One thing my blog really isn’t, is a collection of anecdotal tales of my travels around the First Great Western network. This is quite deliberate: when I started writing I wanted to focus on some of the higher level strategic issues facing the railways and in particular the Greater Western franchise, rather than deal with the minutiae of my personal travel experiences.
Tonight however, I will make an exception to my rule.
This evening lightning struck some track side equipment in the Southall area. Chaos ensued as some of the lines between Reading and Paddington were closed and trains were cancelled, delayed and everything was generally disrupted. I, along with countless other travellers, faced the grim prospect of trying to wend my weary way home.
Fortunately, I managed to make it to Reading fairly easily by catching the first HST I could find that was leaving Paddington. I then proceeded to wait on a rather crowded, and particularly dull, Platform 4 at Reading Station. At around 20.08 a newly refurbished HST heading for Bristol Temple Meads pulled into the station. I looked through the windows to be greeted by the sight of Alison Forster, the Managing Director of First Great Western, wheeling a catering trolley through the train, chatting to passengers.
At a time of crisis, Ms Forster hadn’t shied away from the front line: she was there with her sleeves rolled up helping people and trying to make whatever difference she could. She deserves credit for efforts. Ms Forster probably wouldn’t think she was doing anything exceptional, she’d just see it as part of her job and of her responsibility. And maybe it is – but what a stark comparison to the simpering bureaucrats at the Department for Transport who, despite making passengers' lives a misery, hide in the shadows of their Ministry in Whitehall and would never dream of putting themselves in the line of fire and dealing with everyday travellers.
It is, of course, very easy to criticise First Great Western for problems and for people to be, maybe unjustifiably, scathing about its management, but one accusation that simply isn’t true is that Ms Forster and her team don’t care. I think they do. As I saw in Ms Forster’s actions this evening, I think they care very much indeed.
20 comments:
Wow that is amazing. What's more amazing is the coincidence that you, a non-FGW employee, with no connection to FGW just happened to be there to see it.
that is amazing isn't it??
i have to say i was on that train and Alison Forster WAS helping out and was very visible, and all credit to her for doing so!!
I have a lot of time for CJ , and feature links to his blog entries regularly on the forum I help run (indeed , he contributes himself from time to time , and is most welcome , although we dont always agree.)
However , this time I dont think he has been at his most objective , and "A Helping Hand" does seem to rather wax too lyrical about what looks suspiciously like a FGW publicity stunt.
Now, now Billyo – do I detect a note of sarcasm?!
In all truth, I was indeed there to see it – as was anyone else who was standing on Platform 4 of Reading Station last night at 20.08 and as was anyone who was aboard that train particular train to Bristol Temple Meads. Other than being able to give you a very boring and intricate account of my travel movements last night, there is no real way that I can prove this and, to be perfectly honest, I am not particularly interested in proving it. People are free to believe or disbelieve as they see fit.
Secondly, if you have an accusation you should make it directly. Let me answer, head on, what I believe you are trying to get at.
Is this site associated with First Great Western? No, it isn’t. It is completely independent of the company and the articles are mine and mine alone. This should be patently obvious. It would be commercially destructive for FGW to publicly criticise the government in the way this site does. It would be politically suicidal, and actually illegal, for them to do it in a covert manner while claiming, as I do quite clearly, that the blog was independent.
Am I an employee of First Great Western? No, I am not. I have never worked for FGW, for First Group or for any of their subsidiary companies. Unlike the previous accusation, there is no particular way of proving this without revealing lots of information about my identity – which I don’t want to, and therefore will not, do. Here, you are free to take my word for it or to disbelieve it as you wish: it makes no odds to me either way.
In any case, at the most fundamental level, it doesn’t matter who is behind the site. The veracity of the blog rests not on who did, or didn’t, write it but on the validity of the content itself. Something that is true is not rendered invalid because it is written by someone with a vested interest, just as something that is untrue is not confirmed because it is written by a supposed authority or an independent third party. Truth is independent of the writer or observer.
And finally, this blog entry isn’t particularly amazing or stunning – which is precisely why I usually steer clear of anecdotal ‘my train was crowded’ or ‘I was delayed a bit today’ type entries (incidentally, that sort of entry is precisely the type featured by so many of the anti-FGW blogs which so many people concur with). I simply wrote what I did because I think it is good that Ms Forster takes responsibility and rolls her sleeves up; I think it’s positive that as head of the organisation she is prepared to make herself available to the public and subject herself to the type of criticism front line staff have to face on a daily basis. It’s not necessarily exceptional, but not all heads of large organisations do this.
