Bloody First Great Western

Is the sole train operator which goes to Town where I work, and it is unmitigated pants.

On 1 January the train fare went up by over 8% for my route. Whilst high, this is not the highest increase Frantically Grabbing Wonga has implemented; London to Maidenhead is apparently so expensive that a passenger group ,"More Trains Less Strain", has claimed that it is cheaper to buddy-up and catch a cab between the two locations (following a 9.65% increase in fares) (story in Times Online).

If the FGW service was better than average, hell - even just bog-standard average, that would be one thing. However, FGW is the worst performing British train service and nearly one in five trains is late. That means twice a week my train will not arrive on time. On my outbound journey I take two tube lines, a FGW train, then a bus. On my inbound journey, the same in reverse. Since the new year my average commute has jumped to three hours daily. In the interests of fairness I should point out that the delay isn't always train related - if the trains are running OK then there's always the possibility of signal problems or suspended services on one of the tube lines that I also use.

Today the results of an RMT strike ballot have been published. Unsurprisingly the results are overwhelmingly in favour of a strike. The reason is that FGW wants to try to operate a commercial (ha!) seven-day service (bless) but the FGW guards don't want to work Sundays. The RMT union position is that "guards can choose not to attend on Sundays" (in the words of a Worst Great Western rep).

It is likely there will be some buggering around with the trains then and it could be as early as next week. It might be they call a strike, or take some action "short of strike" which was apparently one of the options in the ballot of RMT's FGW members. Whichever day it is, I'll work at home.

Unless it's after next Thursday because that's when we get our new car.