Open letter to David Statham - Managing Director of First Capital Connect

From: Roger Tichborne

To: david.statham@firstgroup.com

Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 8:30 AM

Subject: Disruption on First Capital Connect 22/10/2013

Dear Mr Statham,

I am writing as a regular user of the Thameslink service operated by your company. I regularly travel between Mill Hill Broadway and Central London on the route. Last night I had to use the service to get to West Hampstead to pick up a connection to Shepherds Bush. I had tickets to see a concert and had arranged to meet friends before.

On arrival at Mill Hill Broadway Station, I saw that there was disruption. An announcement on the message board told me that a tragic incident had occurred at Radlett, where a train had hit a person. Clearly in such a case, a train company cannot avoid disruption and it would be unreasonable to expect a train company not to have issues running a service. What would not be unreasonable would be to expect the train company to inform passengers of what is going on. First Capital Connect have digital noticeboards which should display accurate train information. They also have station staff and a PA systems, linked to a central control.

Every passenger using your service has a requirement to go somewhere and get there at a set time. People do not set off at random times with no expectation of getting anywhere. Often people have appointments or arrangements. All they want a train company to do is get them there and if they can't do that on time, give them a reasonable estimate of when they will arrive. Arriving at Mill Hill Broadway at 18:10, there was no indication at all of when the next train would arrive. The various message boards were completely unhelpful. The first train, a Sutton Service was showing as cancelled. The next service scheduled to arrive was the 18:20. This was running late and was expected at 18:34. With this timescale, I decided that it would be quicker to wait for this service than to take a bus and tube. I waited several minutes before using my Oyster card to touch in. I observed that the ETA of the train was not changing, therefore I had a reasonable expectation that the train would arrive.

Approx one minute before the train was due to arrive, the noticeboard suddenly changed. It said "stand back from the platform edge, fast train approaching". An announcement was made to the same effect. When the message cleared, the 18:20 was still showing as due. Two minutes later it disappeared. The next train then showed as arriving in ten minutes. By this time there were many passengers and all were frustrated and rather bemused. Although the next train did arrive when it said, I missed my connection at West Hampstead and was late for the arranged meeting. This resulted in missing the start of the first band, The Selecter, who I had been keen to see.

As I said, I don't expect miracles from your company when things go wrong. I simply expect you to tell me what is happening. It is not plausable for you to say that no one in your organisation knew the 18:20 would not stop at Mill Hill until two minutes after your noticeboard said it was due. The driver and the signalling system must have known. This information should be relayed to customers. In my case, I used my Oyster to touch in for a journey, based on this information, rather than take another route. Presumably the misinformation has generated a profit for FCC at my expense.

As managing director of the organisation, can I suggest that you conduct a review of your information systems as a matter of urgency.

Regards

Roger Tichborne

First Capital Connect : The Filth and the Fury

The fury is us. The users of the service. If you read this blog to the end, you'll probably have some idea who I think "The Filth" are. This blog is a roundup of the two debates in Parliament about Thameslink and the First Capital Connect route. I've read the minutes for both debates and there were some stark and revealing issues raised.

I've long had reservations about the ability of First Capital Connect to operate an efficient service, but I'd not considered whether we were actually safe on the trains. Are we risking our life and limb? Like me you may have wondered about the recent spate of lineside fires. I couldn't understand how you could get a lineside fire in a sealed tunnel, such as happened recently near City Thameslink.I read this horrific passage in the debate on the Thameslink route in Parliament on 2nd Feb. Mr Kelvin Hopkins MP said this :-

One other point is that there are signalling and electrical power problems. Already there have been line-side fires in the tunnel between Farringdon and City Thameslink. That, I understand, is caused by arcing from the third rails, because the delivery for electricity to those tracks is at one end of that section of track rather than, typically, in the centre, which means that the voltages must be higher to drive the current longer distances.

From Mr Hopkins comments, it appears that there is a system problem, making that part of the network prone to fires. I don't know about you, but to me the concept of tunnels, fires and packed commuter trains sounds like a rather dangerous mix.

