Worst Great Western?

I read on BBC News this morning that disgruntled commuters in the Bristol area are staging another 'fares strike' against First Great Western (FGW). The company has been dubbed 'Worst' Great Western or another one I've seen is 'Forever Getting Worse.' Even in the railway media the coverage of FGW seems to be almost universally scathing. I use FGW from time to time and I have never had cause to be outraged or complain about its service, although admittedly I am not a commuter. Part of the problem seems to be the lack of reliable rolling stock available to the company, whether that is due to FGW's penny-pinching or Department for Transport (DFT) interference it is difficult to say. Certainly those pics of off-lease DMU's at Eastleigh last year which FGW had returned to the lessor despite suffering from severe overcrowding on its South West of England services, did the company no favours.

FGW is a company though that seems to lurch from one public relations disaster to another and it has only recently avoided a strike called by the RMT. I am sure that the constant bad news is having a drip-drip effect and even for those who don't use FGW regularly, it must put them off considering using the train or their services. Interestingly the BBC News article attributes one comment to FGW in defence of itself despite giving the More Train Less Strain group and RMT ample opportunity to voice their opinions attacking FGW. It hardly presents a balanced picture and sadly it is indicative of the slanted and unfair reporting often to be found in the mainstream media.

Oxfordshire Day Ranger

Yesterday I enjoyed a day out using First Great Western's recently introduced Oxfordshire Day Ranger ticket. At £15 it represents excellent value, allowing unlimited travel between Oxford and Reading, Oxford and Moreton-in Marsh (on the Cotswold Line), Oxford and Banbury and Oxford and Bicester Town. I choose to keep to the main artery between Banbury and Reading, with stops at Oxford (where I started my journey), Banbury, Didcot Parkway and Reading.

The ticket can be bought from most staffed National Rail stations although I found the knowledge of this Ranger at Milton Keynes Central to be rather lacking. Unfortunately with the revisions to the X5 bus service, which no longer services Oxford Rail Station, it is not possible to purchase a through ticket including the bus journey.

Although it may have been a bright, sunny day, it was not one without its problems. Firstly, the wind was bitingly cold, so I spent little more than an hour at any of my destinations. Any longer and I am sure I would have been frozen to the spot! Also, with the sun low in the sky I had problems with reflections and shadows in unwanted places. Getting a decent shot of anything was near impossible and a couple of times I felt like giving up. However, I hope that some of the results I got are worth it, which can be seen on my Fotopic site.

Fictitious Liveries

An interesting Fotopic web site I found last night was Fictitious Liveries, which is run by the AC Locomotive Group. The Fictitious Liveries site considers 'what if' matching locos with liveries that were never carried by that class. It is a clever idea and the standard of the photos is excellent, clearly the person who does this site has a lot of technical knowledge and time! Some of the liveries work well, others less so. I particularly liked the idea of an HST set in GWR Chocolate & Cream livery and the alternative Large Logo Blue that was applied to many locos during the 1980s. One of the odder conceptions is that of Virgin opting for a loco and stock rather than EMU for its Pendolino's. I am not entirely convinced by the end result but it is an interesting idea. A well worthwhile site though and one that I will definitely keep an eye on.

Also, I should mention Carl Watson's Fotopic site, which is far and above what mine is. The latest collection is from Cosham, where I was a few weeks ago although it seems that Carl was considerably more fortunate with the weather than I was.

Fotopic Gallery Updates

I have added two new galleries to my Fotopic site today. The first is a collection of photos from Rugby that I took yesterday lunchtime and the other is a miscellany of HST photos from around the UK taken over the period from 2004-2007.

The weather hasn't been too grand for the start of the year so opportunities to get out and do some photography have been limited. The trip to Rugby yesterday was the first real opportunity I've had this year, although as you will see from the pics it was a damp and miserable afternoon. Hence, I only stopped for about an hour before deciding to head back to MK.

57301 Scott Tracy was again the Thunderbird at Bletchley and it became clear to me yesterday why Virgin have been stabling their Thunderbirds there rather than Rugby. Currently, all the bay platforms at Rugby are out of use. It appears that the track serving the bays at the south end has been lifted while access to the north end bays appears to be out of use. Whether this is permanent or not, I am not sure, although I would imagine that the changes are only for the duration of the current works, of which there appears plenty yet to be done. Clearly with no stabling facilities at Rugby nor further south at Milton Keynes, due to the works being undertaken there, makes Bletchley the only option.

