Paddington Taxi Farce

[Hadders]

I've been caught up in the severe delays on GWR this evening. I finally arrived at Paddington at 0110 and, along with several other passengers require onward transport to my destination.

The train manager did a good gob of collating passengers destinations en-route however upon arrival at Paddington the details had to be collated again as they had 't been passed on.

we have been waiting over an hour and not one taxi has arrived. Staff claim they didn't know the train was arriving!

Is this typical of GWR and what to expect when needing a rail replacement taxi?

 

[Starmill]

I don't know if it's typical of GWR or not, but it is in line with my experience of taxis generally. I once arrived from Glasgow into Manchester Piccadilly at around 0030, more than 4 hours late. There was practically a scrum for the taxis and only one member of staff for them.

I also waited more than an hour at Leeds once for a taxi to be provided by Virgin Trains East Coast.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Is it a reluctance on the part of taxi drivers perhaps?

Long journeys yhen having to wait to be paid. Hard to imagine rail firms are quick to pay out.

 

[Hadders]

It was nothing to do with taxi drivers.

I had a (not unrealistic) expectation that GWR might have pre-booked some taxis to meet our train at Paddington so that we could get on our way (especially as the train manager had done a good job of collating where passengers needed to get to more than an hour ahead of our arrival).

45 minutes after arriving at Paddington not a single taxi had been ordered. The 5 GWR staff at Paddington, quite frankly, hadn't got a clue. The work the Train Manager did collating final destinations hadn't been passed on. When taxis finally did arrive their dispatch was comical at times.

I finally got home at 0323 (I should've been home at 2316). GWR will be hearing more from me about this.

 

[route:oxford]

I've been caught up in the severe delays on GWR this evening. I finally arrived at Paddington at 0110 and, along with several other passengers require onward transport to my destination.

They have a responsibility to get you to your final destination.

What was that though and could you have made your own arrangements and retrospectively claimed?

 

[Hadders]

I needed to get to Stevenage so I wasn't going to pay for a taxi and take a chance on being reimbursed. Several passengers did ask if they could get a taxi themselves and claim but were told that there was no guarantee that GWR would reimburse them.

 

[AlterEgo]

A ticket endorsement and a night in a BnB might well have been cheaper and more civilised!

 

[Hadders]

It would've been given that I'm working in central London today but if GWR couldn't arrange taxis at 1am I wouldn't rate their chances of organising a BnB.

 

[jimm]

It was nothing to do with taxi drivers.

I had a (not unrealistic) expectation that GWR might have pre-booked some taxis to meet our train at Paddington so that we could get on our way (especially as the train manager had done a good job of collating where passengers needed to get to more than an hour ahead of our arrival).

45 minutes after arriving at Paddington not a single taxi had been ordered. The 5 GWR staff at Paddington, quite frankly, hadn't got a clue. The work the Train Manager did collating final destinations hadn't been passed on. When taxis finally did arrive their dispatch was comical at times.

I finally got home at 0323 (I should've been home at 2316). GWR will be hearing more from me about this.

You may very well think it was nothing to do with cab drivers, but I have been told by a GWR employee who has to try to get hold of taxis on occasions that getting cab drivers to turn out is becoming increasingly difficult, as they certainly don't like having to wait a few weeks to get paid.

This isn't in central London, granted, but if cabbies elsewhere don't like doing the paperwork and waiting for their money, why should London be different?

 

[richw]

The progress for ordering road transport is very disjointed.
The station manager has to order it through gwr control. Gwr control then contact the contractor- first travel solutions in the case of GWR. First travel solutions then need to arrange with their contractors.
First travel solutions currently pay £50 an hour or£1.60 a mile whichever is greater. Minimum payment £150 even if only called out and do a few miles.
Taxi drivers are reluctant during night time hours as they can earn more on the meter if they are sent on a longer trip, especially somewhere busy like London. At the end of the job they can't leave until instructed by First travel solutions. This from experience can be a long time after the station manager says they're finished with.

 

[johntea]

I've had it before at Wakefield Westgate where the taxi drivers flat out refused to take my job home as East Coast were very delayed in paying them apparently!

In the end I just booked my own taxi, got a receipt, sent it to East Coast with quite a long explanation about how the taxi drivers were upset with them and received a refund

 

[Mojo]

The progress for ordering road transport is very disjointed.
The station manager has to order it through gwr control. Gwr control then contact the contractor- first travel solutions in the case of GWR. First travel solutions then need to arrange with their contractors.
First travel solutions currently pay £50 an hour or£1.60 a mile whichever is greater. Minimum payment £150 even if only called out and do a few miles.
Taxi drivers are reluctant during night time hours as they can earn more on the meter if they are sent on a longer trip, especially somewhere busy like London. At the end of the job they can't leave until instructed by First travel solutions. This from experience can be a long time after the station manager says they're finished with.

