Tag Archives: First Great Western

The Return of the Night Riviera

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Tim Hall

57605

The very first “Night Riviera” to run following the repairs to the breach at the sea wall at Dawlish, with 57605 “Totnes Castle” at the head of the train. It’s the last remaining locomotive-hauled passenger train on the West of England main line.

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FGW to increase Standard Class Seats

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Tim Hall

First Great Western HST at Dawlish

First Great Western announce more standard class seats and a refreshed first class environment.

First Great Western has secured agreement with the Department for Transport to increase standard class capacity on all First Great Western’s High Speed Trains, by converting some of its first class carriages.

The deal will create almost 3,000 more standard class seats a day for customers across the network and deliver nearly 16% more standard class accommodation on high speed services into London in the busy morning peak.

This is on top of an increase in peak-time seats delivered by the company in the summer of 2012, through the rebuilding and upgrading of disused buffet cars to create additional seats.

This sounds like a long-overdue move. The downside of fixed-formation trains is that the relative demand for first and second class seating varies considerably from route to route, and by time of day. This is one reason why first class tickets are sometimes heavily discounted at weekends. But there does seem to be an long-term decline in first-class travel overall, hence adjusting the ratio make sense.

The press release doesn’t make it 100% clear how many coaches are involved. Most HST formations are eight coaches with five standard class, two first class plus the seated half of the buffet car. Converting one of the two first class coaches would leave a coach and a half of first class accomodation in the train.

The HST fleet is well over 30 years old now, and the way the entire fleet is still in front line service bar a handful written off in crashes is a tribute to the original designers. The best train British Rail ever built, without a doubt.

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Thursday on the Berks and Hants

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Tim Hall

Mendip Rail 59 passes Reading West with a London-bound train of aggregates.

Reading West is a major freight hotspot. This place sees an enormous volume of freight traffic since it sits at the intersection of two major freight routes, a short stretch of track where east-west and north-south traffic shares the same track. Unfortunately, as this picture shows, it’s an awkward place for photography with trees lining both sides.

Here’s one of Mendip Rail’s small fleet of class 59s with a loaded train of aggregates from the the quarries in Mendips suplying the insatiable demand of the London construction industry.

One of the two three-car pre-production prototype class 150s leaves Reading West on a Basingstoke-Reading service.

The “Basingstoke Rattler” in the shape of a three-car class 150 Sprinter. The two units used on this service are unique to the line; they’re the two pre-production prototypes for the successful Sprinter family of trains, and are the only two build as three-car trains with a non-driving centre vehicle.

Freightliner 66 comes off the Reading avoiding line with a Southampton-bound intermodal working.

The biggest traffic flow through Reading West is container traffic to and from the port of Southampton. Here’s Freightliner’s 66587 coming off the avoiding line with a southbound train of boxes.

Plymouth-bound express hurries through Hungerford

We move west to the small town of Hungerford, where a westbound express hurries through the station. These Inter-City 125s, now well over 30 years old are still the mainstay of First Great Western’s longer-distance services. In recent years they’ve even been expanding their fleet, taking on surplus trains from other operators. These are still the best trains British Rail ever built.

DB Schenker's 59202 in

DB Schenker’s 59202, painted in Traffic Red passes Hungerford with a rake of “Megabox” opens. An American-built locomotive wearing the livery of Germany’s state-owned railway. What is the world coming to?

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Trouble at Reading Station

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Tim Hall

I never had this trouble at Bristol a few weeks ago

With today’s glorious summer weather I decided it was an ideal time to document the old GWR station at Reading before the whole lot gets bulldozed to make way for the shiny new station.

When I got there I was told to find the duty manager to seek permission. She then told me I could only photograph the station infrastructure, and could not photograph trains. Given that I’ve taken thousands of photographs at UK and overseas stations over 25 years, and never before have train companies ever tried to stop me taking photographs, I really don’t understand what First Great Western are playing at.

I know some large stations tried to prevent photographers a few years back through a combination post-9/11 paranoia and corporate backside-covering, but changed their tune after the resulting PR backlash.

Has anyone else had problems at Reading or any other FGW stations? Is this a new policy? What exactly is going on? It’s certainly at odds with the official photography policy of Network Rail, who own the station, or the guidelines given by The British Transport Police.

I sent this complaint to First Great Western customer services

I arrived at Reading this morning with the intention of taking photographs of the Reading station prior to redevelopment. On arrival I was advised by the barrier staff to speak to the duty manager.

The duty manager then told me that while I would be permitted to photograph the physical station infrastucture, I would not be permitted to photograph any trains.

I was extremely surprised and very disappointed on being told this, and decided to leave immediately without taking any photographs at all.

Is this a specific local rule affecting Reading, or is there a blanket ban on railway photography across all FGW stations? This is very much at odds with the widely-publicised photography policy of other TOCs such as Virgin Trains. I have certainly taken many photographs of trains at FGW stations (most recently at Bristol Temple Meads a few weeks ago) without being challenged or questioned by platform staff.

I must stress that all FGW staff I encountered were unfailingly polite.

So now, rather than spending this glorious weather outside with my camera, I’m reduced to sitting at home complaining on the Internet. I wonder what sort of response that complaint will get. Given the stories of low staff morale I’m hearing from inside FGW, they seem to be suffering from serious management problems, for which I strongly suspect my troubles are another symptom.

Update

I have now received a rather bland and somewhat patronising reply.

Dear Mr Hall

Thank you for your email of 29 September 2011. I am sorry you could not take the photographs you wished to at Reading station on the same day.

We expect everyone representing our company to be as helpful as possible at all times. We do welcome rail enthusiasts at our stations who want to take photographs for private purposes. There are various guidelines designed to ensure you have a safe and enjoyable experience in the pursuit of your interest. A key priority for us is to ensure the safety of our passengers and staff. However it is the discretion of the Station Manager to set the photography limits at a particular station.

Thank you again for bringing your experience to my attention. I do hope that future journeys with us will be trouble-free.

Yours sincerely
Siddhi Minawala
Customer Services Advisor

I do not really consider this a satisfactory answer, and I’m assuming that Reading station is off-limits for railway photography for the foreseeable future. And I very much doubt that we’ll ever be given a satisfactory reason.

Update No 2

Now get a second reply, which strongly implies that someone in First Great Western has been reading either this blog or the thread I started on RMWeb with well over a hundred replies.

Dear Mr Hall

I am writing to apologise for the problems you had recently at Reading station, when you were not permitted to take photographs of trains. I understand you were unhappy with the last response we sent you on this matter and I am sorry.

We do have to work within certain guidelines when allowing customers to photograph our trains, however this is something we will permit where we can. There is no reason why you were not allowed to do this, and I am really sorry that you were misadvised at the station about only being able to photograph buildings. I have passed this feedback on to my colleagues at Reading, who I am sure will take the necessary action to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

If you wish to take pictures of the trains at Reading, you do need to approach the Station Manager first, who will go over the guidelines with you. We don’t want to stop you from pursuing your hobby and I am sorry that our response has not been particularly helpful.

I hope this now clears things up and that you will accept my apologies for the way this matter has been handled.

Please do feel free to get in touch if I can help with anything else in the future.

Yours sincerely

Jo Coverley
Customer Relations Senior Officer

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