Interestingly, the only platforms open at Rugby are Platform 1(the new northbound platform) and Platforms 2 and 4 (the island platforms) for southbound services. Platform 4 appeared to be used by freight passing through the station and the London Midland service to Northampton. All other southbound trains were passing through Platform 2.

I am hoping the weather might improve next week as I plan to spend some more time out and about but we'll see.

Penny reaches a million and Catherine goes to storage

I read that 390022 Penny the Pendolino has become the first of Virgin's Pendo fleet to reach a million miles in service, doing so last week near Bletchley. She should have passed this milestone before Christmas but a withdrawal from service for a few days in December meant that the record was reached later than expected.

Certainly the Pendolino's seem to be settled in their role racing up and down the West Coast Main Line although it is more like an energetic walk at the weekends with the amount of engineering works taking place. At the moment all Virgin services on Saturdays and Sundays are being routed via the West Midlands as the Trent Valley line is blocked. This meant that what would be a 45-minute (at most) journey for me from Nuneaton to MK at the weekend took well over 90 minutes and involved a replacement bus between Nuneaton and Coventry. Considering that Sunday afternoons and evenings are one of the busiest periods on the railway network, I am sure I am just one of many who are inconvenienced. But is all the pain worth the gain?

Well living in Milton Keynes, if the reports are true, it would appear not. From the December 2008 timetable change Virgin are going to be upping the number of services from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow and cutting journey times. These changes will call for a greater utilisation of the 53-strong Pendolino fleet during weekdays and will also mean some stops, notably Milton Keynes will be omitted. That's not to say that Milton Keynes will loose its Virgin services altogether but it seems that they will be less than today. And considering MK is the fastest growing urban area in the UK and with a drive by the Government for all of us to use public transport more, this does not make sense. As a compensation, more services will be provided by London Midland; the through link to Birmingham via Northampton will be restored and a new hourly service via the Trent Valley to Crewe will be provided.

The former Bletchley shunter, 08874 Catherine has been moved to Long Marston for storage. I last saw 08874 during the Silverlink Swansong I in November. The future of Bletchley depot seems uncertain, my understanding is that it will likely close following the arrival of the new fleet of Desiro's, delivery of which starts from this December.

Hull Trains started its Class 86 diagram from last weekend using 86101 to cover several diagrams between Kings Cross and Doncaster on Friday evening and during Saturday and Sunday. The use of the 86 has been much delayed; originally it was to start last November. Details of the diagrams covered here.

The first trainspotter

There is an interesting article I found on the BBC News web site about a chap called John Backhouse, who is claimed to be the world's first trainspotter. A letter that he sent to his sisters in 1825 detailing the opening of the Stockton to Darlington railway included a detailed drawing of the train and a sense of wonder at this new mechanical beast. The article goes on to say that trainspotting as we understand it today really began in the 1930s and peaked in the early 1960s. It is true from what I have read that there was a sudden and serious decline in the late 1960s as steam disappeared from the rail network in the UK - it is 40 years ago this year that the last steam trains were withdrawn by British Railways from the mainline. I am not so sure that trainspotting is still in decline, as the article suggests.

I think that the UK rail scene is certainly less popular than it was. Often when I am at meetings or see other rail enthusiasts they bemoan the lack of variety on today's railway and how it is so much more interesting on the Continent or further afield. Personally, I have never been that much interested in foreign railway systems either in Europe or America or elsewhere. The UK system is the one that I know and cherish. It has a certain aesthetic to it - we know how to make good-looking locos and units here - and it has a charm all of its own. There is I suppose something very 'British' about railways and that is what appeals to me. Foreign railways always seem too high-tech, clean and clinical; too fresh and modern, not Victorian in origin and complex like ours.

It does worry me though that there seems to be so few young people interested in our railways today and by 'young' I would say anyone under forty. At any meetings or groups I've been too, without fail, all the members are exclusively male and for the most part old enough to be my grandfather! There are of course some younger enthusiasts around but their numbers seem very small. Thus meetings are often reminiscences of the glory days of steam and how everything has changed now, remembering lines and trains that were lost long ago. Looking back is great and I get a lot of pleasure from reading about old railways and going through books which recall steam in the 1950s and 1960s. But I am most keenly interested in the present day, the modern scene. There is I think a lot of variety and much to excite and interest still. It also seems that some enthusiasts forget that the railways are not run for our benefit but for that of the passengers who use them!

