Here is the letter that Michelle Dawson wrote.

Disgusting service

I take FGW trains from Didcot Parkway to London Paddington every day. After nearly 3 years of this, I believe I have had quite enough. I understand that things happen which delay services, but it is a nearly every day occurence between Didcot Parkway and London Paddington. I know that 5 minutes may not seem like a delay to FGW, but 5 minutes can translate in to a half an hour easily in London. I try to time my journey to miss busy traffic at Paddington and in order to catch a certain underground train. Missing 5 minutes can mean that I not only have to navigate insanely crowded platforms in the station, but also that I've missed my underground train, causing me to wait for 15 or so minutes for the next one (sometimes due to over crowding, or due to the timings). I love my job, but the stress that the journey has caused me is forcing me to look closer to home. A train journey is meant to be the less stressful option, and this is so far from the truth on First Great Western it is laughable. I wish I could rely on your service, it would make my life so much easier.

I would like to now talk a bit about the cost of travel on your trains. Sadly, I can not afford to fork over £5k at one time in order to get a yearly season ticket. This leaves me with no option but to pay for the ticket each day. If I can, I will purchase an off-peak ticket, however this is not always an option due to the times I need to get into work. Not only do the goal posts keep changing, (i.e. FGW keeps changing what trains are considered off-peak) but also delays in trains mean that if an early train is late then my off-peak journey is also very delayed. Sadly, even if a delayed train gets in after 10am, I'm not allowed to get on this train due to its original timings. Delayed again.

Finally, I'd like to talk about the state of your trains. What prompted this email was that last week ( 27th Sept, 2012) I was on the 18:30 from Paddington to Didcot Parkway. I needed to use the facilities, and I was absolutely disgusted by what I found. Walking in to the toliet (in B carriage, nearest A carriage) the first thing I noticed was the smell. Secondly, I noticed the floor was FILTHY. Not just dirty from the journey, but BLACK from not having been cleaned in what seemed to be months. Then, sadly, their was no soap in the dispenser...but I was thankful for this as there was also NO WATER coming from the tap. While trying desperately to find a way to wash my hands, I noticed that the plug hole strainer (silver drain bit in the plug hole) had an inch of muck caked on. To say that I was angry was an understatement. I basically work at least one day for free in order to cover the cost of my train travel and this is MY HARD EARNED money. And what am I getting for it? Not much. I could get a hotel in London for cheaper than what I pay for a return to Didcot Parkway, and you know what? That hotel would be CLEAN. So why should I put up with paying a small fortune for your service when you clearly don't respect my money or my custom enough to provide me with a clean, reliable service? I will continue to slate your service to anyone that will listen until such time as I find a job closer to home and believe me I can not wait until the moment I no longer have to use your services.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,
Michelle Dawson

Thank

Did you take a picture of the toilet? Not quite sure which environmental health jurisdiction FGW trains might come under - perhaps it would be the depot at which the train is based, so a note that you have photographed the toilet and will be advising the EHO for XX Council might be a way to elicit a response.

Next time get the carriage number, reports like this are much faster to track if you have this, as well as the train time & date, plus of course someone travelling on another train might see your report and not that the same toilet is either improved, or in the same condition.

Finally tweet it to @FGW twitter account 1) a lot of people will see this 2) you will get a rapid answer, and probably get the carriage attended to at its next turn-round point.

PS consider making the onward journey from Paddington by cycle. You'll potentially be saving the Tube/bus fare - typically £1000+/year for 250 working days and inner zones travel, and you'll break that burden of being tied to the timing of a Tube train.

How do you get to Didcot Station? NRES site seems to have taken off the detail of car parking charges - do you use the car park? c£800-£1000/year?

One Barclays Bike user manages to cover Shoreditch to Paddington in under 30 minutes, and so effectively has a free bike hire in each direction. This is of course at the extreme of performance and sense, but it is worth noting that in a survey of peak morning travel from Paddington around 16% of those travelling under 1Km to their final destination used bikes, mostly to get across the Public Transport 'black hole' of Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, but many also heading for Westminster and City destinations with the very pleasant option of heading through Hyde Park and St James's Park.

Typical platform to office times by bike can be less than half those taken by tube, especially as you set off almost immediately after getting off the train, and eliminate the walk & wait for the Tube, and the walk at the other end. Recent 'Paddington' times - from The Oval 22 min, to Euston 12 min (10 min flat-out).

Michelle,

I am following this thread with sympathy and interest.

008

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/boards/read/s100.htm?1480,13531979,13531979#msg-13531979

Hello Michelle,

FixMyTransport Admin here.

The direct email address mentioned by your contact at FGW is mark.webber@firstgroup.com. To claim the 'gesture of goodwill' he mentions, I'd advise sending an email with your contat details (rather than publishing them on this web page).

Glad to hear that your issue will be compensated in some way - good luck.