Friends of the Rail Forum

Commuters petition Gordon Brown to strip First Capital Connect of franchise on Thameslink 'misery line'

Months of delays and cancellations add weight to commuter protests to gain political weight

* Tracy McVeigh
* The Observer, Sunday 24 January 2010

Pressure is growing on government transport chiefs to strip the franchise from what is fast becoming the most ­vilified train company in Britain.

First Capital Connect is breaking new ground in customer dissatisfaction. After two months of severe timetable disruption, cancelled and delayed trains and customer misinformation on the FCC Thameslink line running between Bedford and Brighton through London, a grassroots campaign by frustrated and angry commuters is quickly gaining political weight.

The company has come in for criticism since last year, but it was in November, with drivers refusing to work on their rest days, that FCC ran into the buffers when it didn't have enough drivers to conform to the timetable. In December, emergency timetabling was blamed on the snow, but despite the heavy snowfall ending on 6 January it was not until 18 January that FCC announced that it would return to normal schedules. Even in the past week there have been cancellations, diversions and delays.

There is now an "I Hate FCC" Facebook group with 2,000 members; a 4,218-name Downing Street petition online, which is backed by cross-party MPs; and even a spoof website on which thousands of commuters have been registering their fury at the company, which for many has reduced their daily journey to work to a "struggle of nightmarish proportions".

Local newspapers along the route have had their letters pages inundated over the issue and now the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT) has weighed in. Bob Crowe, the RMT general secretary, said: "Every corner that can be cut is cut and now they are getting found out. The rolling stock is like something out of the 1970s Bronx, and the sheer tension among commuters means it's a pressure cooker on these trains. Combined with the fact that FCC got a £140m subsidy last year while making operating profits of £90m, this is a state-sponsored rip-off."

Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam, lodged an early-day motion last week calling on FCC's franchise to be withdrawn, which would make it the second route to be taken back into public ownership, after National Express's East Coast route was nationalised.

"It has been registering in complaints from my constituents in ever-increasing volume," said Burstow. "FCC has severely under-invested and used the bad weather as a pretext to completely collapse the service. It went into total meltdown. It makes the daily commute an endurance test and is seriously stretching the relationship between people and employers at a time when jobs are at risk."

Livia Murphy is the commuter who started the petition. She said: "For a couple of months, travelling into work became a daily struggle, as even the trains on their reduced timetable were being cancelled. What was meant to be a 20-minute journey into work was taking me an hour and a half. FCC didn't seem to be making any effort to improve the situation or communicate to their customers about what their plans were to sort it out. We felt that we were being treated extremely badly and the situation was very unfair. By starting the petition we hoped to urge the government to take action and deal with FCC.

"Due to this gross lack of competence, we ask the prime minister to treat the disruption to services as a breach of the franchise. We've been overwhelmed by the response to the petition. It really proves how angry commuters are."

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "The secretary of state [Lord Adonis] has been clear that First Capital Connect needs to improve their service very significantly, and he is looking at all options open to him if they fail to do so."

A spokesman for FCC said the company understood its customers' frustrations: "We are working closely with the Department for Transport on our service improvement plans.

"It is worth noting that the Great Northern route, which accounts for 50% of our customers, has been operating a normal service." He said that FCC would announce compensation plans for season ticket holders, some of whom pay up to £4,000 a year.

Minister considers nationalising Thameslink franchise

BBC
Page last updated at 16:19 GMT, Thursday, 28 January 2010

A minister has refused to rule out nationalising an "appalling" London commuter railway line that suffered almost three months of disruption.

First Capital Connect's Thameslink route between Bedford and Brighton was disrupted by staff shortages and snow.

Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins asked Transport Minister Sadiq Khan to consider nationalising the franchise.

Mr Khan said: "All options are on the table." First Capital Connect (FCC) said: "We are working to improve."

Disruption began in November last year when members of train drivers' union Aslef chose not to work overtime.

FCC and Thameslink relied upon staff working overtime, rest days and weekends to cover services.

The dispute was resolved earlier this month but many trains subsequently went out of service when snow and ice caused power problems.

Almost 5,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling for FCC to be stripped of its franchise due to a "gross lack of competence".

Mr Khan told the House of Commons that the Department for Transport was having daily conversations with FCC to ensure a "radical improvement" of the service.

He said: "There are literally hundreds of thousands of commuters who have received an appalling service - not for one week or one month but over a period of three months.

"Each day the service has not improved is another day of suffering for passengers, and there is a cost to London as well."

He added: "This service continues to be unacceptable in terms of cancellations, punctuality and passenger service information."

'Making money'

Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes called for a solution to be found "not on the basis of defending the ideology of sustaining franchises which have been given, but in the interests of the commuters and the users of the service".

Mr Hopkins said FCC "has shown itself totally incompetent and interested only in making money, not providing a service".

He added: "Can I urge you to give serious consideration to taking the franchise away and bringing it back into the public sector?"

Mr Khan replied: "All options are on the table."

Shadow transport minister Stephen Hammond said FCC should be "rightly condemned" for the service it had provided.

But he said punctuality on the East Coast Main Line had dropped from 89% to 67% since it was taken back into public ownership from National Express in November last year.

An FCC spokesman said: "We are committed to the Thameslink franchise, and committed to the long-term development of the franchise."

He said the Thameslink service had "significantly improved" since 18 January.

"Last week we ran almost 4,000 services - almost double the amount of the previous week," the spokesman said.

"By early February we expect to have a full fleet of trains."

He added: "We are working with the Department for Transport to continue to improve the service."

FCC will be the subject of a further Parliamentary debate on 3 February.

Earlier this week FCC announced it would give regular travellers a discount or up to two weeks' free travel in compensation for the disruption.