Yesterday’s announcement to add extra carriages to a number of lines, including Reading, seems rather convenient. Whilst commuters should be overjoyed that next year they wouldn’t have their lives put at risk from the dangerously overcrowded trains, the announcement does very little to alleviate the distress the current capacity problems are causing to rail passengers and appears to only have been announced in readiness for the forthcoming tender – something First Great Western have admitted would benefit the tender application.
As a commuter, I have been subjected to 2 years of standing in a train and when you have spinabifida it leaves you uncomfortable and in pain. This has recently been brought home to me following an accident where I have sustained a compound fracture in my left arm. This has left me off balance to I reserved seats on the trains. Sadly, I have rarely managed to use these reserved seats. The train is usually too overcrowded to get to them – if they have been reserved at all. I have suffered indignity trying to squeeze my way through commuters whilst protecting my arm and then have to beg the person sitting in my reserved seat to allow me to sit. If I had greater mobility problems, I know that this situation would be even more difficult and we have recently seen in the press the treatment a Reading passenger recently experienced whilst travelling in a wheelchair. I recently fell on the train whilst being forced to stand and I’m sure this hasn’t helped the healing process.
I have raised a number of complaints recently and all have been met without resolution. Declassifying first class has not been met enthusiasticly and I am continuously told that they can not afford more carriages – and yet the fat cats above are still receiving their bonuses I’m sure!
I wait to see how last worst western do in the tender process but for the sake of Reading, I hope an alternative rail company succeeds and makes the difference the routes needs.