Frustrated passengers protest with fake tickets on trains
Thousands of commuters using First Great Western (FGW) trains in south west England used fake tickets this morning (28 January) printed with slogans such as ”Worst Late Western” in protest at what they view as awful services and rising fares.
Passengers wore cattle masks, making clear how low their disregard is for the operator which came bottom of a passenger satisfaction league published last week by independent watchdog Passenger Focus.
FGW regional manager Andrew Griffiths said: ”Probably at tops, 100 people have refused to buy a ticket out of the 5,000 who use the service daily.” But he added: "Our performance hasn't been good enough - we're the first to put our hands up and admit that."
The majority of commuters have season tickets however, and the number of passengers showing the mocked-up tickets is expected to be a lot higher than 100. Protest group More Train Less Strain (MTLS) ” which organised the event ” said it printed 10,000 ”tickets” and had 28 left today. And last year the protest centred at Bristol and Bath, but this time commuters from around 14 stations from Penzance to Swindon took part.
"Commuters want a decent service at a fair price instead of increased compensation for some and a continued poor service for all," said the strike”s organiser, Martin Richardson, in response to FGW”s announcement last week that it would double compensation payments for late-running services.
Another MTLS leader, Peter Andrews, claimed FGW fares were now the most expensive in Europe after a 10% price rise in the new year.
"The sight of all these passengers with their cattle masks could not paint a clearer picture of the public's disapproval of this service," he said. ”My only worry is that the government may choose to ignore this. They say they are very pleased with how the franchise is working ” they obviously don”t travel on it and don”t listen to the public
”FGW is a company whose sole aim is to maximise profits for shareholders. And they have a monopoly because passengers here have no option but to use the service. FGW can squeeze every drop of profit from the railway ” their profits are up by 9.8% to ”48.2m ($95m). The government needs to renationalise the whole system because this is no way to run a railway,” said Andrews.
A FGW spokesman told ABTN: ”We believe that little by little the service will steadily improve. In addition to ”200m ($395m) of investment, we are recruiting additional drivers and guards ” 60 and 40 respectively.
”But in terms of reliability, the story is not ours alone ” the infrastructure, the signals, and track is among the most fragile in the UK and Network Rail, which manages it, fully recognises this. A significant amount of delay can be attributed to this, and it is spending ”750m during the next 18 months to upgrade the track, including the famous Reading bottleneck.”