There's no legal limit

This is not about drink driving, you understand; I've had another email from Third Rate Western. This one is replying to me sending them a photo of the overcrowding in the mornings, specifically challenging their previous statement that the train now stops at Keynsham because it has "available capacity".

We try and give all our customers safe and comfortable travel, but we don't turn passengers away until there's a danger that the service will become unsafe. There's no set number of passengers for this, just as there is no legal limit to the number of people we can carry on a train. We leave the decision to the professional judgment of the Train Manager and the driver.

Is this effectively saying that until someone legislates against the arguably dangerous practice of jamming us into trains until there's not a single inch of space left, it will be left to the staff on the platform to make a judgement call about safe capacities? How come there's legislation for carriage of cattle, but not people?

Is the writing on the wall?

If I were a betting man, I'd have a fiver on Third Rate Western losing their franchise next time it comes up for renewal. I reckon it would be easy money. Which is pretty much what Third Rate Western are making at the moment, as they don't seem to be investing a penny on services, staff, cleanliness, reliability, safety or anything else for that matter.

I think they know the writing is on the wall and that they are runing things in a "keeping the lights on" manner, aiming to cream out the most profit possible from their remaining tenure. A pretty cynical approach however you look at it, but the evidence does point to this being their attitude.

You can say that reliablity is down to Notwork Rail, strikes are down to the RMT, and make any number of other excuses, but for me, the utterly diabolical state of the ex-Wessex trains (I would strongly advise that if you're travelling from Cardiff to Portsmouth that you don't drink too much coffee before getting on the train because you really don't want to use the khazi) shows that they simply won't spend any time or money maintaining things in an acceptable way. The staff seem to have given up making excuses for the timekeeping, and whilst we're seeing other train companies ordering more trains, Third Rate Western are just wringing every last ounce of life out of their ancient, run-down old sheds.

They know they are out of here; why can't they be removed now and give someone competent a chance of running the show?

Come back, cameraman!

Shame the cameraman from this morning wasn't on the 18:30 Temple Meads to London train tonight as I would have been much more scathing about Third Rate Western than I was this morning when he interviewed me (did I mention I was on the telly?). Delayed by over 40 minutes by the time we got to Chippenham because of an earlier points failure at Bathampton Junction (probably happened when a stupid little stopping train was pulling out in front of hundreds of people on their way down from London).
So, no information at Bristol, until a quiet announcement that the delay was caused by "congestion". CONGESTION?! That has to go into the top 10 list of implausible excuses for late trains really, doesn't it?

Fame at last

I thought I was pretty fair on my friends at Third Rate Western this morning when I was interviewed by BBC Points West on the (not quite as overcrowded as usual) 7:44 to Temple Meads. In fact, I even admitted that so far this year, the 7:44 has been quite reliable. But the point still had to be made that it's cheaper and faster to drive from Chippenham to Bristol that to get the train, and much less crowded.
No signs of the expected chaos from the fare strike at Bristol, although I was a few minutes ahead of Dom Joly and his film crew. Plenty of Police, though, to deal with the hardened criminals dodging their fares.
Did I mention I was on the telly?

There's space available

Here's an idea of exactly how much space is available on the Adelante. This was the 7:44 from Chippenham to Bristol Temple Meads. Interestingly, no-one was surprised about someone taking photos of the overcrowding.

So, Third Rate Western, are you really telling us that there's space available for passengers from Keynsham when this is the situation 2 stops earlier?