Monday 4 February 2008

First day back

First day back..

As a little sort of reminder / welcome back from FGW I was treated to a late train - got "stuck" at Moreton in Marsh... What does this mean? It's not like it's having to make its way across a muddy field.....

Things got worse as the journey progressed. Apparently the automatic braking system was malfunctioning and the driver was trying to resolve it. I do have sympathy for the poor chap as it was chilly this morning. My feet still haven't warmed up from my 25 min wait on the platform (made more bearable by swapping anecdotes with Visaman and the Royal Green Jacket about rugby and how Wales isn't really a country so it doesn't matter that England gave away a few points on Saturday).

Anyway, I wonder if FGW could perhaps give a bit more thought to where the train breaks down as today we were stuck in a cutting with no views to take in. The British Railway network has some of the finest views available to it (and some of the worst - approach to Liverpool Street and approach to Manchester Piccadilly) and if we are going to be stuck, I'd at least like to have a nice view to take in.....

Sorry, I know I'm being unreasonable.

I knew it was going to be really bad when we started moving again and saw a car driving along a parallel piece of road and watching them over-take the train with some ease.

The "train manager" (TM) came on the tannoy and told us the train would "terminate" at Oxford due to an irreparable fault with the train. However, the level of excitement was raised further when the TM announced that they would "try and get the train as far as Didcot as we stand a better chance of getting a connection there". He then said (and I quote) "you never know, we might even make it as far as Paddington".

Part of me felt that this should be their new Corporate Brand Strapline:

FGW - you never know, we might make it to Paddington.

Eventually terminated at Didcot and had to get a connection.
A lovely welcome back.
Such fun.

TTF

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear TrainFellow,
I do commiserate with you on LWW's latest performance ~ quite disgraceful as they cannot on this occassion blame Network Rail.
What did your On Board Customer Care Manager have to say on the issue?
On Deutche Bahn (Chiltern as was) zee DZug ist Schon (running early still) In fact, this morning at Banbury and Bicester, we had to wait circa 5 minutes, at each location, before setting off at the time allotted in the timetable. My comment here is that if all this extra time is 'built in' why not crank up the running time by cutting off 10 minutes from the London arrival time? I suspect its the likes of LWW that would complain about unfair treatment by exposing themselves / Network Rail.

Better luck on your LWW great travelling adventure, for the future

Regards

TrainMan

Anonymous said...

I regularly travel FGW to Cheltenham from Paddington when I come home (live in Gatwick.) I'm Naomi's brother by the way - FGW haven't caused me any problems as yet! The HSTs are better than the Adelantes though :-)