Today’s news had been trailed for several days, so it was
not a surprise to see that the franchise to operate what used to be called Inter-CityWest Coast (ICWC) had been awarded to First Group, and not to incumbent
operator Virgin Rail Group (VRG) who had run the show since it was sold off in
1997. For those of us in the North West, the news is significant, and for me
personally not good.
A Virgin Pendolino train passes Nuneaton
Having lived in the area since the sell-offs, and having
used the train for daily and weekly commuting on and off over the years, it’s
fair to say that VRG and I have had our ups and downs. But the service being
offered at present is the most frequent and fastest ever on the West Coast. And
over those same years, I have also experienced the service offered by First
Group, or lack of it.
First enjoy a virtual public transport monopoly in the
Bristol area, and here I have spent some time on assignment recently. Their bus
operation generates derision for high fares, lousy timekeeping, poor
reliability and equally poor standard of its fleet, sufficient to keep the Evening Post in a regular diet of horror
stories. And its rail operation, First Great Western (FGW) took customer
service to a new low.
The attitude of ticket office staff at Temple Meads station
meant that I vowed some time ago never to do business with them ever again, and
the lack of attention paid to clearing drunks and beggars, some of them
extremely aggressive, from outside the station was all too obvious. On top of
that, the bullying behaviour of ticket barrier staff turned transiting the
station from customer experience to grim endurance.
What future for the goodwill of all those enthusiasts?
What is brought to the new West Coast franchise may be
totally different, but in some ways may not: Virgin have taken pains to be
friendly to enthusiasts, and have deliberately avoided the practice of putting
platforms behind ticket barriers. First’s aggressive approach to revenue
protection will inevitably mean barriers, even at stations like Crewe and
Preston that do not lend themselves to such measures.
Then there is to be “reconfiguration” of the Pendolino
trains, which means no on-board shop, but perhaps a trolley service for those
in Standard Class. Whether the First Class offer will continue in its current
form, with complimentary food and drink, is doubtful. And we’ve been here
before with new franchise operators promising changes and then finding they can’t
deliver them.
When Arriva won Cross Country from Virgin, they promised
more seats in the Voyager trains. None were delivered. First have promised more
services, but the current fleet is operating near capacity. They promise more
destinations, but Virgin tried that and abandoned it. They promise a cut in
full price fares, but have signed on to paying the Government almost two and
half times the premium offered by Virgin.
And at the end of the
day, it’s we the people who have to put up with the mess.
2 comments:
to be fair, the poor customer service delivered by staff would still happen if someone else took over the great western franchise from First. Thats the thing with this stupid franchise system-the more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you got good customer service from the Virgin staff, dont worry - they will still be there come December 9th.
As well as barriers, First seems likely to introduce Penalty Fares on the West Coast route, as it has done on the long-distance and provincial services on First Great Western (FGW's London commuter services already had Penalty Fares under the previous stewardship of Thames Trains). Penalty Fares make sense on urban and suburban commuter services, where it is often impractical to check every passenger's tickets especially at busy times on frequently-stopping trains, but they are inappropriate for long-distance services which have long journey times between stops, making proper ticket-checking perfectly feasible.
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