Too much bad news
While I’m sure that David Fletcher ( Open Access, RAIL 869) is right in saying that the makers of Channel 5’s Paddington 24/7 programme concentrated on bad news rather than good, the unfortunate fact is that they had so much material to use.
As I type this letter, my local traffic news tells me that all lines are blocked through Westbury because of over-running engineering works - yet again.
During 2018, I averaged one return journey a week between Bristol and Paddington or Reading (for the Heathrow bus or Gatwick service). I arrived at Paddington on time (real time, that is) only once, at Bristol Temple Meads once, and at Bristol Parkway twice.
On the occasions that any information was given to passengers, the reasons varied from track circuit failures to trespassers or unspecified ‘signalling problems’. And this is before one considers the unreliability of the Intercity Express Trains, which so frequently leads to a five-car unit operating a ten-car service. Standing in First Class from Paddington to Bristol Parkway and beyond aboard an off-peak train is hardly a good advertisement.
During the earlier series of programmes, one was left with nothing but admiration for the way in which staff put up with appalling behaviour from the public, but I think that the industry made a mistake in letting the programme run on. While the majority of failures in the latest series have been on the part of Network Rail, it is Great Western Railway’s trains and staff that feature at the stations. But the public isn’t bothered by the distinction - and nor should it be.
This does leave those of us who do our best to support the industry struggling to justify to friends and colleagues the choice of train rather than the M4 to get to the London area. (And parking at Heathrow and then taking the expensive Heathrow Express is still cheaper than a peak return to London).
Indeed, when I go to Heathrow in two days’ time (on a Sunday), the planned engineering works means I will be going by road. If only the programmes had been inaccurate in portraying an unreliable system! Clive Fletcher-Wood, Bristol