few days ago, spewing diesel all down the side of the train.

Mark Hopwood should address, explain and apologise. Prominently. Not just once in a blue moon to a small campaign group on one line. Wherever the fault lies in the fractured passenger rail business it is the TOCs that are the public face. They take the public's money, directly through fares and indirectly through subsidy. Its not good enough to abrogate responsibility to your punters and just trouser the profit.

If Mark Hopwood is not willing to explain to his customers why things are currently as they are then I look forward to bumping into him again soon. I've chatted to him on four occasions in recent years. Once at a meeting and three times on trains to/from Swindon. Pleasant encounters. It won't be such a comfortable encounter next time. My respect for him and his position is rapidly diminishing.

This x 1,000,000.

An excellent post that says what the situation is.

Good luck finding “Hapless Hopwood”, though!!!! No one else has seen him....

 

[221129]

This x 1,000,000.

An excellent post that says what the situation is.

Good luck finding “Hapless Hopwood”, though!!!! No one else has seen him....

This 100% and even when you do see him he just pretends like nothing is going wrong around him. GWR have been an absolute shambles with this weekend cancellation nonsense.

 

[jimm]

This is all well and good. But coming from anonymous posters on a niche forum is of no succour to Joe/Jane Average who is severely inconvenienced by GWR robbing weekend Peter to pay weekday Paul.

They (in fact the MD) should explain to the punters this policy of protecting Sundays from RDW. They should tell punters there's a new/cascaded fleet training backlog. They should tell punters there's a dearth of mechanics/fitters for the West fleet, exacerbated by having those not poached by Hitachi getting to grips with internally cascaded stock. St Phillips Marsh are very obviously struggling to maintain the Turbos. In the past few days 166206 has failed in traffic three times, yet is still put back out. There's also evidence of poor HST fleet reliability. In just the past two weeks we've had two, thankfully minor, power car fires, and 43002 disgraced itself at Swindon a few days ago, spewing diesel all down the side of the train.

Mark Hopwood should address, explain and apologise. Prominently. Not just once in a blue moon to a small campaign group on one line. Wherever the fault lies in the fractured passenger rail business it is the TOCs that are the public face. They take the public's money, directly through fares and indirectly through subsidy. Its not good enough to abrogate responsibility to your punters and just trouser the profit.

If Mark Hopwood is not willing to explain to his customers why things are currently as they are then I look forward to bumping into him again soon. I've chatted to him on four occasions in recent years. Once at a meeting and three times on trains to/from Swindon. Pleasant encounters. It won't be such a comfortable encounter next time. My respect for him and his position is rapidly diminishing.

On the basis of things you have posted here and on another forum for a number of many years now, I am rather tickled by the notion that you have any respect at all for Mr Hopwood, his senior management team or First Group.

Who naturally have never done anything whatever to address any of the problems that have arisen on their watch recently or for years before that...

I expect Mr Hopwood will be so stricken by conscience upon encountering you and hearing your trenchant opinions that he will resign on the spot.

The "small campaign group on one line" is one of the largest line-specific rail passenger/promotion groups in the country after the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle and played a large part in its early days in ensuring that the Cotswold Line is still there today as a through route, rather than a couple of branch lines with a hole in the middle - but why not denigrate the CLPG while you're at it as well?

 

[43096]

On the basis of things you have posted here and on another forum for a number of many years now, I am rather tickled by the notion that you have any respect at all for Mr Hopwood, his senior management team or First Group.

Who naturally have never done anything whatever to address any of the problems that have arisen on their watch recently or for years before that...

I expect Mr Hopwood will be so stricken by conscience upon encountering you and hearing your trenchant opinions that he will resign on the spot.

The "small campaign group on one line" is one of the largest line-specific rail passenger/promotion groups in the country after the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle and played a large part in its early days in ensuring that the Cotswold Line is still there today as a through route, rather than a couple of branch lines with a hole in the middle - but why not denigrate the CLPG while you're at it as well?

Obviously a pointless exercise trying to explain things from the paying passenger’s point of view as you don’t get it. You just don’t get it.

 

[WelshBluebird]

On the basis of things you have posted here and on another forum for a number of many years now, I am rather tickled by the notion that you have any respect at all for Mr Hopwood, his senior management team or First Group.

Who naturally have never done anything whatever to address any of the problems that have arisen on their watch recently or for years before that...

I expect Mr Hopwood will be so stricken by conscience upon encountering you and hearing your trenchant opinions that he will resign on the spot.

The "small campaign group on one line" is one of the largest line-specific rail passenger/promotion groups in the country after the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle and played a large part in its early days in ensuring that the Cotswold Line is still there today as a through route, rather than a couple of branch lines with a hole in the middle - but why not denigrate the CLPG while you're at it as well?

Still no answer about why GWR and Mark Hopwood have failed to explain to passengers what the issues are though. And why there is nothing on the front page of their website about the prolonged disruption that is happening because of those issues.

 

[bnm]

On the basis of things you have posted here and on another forum for a number of many years now, I am rather tickled by the notion that you have any respect at all for Mr Hopwood, his senior management team or First Group.

Who naturally have never done anything whatever to address any of the problems that have arisen on their watch recently or for years before that...

I expect Mr Hopwood will be so stricken by conscience upon encountering you and hearing your trenchant opinions that he will resign on the spot.

The "small campaign group on one line" is one of the largest line-specific rail passenger/promotion groups in the country after the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle and played a large part in its early days in ensuring that the Cotswold Line is still there today as a through route, rather than a couple of branch lines with a hole in the middle - but why not denigrate the CLPG while you're at it as well?