There was another debate yesterday (3rd Feb) which had been arranged by Anne Main MP, specifically about the FCC service. There were some rather interesting points raised here. One which seemed to sum up the inefficiency was a comment by Lib Dem MP Paul Burstow.

It is not just that trains have been delivered late; they are not delivering the service they are meant to deliver. I gather that at the moment, First Capital Connect trains, the 377s, are breaking down after every 6,000 miles, compared with Southern, which runs the same trains and seems to keep them running for 22,000 miles before they break down. Surely that is another example of how incompetent the company is.

I wasn't aware of the huge difference in the reliability of the same trains on different routes. Why on earth should the trains be nearly 4 times more reliable on the Southern Route? In the same debate, Luton MP Kelvin Hopkins also commented on the apparent ruses used by First Capital Connect to avoid financial penalties. Yet again the commuter is the one to suffer :-

Moreover, we have a delay attribution system. If a First Capital Connect train is late there may be a delay in its connection with an East Midlands train, which then might have a problem connecting with a cross-country route in, say, Sheffield, and people will miss their connections. If the fault is traced back to First Capital Connect, it can be fined. So First Capital Connect goes out of its way to ensure that it is not blamed, because it does not want to be fined, but someone has to pay somewhere.

This presumably is why some trains are suddenly run through as fast trains. Yet again, the root cause is that FCC don't want to be penalised financially. Mr Hopkins added

The former rail regulator, Tom Winsor, said in this building, in my hearing, "When BR handed over the railways to the privateers, they were handed over in good order." He is not a dyed in the wool socialist like me; he is an objective observer who was a regulator. He also said that British Rail worked miracles on a pittance. It was desperately underfunded, but it still managed to run a railway.

In other words, dodgy companies like First Capital Connect have transformed a functional system into a shambles. Nadine Dorries, MP for Bedford summed it up :-

Moments before we came into the debate, we received an almost self-congratulatory e-mail from First Capital Connect, which announced that there were only 135 cancellations in the week from 25 to 31 January. It is almost as if those cancellations were the only issue, but as my hon. Friend says, they force more people on to fewer trains, making people late and making their journeys incredibly uncomfortable. "This is the best ...performance...since May 2009.".

The bottom line though is that after 2 debates in 2 days, it is clear that the Government couldn't be bothered to do anything. Reading the minister, Chris Mole MP's comments, it is clear to me that he is completely useless. A remedial plan is in place until the next major disaster. It seems that the Government are buying the line that First Capital Connect are doing well now. I suppose if you accept that lineside fires, 135 cancellations a week, timetable manipulation, driver shortages (they still don't have the right number of drivers), passengers packed like sardines have no relevance to the debate they are doing OK. What I found extremely upsetting was the fact that none of the MP's in Barnet, all of who represent passengers who use the line, made any contribution to these debates. During the debates there were great contributions from Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem and Independent MP's. Sadly those in our Borough couldn't be bothered. Is it because they all have second homes and so never actually use the line? Is that why they don't care.

What more can I say, other than to give you the highlights of this mornings delays. Enjoy ....

07:24 Brighton to Bedford due 10:08
This train has been delayed and is now 22 minutes late from Gatwick Airport.
This train has been revised.
It will no longer call at: St Albans City, Harpenden, Luton, Leagrave, Harlington and Flitwick.
This is due to signalling problems.
Message Received: 08:28:41 04/02/2010
          
07:28 Rochester to Bedford due 09:52
This train has been delayed and is now 10 minutes late from Rochester.
This is due to congestion caused by earlier delays.
Message Received: 07:52:38 04/02/2010
       
07:50 Brighton to Bedford due 10:22
This train has been delayed and is now 11 minutes late from East Croydon.
This is due to earlier signalling problems.
Message Received: 08:47:46 04/02/2010
       
08:18 Bromley South to Bedford due 09:58
This train has been delayed and is now 15 minutes late from Elephant & Castle.
This is due to an earlier broken down train.
Message Received: 08:42:16 04/02/2010