(Lab):...I recently moved home,
from the Birmingham area to Gloucestershire, where I now have the
pleasure—doubtful pleasure that it is—of travelling on
Great Western's bi-mode trains. They are often
subject to cancellation and, again, the usual view from my fellow
passengers is that the sooner the railway is renationalised, the
better...
(Lab): ...My Lords, as a
Great Western passenger, I wish I could speak as
glowingly as my noble friend Lady Scott has done about Greater
Anglia. GWR is known fondly to its passengers as “Great
Western Roulette”. Will it or will it not turn up? How
late will it be? Will it have five, eight, nine or 10 carriages?
I can see people for whom that rings a bell...
(Con):...In 2011,
Chiltern took over the operating services on the Oxford-Bicester
line from First Great
Western and opened two new stations, Oxford Parkway and
Bicester Village, providing services between north Oxford and
Marylebone...
(Lab):...I have three
examples. The first is to do with rest-day working, which I
suffered the other weekend—three trains from Cornwall cancelled
in a row. Other noble Lords present tonight have mentioned the
cancellations due to rest-day working failures. I will quote from
an email from First Great
Western in reply to my complaint about sitting
around for hours. It says:
“As you will be aware, while all new drivers who have joined the
business in recent years have a Sunday commitment, the majority
of high-speed drivers still do not. Without a change in terms and
conditions we will remain reliant on volunteer overtime to cover
Sundays”.
So it looks as though, in 20 years' time, we will still have the
same problem. I ask my noble friend the Minister what the
Government intend to do to deal with this and to reach agreement
with the trade unions. Of course they need time off—on the other
hand, the passengers would like to have a train going at the
weekend sometimes...
To read the whole debate, OPEN HERE
