You may have read about, or experienced, the huge delays to trains to and from Cardiff yesterday and today.  Many fans travelling to the Cup Final missed the kick off and apparently there were still 2,000 fans trying to get out of Cardiff at 9.00 pm on Sunday.  It's been as bad today with many of the Portsmouth trains terminating at Bristol and delays on others.

For once, it wasn't FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s fault!  Apparently a group of travellers helped themselves to a hefty length of copper cable from alongside the track which trashed most of the signals in the Newport area.  It should be replaced by the time I write this, but it will still take some time before delayed trains and crews end up where and when they should be. 

I was on a Southampton to Cardiff service this morning that was delayed 40 minutes northbound.  Again FGW were innocent!  A truck hit a railway bridge at Romsey and the train was not allowed to cross until engineers had checked the structure.  Amazingly, another truck was being pulled out from under a bridge as we reached Salisbury causing a further delay.  As the fast Portsmouth - Cardiff was only 5 minutes behind at this stage, it was terminated at Bristol to avoid sending both trains into the Newport chaos.

Just another snaphot of life on FGW from ... whistleblower

When we were Wessex we felt that the maintenance service we received from Arriva at Canton was abysmal.  The trains were not maintained properly and certainly not to the standard of Arriva's own trains.  They would often fail simply because the coolant had not been topped up.  Sometimes we would have half a dozen trains sitting in the depot awaiting spares while Arriva were running a full fleet.  Originating trains from Cardiff were often delayed because nobody was available to bring them out from the depot.  So when we heard that the maintenance was being withdrawn from Canton we thought everything would be better in no time!

Shows how much we knew!  The last I heard is that the engineering manager who arranged the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) maintenance move to the unfinished and unprepared St Phillip's Marsh is no longer employed by FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!  But the damage is done and nothing can be done to repair it until SPM^▸ (St Philip's Marsh (Bristol depot)) is running properly and I have no idea when that will be.

I rather wish Stagecoach had got the franchise and we had the maintenance facilities at Salisbury.  They turn out some beautifully prepared trains there.  Ours are absolutely disgusting inside and out.  I am ashamed of them.  It is sickening to see the gleaming South West Trains units of the same vintage.

As for the traincrew shortages, I have seen no evidence of cost-cutting here.  In the West region there are enough drivers and conductors to cover the scheduled work although I believe Reading is a bit tight on conductors.  There are usually 3 or 4 people a day rostered as "spare" and then utilised to cover sickness.  There is also a "cover" person morning and afternoon who stands by for last-minute emergencies.  Drivers are the biggest problem because it takes up to 18 months training before they are available for all routes so there is a long lead-in to adjust figures.  Currently much of our work is done by Arriva crew (a hangover from Wales and West days) and that is being transferred to FGW in the next couple of months.  This means that FGW drivers have been taken off work to learn different routes and also to learn St Phillips Marsh.  I'm guessing that this is why the operation is running tighter than usual.