A sombre, subdued mood on the train into London this morning. Why? Because today is the last day on which the 7.05am Chippenham-Paddington will run until 8 September. Yep, my favourite train is now off on its own little summer holiday - being sent back to the sidings for a while because there won't be enough of us to keep it sufficiently populated over the summer months - or at least that's what First Great Western's management is thinking.
Anyway, being Friday, I though I'd pen a brief tribute to this least crowded of peak hour services. I was thinking of basing it on that old song 'Might as well wait until September', which is a pretty accurate description of what will be happening to anyone who turns up this coming Monday morning expecting the service. Or 'Gotta say goodbye for the summer'. But instead I decided it was time for a spot of poetry. So here goes. Ahem...
So farewell then to the 7.05
You were a breath of fresh air, a train with room to breathe
After Swindon this train is fast to Paddington, that was your catchphrase
But now the summer holiday has come
So First Great Western has sent you on yours
Will you send me a postcard?
Having a lovely time in Didcot
Weather good, food ok, carriages having a great time on the beach
See you in September
PS How are you getting on with my mate, the 6.55?
With great difficulty because of the effing crush caused by cancelling you!
Doh
Fin. I thank you.
Friday, 27 June 2008
So we gotta say goodbye for the summer...
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3 comments:
Goodbye the 7.21am Swindon train until September!
Here is the explanation I got from FGW when I complained:
This service has been removed, as the rolling stock is needed to operate an additional service to Newquay. I appreciate the inconvenience that this causes you and we would very much like to be able to operate both services. However we only have a finite amount of rolling stock and train crew and therefore we must cater for the service that we know will be busiest.
The timetable is a very difficult balancing act and it is inevitable that changes to the services will not please everyone. We do our best with the resources available to us to put together the best possible timetable and this sometimes means that services will need to be cancelled or retimed.
The school summer holidays are certainly a factor of our summer timetable; however through the summer months we make changes to cater for the increased number of holiday makers that we know will be using our services. The majority of our customers holiday between the months of June and September.
Hmmm - not impressed...
Thanks for that, Susan. And neither were most of the people I know on the train last Friday very impressed either. V. poor, FGW. V. poor indeed.
I wonder how many other services First Great Western is redeploying for the summer?
There is no excuse for this. What about the Adelantes that are supposedly "in storage" for FGW at the moment. Remember the last 3 are not leaving until the end of the year!
And there are those 200 + carriages in store near Stratford U A which could have been used to operate the Newquay services!
So not good!
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