Does that mean everything else on the FGW network is alright? No, it doesn’t. But with someone who is prepared to interact and listen there is a great deal more chance that things will be made better than there is with management who hide away from the front line or who take decisions in remote offices without ever visiting the ‘coal face’.
Thanks Lee. As you know, I value your views too even though, as you say, we don’t always share the same opinions. I know, at heart though, that like me you sincerely want to see a better railway.
As I said before, this blog entry was very much a personal musing rather than a piece of objective analysis. Having said that, I really don’t think what I saw was a publicity stunt, mainly because there was no one around who would be capable of generating such publicity. Indeed, the only mention of it I have seen is my own – and that can hardly be described as spreading the word to the masses!
It’s neither an amazing nor stunning occurrence, but it’s a cynical and sad old world when simple praise can’t be given to someone for trying to do something good without a chorus of carping.
I take your point on board CJ, but you can't blame me for being cynical when it comes to matters FGW.
I was not actually suggesting that you didn't see it, or that it didn't occur. Merely that it would be convienient that you, on of the few champions of FGW on the internet, were there to see it.
CJ, as you know, I agree with much (though not all) of what you write on this blog. I too have been having a long-running letter battle with the department for transport (though they are now taking 2 months to reply to any of my letters).
But I have questioned your motives in the past since you only ever seem to defend one train company. Your blog is called the "truth about first great western" not "the truth about train franchising".
I have also questioned your motives because you chose to defend one of the worst performing franchises. Other train companies are able to maintain their trains, and run them on time with similar government interference.
Finally, one further cynical point. As far as I am aware, HSTs only have a trolley service in First Class. I'm sure Ms Forster got a truely representative view of her company chatting to those travelling at the expense of their companies.
And it so happened to be a refurbished set but she has been very reluctant to meet passenger groups who want to express their views on the December timetable and she aint been seen at stations to witness the overcrowding and passengers left on station platforms.
In a sense it doesn't matter if Ms Foster's actions were a publicity stunt or not. The point that she wasn't hiding in the shadows still stands.
"And it so happened to be a refurbished set but she has been very reluctant to meet passenger groups who want to express their views…”
Oh brother!
First, that it was a refurbished set is just a matter of chance: Ms Forster was probably going back to Swindon (where FGW HQ is) and therefore got on the Bristol Temple Meads train. And besides, what is the point you are trying to make with this?
Second, from my conversations with people and from what I have read online and in the media, Ms Forster has not been reluctant to meet with passenger groups at all. To say she has is just downright inaccurate. She met with More Train Less Strain (MTLS) – notes of the meeting she attended are on their website. She recently addressed a London TravelWatch meeting – the one I wrote about on this blog. And, she has met with many MPs (as their own blogs testify) and countless other stakeholders. Glenda Lamont (Customer Services Director) has also been active in meeting people – I remember seeing notes that Graham Ellis put up on his site of a public meeting she attended. That seems like plenty of interaction with the public to me.
So, was it the first class passengers she was mingling with? If so, was this also a matter of chance?
I am no fan or FGW but I do admire Alison Foster. She uses her own product almost every day which is more than lots of chief executives do and more than most of the DfT does.
She also wears her FGW badge when travelling on her trains and listens to people's moans. The problems start when she nothing gets done in reposnse to the moans.
I've also been impressed by Virgin trains boss Chris Gibb (Gibbs?). I have been on a crowded Virgin train with him and seen him offer his seat to paying passengers and stand all the way from Preston to Birmingham.
I get the impression that most railway workers from Alison Foster and Chris Gibb downwards are at least reasonably hard working and competant although many of them are stuck in a rut.
The real problems are caused by lack of direction from government, a lax regularory regime, short term franchises (or perhaps the franchise system itself)and the demise of the old miliatry-style comand structure that GWR etc used to have
good on Alison Forster! At least she bothered to make the effort. First Gret Western may not be the perfrect company but i do think Alison is a competent railway woman and a competent managing director and i've worked in the industry for quite some time!
Is it just me or has anyone noticed that those lovely newly refurbished HST carriages have dodgy lights, failing air conditioning and most of the much heralded plugs don't work.
I too was at Paddington for the night of the lightening strike. But what annoyed me most was that the same thing happened the next day, Tuesday, around 4.30pm somewhere close to Swindon. While I know FGW can't control the weather, what is the signalling equipment made of? Tin foil?
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