42332 – 18:03 Monday 16th February

42332

OK, let’s be totally and utterly and doubly accurate tonight.

My journey from Paddington to Reading was aboard the 17:49 to Worcester Shrub Hill and I sat in Carriage D which was numbered as 42332.

We arrived at Reading at 18:31 which made it 11 minutes late.

I then travelled from Reading to home in 42382 which is a duplicate carriage. I captured this one for the blog on the 30th of June 2014. 

We arrived home at 19:09 which made it 13 minutes late.

Both delays were the fault of First Great Western.

See, all the information you could possibly ever want or need.

42505 18:30 Tuesday 29th July

42505

I got on a train. It was cancelled. I got home late.

@FGW tell me things are improving.

I am going to bed.

42252 18:03 Tuesday 22nd July

42252

Remember yesterday? When I gambled on the “first train to Reading” and it so nearly ended in disaster? Well surely the same thing couldn’t happen twice could it?

Arriving at Paddington at the same time as yesterday I noticed that the 18:00 Bristol service was already cancelled (are you reading FGW?) so this left me the choice of whether to gamble again on the 18:03 to Penzance or wait for the 18:05 Frome service and go straight through to my home station.

As I say, it surely couldn’t help twice could it?

Well for a moment I thought it could well do as we left late again (are you reading FGW?) and what with the overspill from the cancelled 18:00 getting aboard this one it was a right old crowded, sitting in the aisles, non-working air con mess of a train in particular 42252 which was the Carriage E where I was positioned. (Are you reading FGW?)

All was fine as we steamed towards Reading especially as I knew we were definitely ahead of the 18:05, but exactly how much ahead wasn’t clear until I disembarked and gathered from fellow tweeting travellers that the 18:05 had broken down just outside Acton. (Are you reading FGW?)

There was no way I could have got this info from the station staff at Reading as the bloke on the announcements had obviously decided to do his shift wearing a snorkel parka and a balaclava helmet (are you reading FGW?) and for all I knew he could have been reading out his shopping list.

Anyway by the time the clock had completed its long drawn out journey to 19:12 I could at least take the Turbo to Thatcham and arrive home just over ½ hour late (are you reading FGW?) but pity the poor people trapped aboard the 18:05 who still weren’t moving by the time I left. (Are you reading FGW?)

When I arrived at Thatcham I was greeted by the automated station voice who in her own stylish non-apologetic way sais – “we’re sorry to announce the Frome service is delayed by 72 minutes.” – 72 MINUTES! (ARE YOU READING FGW?)

I only hope all the passengers aboard were given the free drink FGW are obliged to serve for all delays over an hour.

Oh, remember I started collecting Ambassadors? Well guess who was on Reading station with nothing to do (no trains you see – are you reading FGW?) none other than our old friend Luke and this time accompanied by a sturdy looking fella called Grahame. As I say both looked slightly at loose ends and what with all traffic between Reading and Paddington having to tiptoe around the stranded 18:05 they’d have done better putting the kettle on for the next hour.

Never mind – It’s jam tomorrow!

42382, 42073 & 42233 – 07:15, 18:00 & 18:37 Monday 30th June

42382

42073 & 42233

It’s a sorry state of commuting affairs when the first thing you do upon waking to the dulcet sounds of the alarm clock is to check your train time phone app to see if your train is currently running on time. Well although it’s a pretty sorry thing to do, but today it worked out quite a fortuitous thing to do as my usual 06:57 was damn well cancelled (due to staff shortages…..poor FGW, poor) but knowing this fact so early allowed me to skip shaving and still get down to the station for an earlier stupid Turbo train to Reading.

From there I able to get some train or other that I’ve never been on before, including carriage 42382 which was Carriage B on this particular set. 

The return leg was seriously disrupted by an earlier fatality at Southall and all trains out of Paddington were delayed, cancelled or in a right old mucky state due to the returning Glastonbury hordes.

At least the 18:00 Bristol train left on time with me in a cosy window seat in Carriage D, or 42073 as he sometimes prefers to be known as. A completely unremarkable journey apart from when we drew into Reading. There was a young lad in the carriage, maybe about 13, travelling with his mum and he was doing than nervous anxiety thing especially as he had to sit apart from her. As me and my travelling partner got up to leave he saw his chance to grab the double seat for his mum and himself but in his enthusiasm to get there quickly he blocked me in. Instead of graciously asking him if I could get by first, I instead snapped out a stroppy “do you wanna let me off first?” which had him cowering into an apology and by the time I got to the door I felt like a complete heel. 

Bloody commuting, turning me into exactly the sort of dick I detest!

The last leg was completed aboard the usual Frome service and another Carriage E ticked off the list as 42233 was captured in the book and I can go home and feel even worse about myself.

42516 – 18:37 Monday 19th May

42516

……until disembarkation at Reading revealed that my connecting service, the 18:37 Frome Service was delayed due to a fault with the train.

Now, again, let no one ever accuse me of moaning about anything but the truth and the first thing I have to state here is that it’s been a long long long while since I’ve suffered any sort of delay at all. So perhaps all things told, I was due a disruption and have no real grounds for a moan.

This particular delay turned out to be about 40 minutes which is a bit of a kick in the goolies in anyone’s book, especially @emily1780 ‘s who tweeted in to ask whether any compensation was due. Moody Max eventually deemed this worthy of a reply and confirmed that yes, indeed compensation was due for delays over 30 minutes that were due to mechanical failure.

Full well knowing what the answer would be to the question, I then asked Max if this level of compensation would be applicable to everyone. The answer to those unfamiliar to FGW compensation rules is that season ticket holders don’t get the same compensation as other passengers and this is the one thing that drives me further round the bend than anything else FGW throws at me. And what drives me that one bit further up the road that is round the bend is that no matter how much I carp, complain and cry into my pillow about this, FGW doesn’t seem to understand why it makes my blood.

I gave Moody Max an opportunity to tell us what he really thought about this but he rather (and perhaps understandably) bottled the question. Still perhaps this was all slightly too trivial as FGW were busy getting people stranded at remote train stations.

Ho hum…..roll on tomorrow.