Does it depend on the location, or is this a new arrangement? In 2016 I was booked onto a train which didn't exist (and on the day was deleted from the system - not cancelled - by FGW) and they had to get a taxi from Temple Meads for me. They just took me to the info point and had a carbon copy pad which was filled in with the journey details. I then went to the taxi rank and handed one copy to the driver who took me there. This is exactly the same arrangement we regularly did back in 2006 when there were often cancellations on the Severn Beach line.

 

[westv]

I had a totally different experience back in 2009 with NXEC when my service got into Kings X at silly o' clock after delays. My taxi transfer back to Chelmsford was handled very efficiently.

 

[Merseysider]

Not unique to GWR by any means.

On Saturday (1st July) VTWC part-cancelled the last Stafford - Liverpool train of the night (2146) to finish short at Runcorn. I'd arrived at the station at approximately 2130, where it was advertised as Runcorn on the boards, and station staff promised that 'road transport' had already been organised to take people onwards from Runcorn.

Well, surprise surprise, when we arrive at Runcorn approx 2230, there's nothing there. It was around midnight when the first minibus arrived for Wirral passengers, it had been sourced from Manchester, and the driver didn't know the local area.

Several people ended up paying for their own taxi/Uber/mates to pick them up, because it was freezing, raining, and the Virgin staff didn't have a clue what was going on.

Unfortunate, but typical.

 

[sarahj]

Could have been due to the situation we have as staff. Back in the day the PM used to call up the local taxi firm and make a booking. Now they call a central office who then look for the cheapest bidder. So a taxi from A to B might have to come from C as they bid slightly less than a taxi firm in A. This can lead to long waits, poor taxis (the cheapest being some odd firms), and some worrying trips. These central cab co's bid for the work, so there must be some good money in it.

 

[richw]

Does it depend on the location, or is this a new arrangement? In 2016 I was booked onto a train which didn't exist (and on the day was deleted from the system - not cancelled - by FGW) and they had to get a taxi from Temple Meads for me. They just took me to the info point and had a carbon copy pad which was filled in with the journey details. I then went to the taxi rank and handed one copy to the driver who took me there. This is exactly the same arrangement we regularly did back in 2006 when there were often cancellations on the Severn Beach line.

Station manager no longer has such authority on gwr. All replacement travel has to be booked through FTS.
The rate I quoted above is the rate paid to coach operators in the westcountry.

 

[TheAlbanach_]

Seems really odd, the station I work at any member of staff can book a taxi and they arrive very fast. Usually when a train is coming in late we know how many passengers to expect and have taxis waiting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hadders]

It seems that at Paddington they can't just fill out a chatty and give it to a taxi at the rank. They have to use Addison Lee, via Control I believe. The taxis arrived reasonably promptly once they had been ordered, the issue was none were ordered until 45 minutes after our arrival. Why couldn't they have been arranged to meet us when we arrived at Paddington? We knew the train was going to arrive around 0110, so surely the staff at Paddington would've known this too.

 

[TheManBehind]

It seems that at Paddington they can't just fill out a chatty and give it to a taxi at the rank. They have to use Addison Lee, via Control I believe. The taxis arrived reasonably promptly once they had been ordered, the issue was none were ordered until 45 minutes after our arrival. Why couldn't they have been arranged to meet us when we arrived at Paddington? We knew the train was going to arrive around 0110, so surely the staff at Paddington would've known this too.

TOCs were having significant issues with cab drivers booking significantly higher mileage than actually travelled, particularly when they were asked to run shuttle services. Additionally, QA, transparency and accounting is more difficult under the slip systems. Solution was to go to centralised booking and invoicing, where each station has a cost centre and has authority to book taxis if they feel it is needed.

Thats not to say that some staff don't still go through control rather than the central booking office for whatever reason, be that lack of confidence or arse-covering!

 

[The Prisoner]

I stupidly gave British Airways a try after years of abstinence last week. Sure enough our Rome to London flight arrived two hours late and our connecting flight to Manchester had just gone. Were told BA would sort us with a hotel in London...arrived to be told there were none left, it was our fault for not staying in Rome (even tho Rome told us to come to London and there would be a hotel booked for us) and that we should use the free wifi @ Heathrow to find our own hotel!

In comparison GWR look stunningly amazing to me.

Things are not always perfect, but the railways generally try. BA were happy to leave us stranded. And we were traveling business (using up stupid Avios points rather than taking a direct flight - lesson learned!!!)

 

[Joe Paxton]

When I arrived late into King's Cross (after the Tube had stopped running) on what was then East Coast, the many passengers requiring onward transport were herded towards the taxi rank, corralled into taxi loads going to similar destinations and put in taxis - that is black Hackney cabs.

