A nightmare journey on GWR

Thursday 3rd October 2024

Last Sunday wasn’t a good day for GWR passengers and as bad luck would have it I was one of them.

The signs weren’t good from first thing with a post on X from GWR at 07:19 advising “disruption is expected to the end of the day” due to “forecasted severe weather”.

Passengers were advised “to travel as early as possible” and “fewer trains are able to run on all lines”. I understood the thinking behind getting passengers on the move early in the day with weather conditions expected to deteriorate but was, and still am, puzzled why “all lines” needed to have “fewer trains” running on them.

I had a single ticket and reservation on the 12:57 from Truro to Paddington (12:18 from Penzance). A speaking commitment in Truro that morning prevented me from folllowing the advice to “travel as early as possible” otherwise I’d have certainly caught one of the three trains that left Penzance earlier that morning.

I also couldn’t delay travelling until Monday although GWR weren’t saying “do not travel”, just advising “disruption is expected”.

The weather was certainly windy along with heavy rain falling from around 10:00 and I guessed, notwithstanding £80 million spent on bolstering the defences along the seafront at Dawlish, including a new sea wall completed last year, that section of the journey would be the most precarious and vulnerable to the elements.

I arrived at Truro station at 12:45 and immediately realised a nightmare journey was going to unfold, not so much because of the aforementioned disruption warnings, but seeing the platform sign showing the train was short formed with just five coaches.

This is inexcusable. Fewer train workings on a Sunday than in the week means spares should be available. We were told “fewer trains are able to run” so that means even more spares should be available. The normally allocated nine or 10 coach trains on the West of England line on Sundays are always extremely busy so to run a five coach train was a complete abdication of responsibility to passengers.

The consequence was no seat reservations, a declassified first class section and no catering and at every station bedraggled passengers, waiting in the rain, boarded in the hope of a comfortable journey ahead but instead having to seek out any spare inch of gangway or vestibule in which to stand or sit on the floor.

Conditions quickly became intolerable on board. Making a trip to one of the toilets was almost impossible yet passengers kept good natured and seemed resigned to the conditions, with many observing this was sadly becoming all too typical of poor service delivery by GWR, particularly at weekends.

I increasingly felt sorry for the Train Manager as the journey progressed through St Austell, Par, Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard. He sincerely apologised and empathised with the appalling conditions we were all suffering and, of course, he could offer no explanation or reason for the allocation of a completely unsuitable five coach train. All he could say was “Control” had made the allocation and although he’d requested another five coach train be joined on at Plymouth he’d been told this wasn’t possible.

Suffice to say arriving into Plymouth was somewhat daunting not least because the previous GWR stopping journey half an hour before us serving Exeter and Taunton (and on to Cardiff) had been cancelled adding even more passengers to the huge throng waiting to board.

If the overhead racks hadn’t been full of luggage I seriously think passengers would have climbed up to find space there as we headed off towards the famous Dawlish Wall in every sense of the word “rammed”, with the rain beating down.

It was the same story at Totnes of rain soaked, bedraggled passengers looking horrified at the conditions they were joining on board, but at Newton Abbot the Train Manager made the sensible suggestion passengers without a seat might find it better to get off the train and catch a following nine coach train that was coming from Paignton with plenty of empty seats and would be about ten minutes behind us.

A few made the move but more joined us, possibly swayed by that alternative train having more stops including Castle Cary, Westbury, Pewsey, Hungerford and Newbury on its way to Paddington.

It was now time to pass along the Dawlish Wall. Although the sea was rough and waves were high I wouldn’t describe it as appalling conditions. There was a lot of spray and it was noticeable we’d slowed right down, including alongside the River Exe and through Starcross, even when the worst of the impact of the wind had abated. I had a feeling something wasn’t right.

We arrived into Exeter St Davids at 15:24 just eleven minutes late but seeing around 250 passengers waiting on the platform quickly realised this wasn’t going to have a good outcome.

The Train Manager repeated his announcement imploring passengers to consider waiting for the next train but after a few more minutes announced the clincher – the train’s engine had developed a fault coming through Dawlish and the train would have to terminate where we were, in Exeter.

I’d guessed all was not well on the approach to Exeter as a Hitachi employee was on board and his increasing activity and furrowed brow said it all.

The five coach train slowly emptied as everyone and luggage made their way via the narrow staircases and footbridge from platform 5 to platform 4 where the much discussed nine coach train from Paignton was just arriving.

It was the same story of first class being declassified and despite the efforts of the catering staff they quickly realised it would be best to retreat to the safety of the kitchen as more and more of the floor space became occupied with human bodies as passengers piled on board.

We set off at 15:49 (15 minutes late for that train and 32 minutes late for those of us from the broken down train) and the next stop at Tiverton Parkway saw what had become the usual scrum of passengers seeking out spaces to perch, sit or stand.