I was not denigrating. They are a small group in comparison to the multitudes affected by GWR incompetence day in day out.

And yes I have been on GWR's case for a number of years. They've lost their way ever since the day they handed the keys back yet were still rewarded with contract extensions.

 

[PHILIPE]

Still no answer about why GWR and Mark Hopwood have failed to explain to passengers what the issues are though. And why there is nothing on the front page of their website about the prolonged disruption that is happening because of those issues.

I E-Mailed Mark Hopwood personally a couple of months ago suggesting he should come out into the open not only in relation to train crews but also the ongoing shortage of units. A reply came from Customer Services on his behalf saying they would investigate

 

[joncombe]

Well I certainly think GWR are far from blameless and could (and should) be doing far more than they have been.

Given this has been happening for many weeks now, why haven't the put together an emergency timetable for weekends? At least then people might have an idea of what trains were actually likely to run, rather than a seemingly random set of cancellations that only seem to be loaded into the system on the morning (surely they must know what trains need to be cancelled earlier than that)?

This is what other TOCs like Northern and GTR have done.

I found at Reading there were no staff on the information desk until 10am so the only staff were on the ticket barriers or in the ticket office who didn't seem to know what was going on. Again at a major station like this the lack of staff at that time was poor I thought.

I saw a lot of frustration from passengers that had booked Advance tickets and found that not only was their train not running, but they'd now have to stand as well. On board the train there was more frustration that the catering was not available and in any case it would be impossible to get the trolley through the train with it being full of people standing. It would also very difficult to access the toilets and the air conditioning could not cope with the carriages being so crowded, so it was really hot too. In fact it does make me wonder why GWR are continuing to sell cheap Advance tickets for weekends given the level of cancellations and the consequent overcrowding.

There were other issues which seem like they should be easy to solve. The train I took to Bristol was formed of 2 5-car IEPs (only 1 of which had any 1st class service or catering). Just as the train was pulling into Bath the guard advised that the doors on the front 2 carriages would not open and so people could only get off from the rear 8 carriages. Yet this was never on the information displays in the carriages, or on the stations. Why not? The display were showing "1st class in the middle" and that the train had 10 carriages so it was clearly known it was an IEP. As a result an on-time arrival was turned into a 5 minute delay due to the time taken for all the passengers in the front 2 carriages to walk down and get off from another door because by the time the announcement was made there was not time to move.

They don't seem to have negotiated ticket acceptance with other TOCs too - why not? Perhaps it's time to abolish restrictions on tickets until they can run some sort of reliable service so those who found they couldn't get on a train on Sunday could travel back on Monday morning without having to buy a new (very expensive) ticket? Or those travelling on Advance tickets that had their outward journey badly delayed but find they still have to return on the booked train to return, or face paying for a new ticket.

Then of course I heard no announcements about being able to claim compensation for delays so I wonder how many passengers even know? And if you try to are likely to face more problems. Why do you have to upload a photo of the ticket, but also supply the ticket number, price, type of ticket, origin, destination and price? They can read all of that off the photo of the ticket. The form is also poor in that many types of tickets (such as Super Off Peak tickets) are not listed in the drop-down form on the website. I do hope they are not going to try rejecting claims because the wrong ticket type has been selected, given the correct ticket type wasn't one of the options! Then have you tried to identify which number might be the requested "Ticket Number" on the new format tickets? There are just different numbers printed on the orange strip at the bottom of the ticket, all unlabelled. In the old style it was easier, you read off the number under the "Number" heading (and the form rejects, if you do not enter a ticket number). Then to work out how much compensation they are due, the passenger is expected to know if the train they were delayed on might have been operated by Thames Trains, Great Western or Wessex Trains had it been operating 10 years previously. None of this is hard to fix, but no one has.

I also gather they have a long backlog on delay claims (hardly surprising). But I can't imagine approving or rejecting such claims is hard so surely they could employ some agency staff to get the response times back down?

Before someone says "but who will pay?" I say this - how much is this costing to make all these delay repay payments? Organise taxis for passengers left stranded? Replacement buses? Compensating Network Rail because of delays caused by long dwell times at stations, as passengers try to squeeze on already packed trains because of earlier cancellations?

We're already hearing of passengers numbers falling. GWR might have a captive market on commuter trains into London and other major cities on their routes, but I don't think the same is true for long distance services, particularly leisure travel (which a large portion of it will be, at weekends). They might seem to think this market doesn't matter (that is certainly the impression they are giving), but they might feel differently if these passengers start switching to cars, planes (there are flights from London to Exeter and Newquay, for example), other TOCs or coaches in large numbers. Remember the M4/M48 tolls will soon be scrapped too, which is likely to have an impact on the Wales services. How long will passengers be prepared to put up with standing for 2 hours on overcrowded, delayed, hot trains, with no catering and difficult access to toilets? You only have to look at twitter to see the barrage of negative comments, often with pictures of badly crowded trains attached. I do wonder how many of these people will decided to use GWR again? Ultimately this could impact jobs in the industry if there are less passengers, hence less trains needed and so less staff needed to operate them.

Now of course I accept that many of the problems are outside of the control of GWR, but that doesn't excuse the lack of action over those that are. Like others I've not seen public apologies from GWR whenever this happens or any indication of when things are going to improve.

As far as most of the public are concerned, the stations say GWR, the trains say GWR, the staff wear GWR badges (and they quite likely bought their tickets from the GWR website) and stations are full of GWR posters so I think it is quite understandable passengers believe GWR to be responsible.