17 Jan - Monsieur Hulot's Holiday 2, Meet the Managers

First of all, we met Glyn Beck at Oxford today, he is the regional manager. He says email Richard Green about the trains, not Andrew Griffiths! It took him a while to remember who Andrew was. I am sure it'll be OK if you have emailed Andrew, but I have re-sent my comments to Richard as well (richard.green@firstgroup.com).

It is so lovely to be able to get on a train at 0642 and not have to get off until Didcot. So first part of journey went OK today, and it was great to see that Alma has come back from her hols. We arrived at Didcot on time, and initially we thought it was our lucky day as there was a train to Oxford on Platform 5 (delayed 0714). We ran over there, no mean feat with a 10kg folding bike and got on the train. After 30 secs we were told to get off the train as it was terminating at Oxford. Apparently, there was a points problem. So we went back to platform 3 and the Pumpkin Cafe (they must be raking it in with the new timetable, good job they don't sell alcohol!). Who should we bump into in the Cafe, Lesley! So we had another good old winge about the trains. Then at 0736 we were told that a train to Oxford would appear soon on platform 3 at 0740 (this is the one that goes from Padders to Oxford via only Reading, grrr). Then we were told that the train was not going to appear. So then we went into the small room by the loos. Then an HST appeared on platform 3, which probably was the train they thought was going to appear, but really it was terminating at Oxford so all those people had to get off. Then we were told that our 0754 train would depart from platform 5. So off we went: this is the 3 train-loads of passengers (0714, 0754 and the PAD-OXF ghost train that showed up). Train left a few mins late, but got to work on time.

Decided to catch 1621 train home. It was Meet the Managers at Oxford today. Saw Angus chatting to Glyn Beck, so I joined in, then Alma appeared, then Lesley appeared. The scarey thing was Glyn seemed to know which train I catch home....I hope he hasn't been listening to us.

Got to Didcot OK, bumped into Janet. Caught Swansea train and got off at Swindon. Our BTM-bound was delayed by about 10-15 mins, but I think I got home on time. It was all a bit of a blur by then.

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Journey to work/meeting punctuality: 81%, 17/21
Journey home punctuality: 90%, 19/21

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FGW alerts:
Cheltenham to Swindon line remains closed with landslip at Kemble until end of week. Bus service in plcae. No other problems (oops, forgot to tell us about he huge points failure near Oxford).
Some residual delays this afternoon due to earlier signal failure at Southall. Short noticealterations may occur. Line remains closed Cheltenham to Swindon due to landslip. Bus replacement in operation.
Kemble line is planned to re-open at 0600 on Thursday morning.
Weather warning. Rail services may be affected after 0900 Thursday morning due to severe weather. Check WEB for further updates.
After further warnings from The Met Office it is now planned to run a reduced service on some high-speed routes before 0900 Thursday.
Customers should visit www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk before travel on Thursday morning.