MORE TRAIN LESS STRAIN

More Train Less Strain’s fare strike caught the public imagination and struck a raw nerve with the Department of Transport and FGW. The illegality of the protest also seemed to excite the media. Over 2000 normally quiescent commuters showed themselves willing to risk prosecution in the name of a decent train service. But what else could we do? We were and still are at our wits end. We are ordinary people who just want to know that we can get to and from work or college more or less on time. Until December 10 there were few cancellations, three quarters of trains arrived more or less on time, and you could always get onto the train, though you might have stand for your journey. From December 11, cancellations rocketed as FGW tried and failed to operate a slimmed down timetable. Punctuality became an irrelevance as train timetables totally disintegrated. The greatest concern was not whether your train would arrive on time but whether you could get on the next train or the one after that. There are many stories of scores of people left on station platforms whilst several full trains passed through, and they are all true. I have seen them and been with them. I doubt that Tom Harris or Alison Forster risk taking a FGW train to work. So have we achieved anything? We have raised the public profile with huge support from RMT, MPs and the media. Both FGW and the government continue to deny responsibility and blame each other but there is some movement. FGW has got hold of eight or 12 coaches from its sister company Trans Pennine, and (if we are to believe government promises) they assure us that they are here to stay. However, that still means we are a number of caches short of the complement on December 11. Punctuality remains a word that FGW still don’t understand and the level of cancellations remains appalling. A new phenomena is that we now frequently see HST’s cancelled. But at least we do have a better chance of getting on the trains as some have increased by one or two coaches even if they remain full to bursting. However, the number of coaches remain unpredictable from one day to the next and people are still being left behind at Oldfield Park and Keynsham. So what do we want? First, we want others to organise their own protests from Penzance to Paddington. Second, we want the DfT to admit their share of responsibility and to review the terms of the franchise. FGW always had a poor punctuality record and they should lose the franchise, giving the government the opportunity to rewrite it. Thirdly, we must have the re-nationalisation of our railways and this chaotic franchising system. Whoever dreamt it up must have been reading too much Kafka. www.moretrainlessstrain.co.uk www.rmt.org.uk :: february 2007 :: RMTnews 5 Tony Ambrose of More Train Less Strain outlines why passengers are revolting against First Great Western MORE TRAIN LESS STRAIN