But it was the next station, Taunton, where things came to a head. I got the impression the Train Manager had rightly thought enough is enough as we’d become dangerously overloaded. He told us he “was trying to get through to Control so some station calls could be cancelled to create more room for passengers” … or to out it another way … to have less passengers on board … “but they weren’t answering”.

All in all we waited in Taunton for 25 minutes while Control sorted something out with the solution communicated to us the train would now only call at Westbury, Reading and Paddington with passengers for Castle Cary advised to alight where we were in Taunton, and take a taxi and those for Pewsey, Hungerford and Newbury advised to alight in Reading and catch a train back from there.

It’s possible this eased pressure on space in other carriages but there was no movement in the one I was in – we were all Reading or Paddington bound, but at least the change meant a few minutes would be saved by not calling at the four skipped stations and we’d avoid more on board distress as passengers tried in vain to get on the train. Sadly those passengers waiting to board at Castle Cary and Pewsey had another two hours to wait for their next train.

It was bad enough at Westbury, where, as at all other stations, boarding passengers with accessibility needs, medical conditions or with babies and young children requested fellow passengers to give up their seat and it was good to see the human spirit of generosity was alive and well with exemplary acts of kindness.

My main concern was reaching the toilet not least as while keeping an eye on the red light indicator I’d noticed it was pretty much permanently occupied, wondering if someone was using it as a seat for the journey. I think that was indeed the case.

As we continued on to Reading I noticed at 17:09 GWR posted on X news that the line between Exeter and Plymouth had closed due to the weather and felt grateful I’d managed to get through just in time. But it did make me wonder about that Network Rail £80 million Dawlish Wall Resilience Project – the weather was bad, but not atrocious. The Shipping Forecast that morning reckoned Portland to Plymouth would be “Six to Gale 8; Moderate or Good, occasionally poor”. How on earth is the railway going to cope in gale, cyclonic and storm force winds during the worst of the coming winter?

We arrived into Reading at 18:09 and many passengers alighted although plenty were still standing, sitting or squatting through to Paddington where we arrived at 18:36 – 29 minutes later than scheduled for that train and 62 minutes later than my original broken down train had been due in.

My takeaways from this nightmare of a journey are….

Something is seriously wrong with the availability of trains such that a known busy journey on a reduced timetable is operated with a five coach train. I’m hearing comments about the mechanical state of the first generation of Hitachi trains introduced seven years ago and someone needs to come clean with passengers. There seem to be far too many journeys being short formed with just five coaches. GWR may have a maintenance contract with Hitachi protecting itself financially when train availability is lacking but it’s passengers who suffer. And yes, I’ll get all my fare back through delay repay for Sunday’s trip, but frankly I’d rather not go through the nightmare of such a journey.

And talking of refunds, I really think this is where the railway falls down big time. Train Managers on both trains were using cautiously scripted explanations that “passengers may be entitled to some form of compensation” when it came to explaining the lack of catering, declassification of first class and lateness of the journey. If GWR really are serious about customer service, Train Managers should be authorised to tell everyone due to the appalling on board conditions they’ll all be entitled to a full refund as well as a voucher giving £5 (or something like that) off a future booking. That’s how you win back goodwill. Not keeping passengers waiting for weeks to get the refund they’re entitled to and have the audacity to be questionned about the veracity of their claim – something, in my experience, that happens all too frequently with GWR as I keep reporting in these blogs. And I bet GWR get handsomely compensated by Hitachi. None of this “may be entitled to compensation”.

Which brings me to “Control”. When major disruption is expected, as happened on Sunday, extra resources need to be brought into “Control” so that decision making can be speeded up and Train Managers not left waiting for replies, keeping whole train loads of passengers waiting amid increasing uncertainty and distress.

One other observation about Hitachi Class 800s is their age is beginning to show in terms of seat discomfort too. Never particularly comfortable from the start, many of the seats in standard class are now losing their internal padding leaving a hard ridge across the seat where your bum sits making it extremely unpleasant to sit, particularly for a six hour journey as some people experienced on Sunday . They need refurbishing and quick.

Among the thousands of passengers inconvenienced by GWR on Sunday was TV personality Kirstie Allsopp. She was privileged to receive a detailed reply to her posts on X from Celia at GWR who refreshingly gave some straight answers rather than hiding behind the weather as a reason for the problems – as we all know these issues are happening regularly, not just when it’s wet or windy.

The admission “we’re also operating with a smaller fleet as part of managing the overall subsidy provided by the taxpayer” is interesting and shows the continued level of DfT interference in the rail industry.

I’ve Seen it.

I’ve Said it.

Now, come on Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill CBE … Get it ….. Sorted.

Roger French

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