Fotopic Site Updated

I've updated my Fotopic site with some photos I took whilst down in Portsmouth during the Christmas break.

Firstly there's a look at the modern scene around Cosham, dominated by modern EMU's and First Great Western's slightly ageing 158s. I still vaguely remember the days before the Solent Link electrification was completed in the early 1990s and the DEMU's that used to run through here and a little further back Class 33 hauled trains to Cardiff. Since the late 80s these have been in the hands of DMUs, firstly the Sprinters and now 158s. Cosham station itself hasn't changed much in those years, although modern passenger information displays and automated announcements are in place and the signalling has recently been replaced as part of Network Rail's botched Portsmouth Resignalling Project. It should have been completed last Christmas but it wasn't until October 2007 that it was finally commissioned. Control of the signals in the area and the crossing gates is exercised from the Havant Area Signalling Centre.

On 31 December I took a visit to Gosport to see the remains of the railway station, which I've seen only briefly in passing a few times before. It is not in the most central of locations for the town, owing to the insistence of the Board of Ordinance that the railway could not penetrate the town's defences.

It is sad to see what was obviously once such a magnificent building left to ruin. It has been closed since 1953 and any hope of a rail link being restored has been lost forever. Houses are built on the site of the old track bed immediately to the west of the station and the line as far as I am aware has been lifted all the way back to the junction at Fareham. There used to be stub that ran as far as Bedenham but I believe that even this is out of use now.

The future for the Grade II listed building and site does seem a little more optimistic with a proposed residential and office development - see here for details and pics: http://www.formatmilton.co.uk/news_gosport_aug07.html

Starting 2008 on the wrong track

Another New Year, another public relations disaster for the railways. The over-running engineering works at both Liverpool Street and Rugby have been a fiasco which the media has delighted in seizing as an opportunity to rubbish the railways. It seems that our railways are becoming almost as unloved as that other pariah of public transport, the bus. I often think that we hate our public transport systems with such an unjustified vehemence that we forget the vast improvements that have been made. It is a flippant comment often reeled that of course it was all so much better when the railways were state owned and the loathed British Rail is now recalled with misty eyed nostalgia. Come back BR, all is forgiven. The reality of course is a lot more complex than that. The main problem with the current system is that privatisation of the railways was botched. It was rushed through and further ill-conceived reforms by successive governments have resulted in the current ill-adapted structure we have today. There is the ludicrous suggestion that Network Rail could face a hefty fine from the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) for the over-running works at Rugby. What is ridiculous about this is that the government will provide Network Rail with the money to pay the fine, which is then passed back to the government coffers via ORR! Where is the sense or benefit to either the tax payer or the fare paying passenger in that?

What hasn't helped is that the problems at Liverpool Street and Rugby have coincided with the annual fares increase. You could be forgiven for thinking that the two are inextricably linked, rather than just unfortunate timing. As Tom Winsor, the former Rail Regulator pointed out when interviewed on BBC News 24 yesterday, the fare rises are as a result of a political decision that more funding for the railways should come from the fare box (i.e. passengers) and less from the tax payer. Hence, fares have in some cases increased by a substantial margin. But of course, in the spin of media-speak the greatest increases are mentioned as if they are typical across the country.

What I feel is unforgiveable is that Network Rail faced a similar situation to that at Rugby last Christmas. Over Christmas 2006 it planned to complete and commission a new signalling system at Portsmouth. The project fell behind schedule with a limited train service only possible until full commissioning, following further blockades of all lines in the area, in October last year. It is a failure to properly plan that seems to have been the cause of the current difficulties at Rugby, a lesson that does not seem to have been learned from the Portsmouth fiasco.

There is no question that projects such as those undertaken at Portsmouth and Rugby have and will deliver benefits to rail passengers. What is in question is whether the works are too ambitious and that again there seems to have been little thought given to contingencies in the event of an over-run. The problems are exacerbated by the lack of suitable diversionary routes although there are alternative rail links available for most journeys to and from stations on the West Coast Main Line north of Birmingham.

Network Rail really needs to get its act together because further delays such as those at Rugby will only further erode the perceived benefits that these works deliver. It is particularly important, with some key milestones in the WCML project to be delivered over the coming months not least the launch of a new timetable from December 2008 and the Bletchley/Milton Keynes re-signalling and remodelling project.