Railway industry structure (Debate)

Wed 21 Mar 2018, 17:07

It's a pity trolling consigned this thread to the bin. People rely on the railway and the trains' unreliability is painful. But it's good to share one's pain, and in the spirit of sharing, I have a recommendation for Birgit, Liz, Hamish, Emily and anyone else who using this Forum who wishes not to be trolled. There's an anti-troll button on the Forum! If you click on the 'x' next to where it says '[name of troll]' the website has a pop-up that says:

Are you sure?
Do you really want to ignore all postings by XXXX?
Yes, ignore their postings ? No

You're welcome.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 21:09

Michael, the point I made was this: the situation with GWR isn't merely an inconvenience, as your posts today have suggested - people's livelihoods are affected. The cancellations and delays have very real consequences: not all jobs have a flexible start time; many parents who commute by train need to be back home in time to collect their children. This website offers us a great place to coordinate a community response. I have no idea why you wanted to hijack today's discussion, but please allow those who are struggling in the face of GWR's current incompetence to voice their opinions.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 19:58

There's a wider question here, about how the railways are run, as well as the local one about why the Cotswold Line is bearing the brunt.

Unusually, the new trains were specified and ordered by the Government, not by GWR; and of course Network Rail (formally classed as state-controlled these days I think) has hardly helped matters. But the decision to concentrate the cancellations on the Cotswold Line is GWR's, as far as I can tell, and no-one else's.

I've spoken to a couple of GWR train and station staff over the last few days, and they're as embarrassed as anyone by the ongoing farrago. One of them pointed out that Kingham has it worse than we do in Charlbury - our 7.12 doesn't stop in Kingham any more, so their main commuter train is the 7.31 (for them, the 7.20), which is the one that's been downgraded to a Turbo.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 19:47

I think I found who I wanted to blame right from the start, Michael! It was you, in various versions of your post, who tried to come up with alternative parties.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 19:41

Michael stop trolling.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 19:30

"Michael, could we stick to the original point of the thread?" I'd be delighted to.

Birgit was trying to find someone to blame. It's a pointless quest. The only people who can unquestionably be blamed are those Charlburians so naive they believe things don't go wrong or so self-absorbed they believe the world should re-arrange itself around their convenience.

What point are you trying to make, Liz?

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 15:49

Michael, could we stick to the original point of the thread? And as a point of information, not all of those affected by the current service disruption have 'business contacts [...] who fully understand the problems we're facing'. For some (perhaps the ones operating outside the financial bracket you seem to think encompasses the whole of Charlbury) the unpredictable service at the moment is creating real difficulty. My husband, a teacher, missed the start of his school day this morning. Many of the children who commute to their schools in Oxford were also delayed.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 12:51

"Men explain things to us etc etc."

For the benefit of any unreconstructed fogeys out there: this is a reference to a feminist tract.

And Emily (like the tract's author, Rebecca Solnit) is absolutely right: it's all down to male supremacy.

Our line's Victorian infrastructure, and the Thatcherite ideas behind the last 30 years' changes? They'd never have happened with a woman at the top, would they?

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 11:58

This is *NOT* a political post.
Sadly, GWF ("Great Western Failway") are not the only privatised railway company to provide an inefficient and inadequate service. Sadly also, it is the innocent employees of that (dis)organisation who are getting it in the neck from Joe/Josephine Public; that needs to stop, and stop now. But ...
In view of the chaos that GWF has caused to peoples' lives, the lack of communication, and their apparent disinterest and inability to do anything about it, it is now time for them to be taken back into public ownership, and placed in the hands of a body of people who can provide us with the service that we deserve. Enough is enough.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 10:11 (last edited on Mon 19 Mar 2018, 19:19)

Michael, I don't think anyone is threatening GWR train and on the ground staff - I think everyone knows that they are not the source of the problems. I believe any campaign would towards the corporation (and the way it manages the service).
In celebration of Michael's champagne filled, rose tinted glasses I'll edit my post as well. Though today wasn't great and due to GWR I let people down because one's alternate arrangements don't exist.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 10:11

Obviously I am not suggesting to name and shame individual, heroic, long-suffering GWR staff but the GWR itself as suggested in the other thread.

Mon 19 Mar 2018, 10:03 (last edited on Mon 19 Mar 2018, 12:14)

So who does Birgit want to name and shame?

Poor Mr HiVis (who probably, by Charlbury standards, really IS poor) for the crime of receiving rotten wages to get shouted at for repeating duff info his bosses have given him?

GWR plc, or whatever it's rebranded itself to this week, for the crime of being fed duff info by our new, renationalised, Network Rail - the entity responsible for monitoring what's running and when?

State-owned Network Rail for the crime of being defunded at no notice while attempting to reconstruct the duff signalling infrastructure that's responsible for the duff info?

The Tories, for the austerity programme that's stripped state-owned Network Rail of the funds previously allocated to it?

The LibDems in the 2010-2015 coalition, who didn't fight hard enough to stop the last Tory government but one from imposing austerity?

The 1997-2010 Labour government, for renationalising our railway infrastructure ?

Frau Merkel, for authorising Deutsche Bundesbahn to develop a competing railway route, that's undermined GWR's preparedness to invest in short term fixes to the mess?

Might it not be just a tad easier to accept that **** happens, it's frustrating, all our business and social contacts fully understand the problems we're facing, so make alternative arrangements. Because Charlbury trains are going to be messed up till summer and shouting about it's getting no-one anywhere.

Especially on a day as wonderful as today, in a town as wonderful as the one we've had the supreme good luck to be able to live in.