There was as far as I know no use of minicabs (private hire cars). I imagine word had been put out to London's cabbies that there was going to be a significant demand at KX that night. There were a few good fares going for the lucky ones, for example Brighton and Oxford.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Dont know if I fancy Oxford or suchlike in the back of a Hackney.

Staff at PAD not having a clue about anything is my experience of the place and whilst xi know some on here are very fond of this station it has been sowered for me by bad crappy staff/service

 

[fairysdad]

Does it depend on the location, or is this a new arrangement? In 2016 I was booked onto a train which didn't exist (and on the day was deleted from the system - not cancelled - by FGW) and they had to get a taxi from Temple Meads for me. They just took me to the info point and had a carbon copy pad which was filled in with the journey details. I then went to the taxi rank and handed one copy to the driver who took me there. This is exactly the same arrangement we regularly did back in 2006 when there were often cancellations on the Severn Beach line.

A couple of times last autumn I arrived into Exeter St Davids on a late-running SWT service, having missed the last Barnstaple train, for the GWR staff to quite promptly and efficiently take the few of us waiting for connections (not just for the Barnstaple branch, but other 'Devon Metro' services) to the taxi rank outside to load us onto taxis. Not even any journey details taken, just 'where are you going? Okay, Barnstaple - that taxi there. Exmouth - that one over there.' etc.

 

[mrmartin]

If Uber weren't so all over the place this would be a perfect market for them - a lot of coverage and fixedish fees for the TOCs (plus driver tracking etc).

 

[ainsworth74]

I had a totally different experience back in 2009 with NXEC when my service got into Kings X at silly o' clock after delays. My taxi transfer back to Chelmsford was handled very efficiently.

When I arrived late into King's Cross (after the Tube had stopped running) on what was then East Coast, the many passengers requiring onward transport were herded towards the taxi rank, corralled into taxi loads going to similar destinations and put in taxis - that is black Hackney cabs.

There was as far as I know no use of minicabs (private hire cars). I imagine word had been put out to London's cabbies that there was going to be a significant demand at KX that night. There were a few good fares going for the lucky ones, for example Brighton and Oxford.

I wonder if the East Coast franchise is just quite good with taxis?

I was once on a heavily delayed XC terminating at York and XC decided to pay for taxis for everyone to get to their destination (as various connections had been missed from York to various places). We arrived and everyone wandered over to the taxi rank where a couple of VTEC station staff were busy working out who was going where and then putting them into taxis. So on that occasion it was cross TOC and it still worked out well!

Another time I was delayed arriving into Darlington and missed the last train to Saltburn and VTEC staff quickly arranged taxis for everyone going to various stations along the line.

It's never been a problem for VTEC to sort out things like this in my experience!

 

[daikilo]

It is never a problem to call or block taxis, it is for them to know why, and who to bill. If, in addition, the related TOCs are slow in paying, taxi drivers will possibly find better things to do, like sleep.

 

[yorkie]

Dont know if I fancy Oxford or suchlike in the back of a Hackney.

That's nothing. I once did London to York (via Sherburn) and the black cab continued to Ashton under Lyne for James Palmer. No joke!

It took so long to organise, they should have let us on a Great Northern train to Peterborough and got us a taxi from there; we didn't even leave KGX until a GN train we could have caught got to PBO.

The person going to Sherburn was a football supporter who missed the train due to his own fault (purchasing beers) but got lucky that we had been delayed on an incoming London bound service. I do occasionally see him from time to time and am reminded of that occasion.

 

[sheff1]

My issue in such circumstances is that the TOC insists on you waiting for the taxi they are 'arranging' rather than letting you make your own arrangements and then claim the taxi fare back. After being delayed, late at night, I really do not want to hang around for another 30 mins or more when there are 'non TOC' taxis available for hire.

No issue if a line of 'TOC' taxis is waiting, but this is the exception rather than the rule even if the new arrival time of a heavily delayed train has been known for some time.

 

[Temple Meads]

My issue in such circumstances is that the TOC insists on you waiting for the taxi they are 'arranging' rather than letting you make your own arrangements and then claim the taxi fare back. After being delayed, late at night, I really do not want to hang around for another 30 mins or more when there are 'non TOC' taxis available for hire.

No issue if a line of 'TOC' taxis is waiting, but this is the exception rather than the rule even if the new arrival time of a heavily delayed train has been known for some time.

Given the length of time some delay repay claims seem to take, I think I would rather wait for the TOC to sort it out to be honest!

 

[Hadders]

Given the length of time some delay repay claims seem to take, I think I would rather wait for the TOC to sort it out to be honest!

Indeed! If it was £10 or £20 I'd have just paid it and been prepared to write it off if the TOC wouldn't pay up. A 40 mile trip at that time of night is likely to be £100+ plus and frankly why should I take a chance on that.