Let the train take the blame!

THE BASINGSTOKE Uprising may well make the history books for its gutsy show of courage and determination in the face of late-night adversity.

I know the name sounds a bit Tolpuddle Martyrish, like they were a group of disgruntled farm workers, who swarmed around prodding landowners with hay forks.

But it was actually a very modern protest , a rare example of rail passengers breaking the mould and complaining vigorously instead of merely biting their lips and looking bleak.

The scene was (obviously) Basingstoke.

It was the middle of a cold winter night when more than 100 rail passengers, travelling from London to Yeovil, were turfed off their train 70 miles short of their final destination because of signal failure.

Soon it all got rather ugly.

An enraged crowd marched on rail staff, waving brollies and briefcases.

The heckling was loud and relentless.

Soon the South West Train employees knew they were in trouble so they scampered into an office and locked the door.

One appealed through a window for calm but the stand-off lasted a full 30 tense minutes until taxis were found to take the passengers all the way home.

Now you might find this sort of behaviour which occurred several years ago a bit over the top.

But bad train services touch a nerve like practically nothing else.

And the Basingstoke Uprising is not the only example of customers digging their heels in.

There was, of course, also the now famous Salisbury sit-in.

Here passengers refused to leave their train to take a 100-mile detour via Bristol in order to reach Exeter.

In the end, the rail company and Railtrack were forced to back down and continue the service.

But, all joking aside, rail travellers and especially rail commuters do seem to suffer like no one else in Europe.

I think the most telling trend is that many now take an earlier train than they need to just to ensure they get to their destination on time.

Services can be late. Services can be cancelled.

Infrequent travellers can shrug and put it down to experience.

But for daily commuters the cumulative effect can start to seriously affect their lives.

Some rail users got the hump so badly they formed The South Hampshire Rail Users Group.

And their latest report claims frequent delays and truncated services are making passengers' lives a misery.

The South Hampshire Rail Users' Group is probably every train operator's worst nightmare.

Its lieutenants travel on practically every commuter service in and out of the capital, meticulously recording if a train is late and by how much.

One of the major movers and shakers in the group is Denis Fryer, who has been commuting to London from Totton for the past 15 years.

The 58-year-old is so unhappy with the rail service he's received that he's changed his working hours so he only has to travel to London four days a week instead of five.

A determined campaigner, Mr Fryer's goal is to see a service which is value for money for its passengers.

"Quite a few people feed through information to us," he explains.

"The service is never very satisfactory but there are big seasonal variations. Autumn is a bad time because there is heavy rain and it's the leaf-falling season.

"It disrupts people's lives. If you're going to an important business meeting, you'll take a train earlier than the one you need to just to make sure you get there on time.

"Even when the service is OK the worrying continues.

"They have standard PR lines for their excuses. A lot of their problems were blamed on Railtrack. Some were Railtrack problems, but not all.

"Things like good customer service don't make a profit. And London commuters don't have much of a choice because of rush hour conditions in London."

South West Trains has had to cough up large fines for late and cancelled services.

It paid £11.5m in performance penalties for the year 2000/2001 and £12.5m for 2001/2002.

But one thing which doesn't seem to be widely known is that rail operators seem to have few physical assets.

According to Mr Fryer they don't own the track, they rent the stations and most of the country's rolling stock is leased from three companies which are ultimately owned by banks.

It's a "virtual railway" which doesn't exist anywhere else in Europe.

Those slam-door, wooden-framed trains are meant to go out of service by the end of 2004.

But Mr Fryer says there are now debates as to whether or not this date is a realistic achievable target.

"I think there's no doubt that South West Trains' rolling stock is neglected," he adds.

However he does believe that, following the string of fatal rail crashes in recent years, the condition of the country's rail infrastructure has improved because it became such a political hot potato.

"But I think South West Trains should lose their franchise. They've had six years and they haven't sorted anything out.

"I think there's an awful lot of commuters out there looking for other jobs nearer to home.

"If you pay for a train journey, you expect a decent trip. We don't sing the praises of services when they are good because that's what we've paid for but we do complain when it's continually bad.

"There's a sustained improvement for a few days but then things go wrong again."

But just in case you think Mr Fryer is a mere moaner, well, nothing could be further from the truth.

Get him onto the subject of GNER for example, and he waxes lyrical with a faraway look in his eye.

"Oh they're the best operation in Britain. They really look after their passengers."

He's also a fan of Chiltern and Anglia.

So Mr Fryer, are you South West Trains' worst nightmare?

"Yes," he replies.

"I think I probably am."

Please be patient we're getting there

A South West Trains spokeswoman said: "I don't think it's fair to say we've done nothing.

"Performance is improving. Obviously it's not as good as it should be. There are times when it has been poor.

"But in six years we have added 14,000 extra seats per weekday and approaching 1,000 extra services a week.

"We have introduced 30 electric trains at a cost of £118m and eight diesels costing £18m.

"We have invested millions in improving customer service. More than half our frontline staff have attended our Centre Stage customer service course at Basingstoke and we have introduced a customer service director.

"With Railtrack we have invested £15m on a customer information system which is being installed in 176 stations.

"We have trains worth £1 billion on order to replace the slam door trains.

"We are always one of the biggest payers of penalties but we're the biggest operator.

"What's not shown is that much of the money we have to pay is recouped from Railtrack because the reason for the disruption was beyond our control.

"Autumn is a notoriously difficult time for train companies because of the problem with leaf fall."

The spokeswoman said the smoke said to have filled carriages on the 17.15 on July 25 was actually dust, caused by an air cock being left open and the smoke on the 05.34 on July 18 was caused by brakes overheating and locking.

PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS:

14,000 extra seats

1,000 extra services

30 new electric trains

Eight new diesel trains

Millions invested in customer services

New customer service director post

£15m invested in customer information system

£1 billion worth of trains ordered