Penalty Fare Appeal Support

Archive for November, 2009

You may have arrived at out site looking for the National Rail Fares Manual (NFM); we did have a link to this product but were asked to remove this by ATOC.

“The ‘National Rail Fares CD-ROM (NFM 04)’ provides details of fare information to and from all Great Britain National Rail stations. The National Rail fares CD, produced three times per year, contains rail fares for all journeys within Great Britain.”

This is published 3 times a year at the cost of £44.01, which is as I’m sure you will agree is a complete rip-off. This information should be available to the public free of charge. ATOC have said this information is available via the National Rail website, which most of the time doesn’t offer the cheapest fares for passengers.

The Public should have the right to have this information freely at their leisure without paying a fortune for the privilege. Train operating companies go out of their way it seems to make it difficult for passengers to purchase the cheapest tickets, it’s in their interest to make it difficult as its more profit for themselves.

Help support this cause by signing our petition to the Prime Minister today!

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NFMFREE/#detail

We are receiving reports this afternoon that the Troubled First Capital Connect franchise is to be issued with a formal Remedial Plan Notice by the government.

The details of this Remedial Notice are yet to be revealed; once we have received them we will be able to publish these for our readers.

Reports suggest that the government has finally had enough of the appalling service that First Capital Connect is currently offering its customers. Today alone there are 25  cancelled services on the GN half of the First Capital Connect franchise, with many more cancelled as First Capital Connect have been forced to run an emergency timetable on the TL (Thameslink) route.

We as always invite First Capital Connect to comment on this story and wish them the best of luck in returning their services back to normal as soon as possible

Goodbye National Express…Hello East Coast Mainline Company ‘ECMLco’

As of 23:59, control of the East Coast Mainline returns back to Government hands. East Coast Mainline Company is a subsidiary of Directly Operated Railways, a new company created by the Government to oversee the East Coast rail franchise re-tender to a new private operator. Internal documents suggest that this wont be until 2011 at the earliest.

The website eastcoast.co.uk contains everything you need to know about the service and ECMLco are still offering the 10% discount previously offered by NXEC for booking online.

ECMLco released some of its improvments that it aims to make on the ECML route whilst in control of the route:

improvements and changes include:

• An end to charges for seat reservations from January 1, 2010;
• £12 million for improvements at stations, including enhancements to Newcastle, York, and Peterborough. The focus of investment in stations is designed to add significant benefits for customers, these include the provision of 200 new cycle spaces at Newcastle, 100 at York and 150 at Peterborough;
• An immediate review of on-board catering in both standard and first-class, with a view to improvements from next year;
• Better standards of cleanliness on board trains and at East Coast managed stations;
• Further service improvements including a new Saturday evening service from King’s Cross to Leeds and an additional Sunday morning service from Leeds to King’s Cross;
• The withdrawal of the planned gating of York station in order to maintain the existing through access for non-passengers, while accelerating the completion of gating at King’s Cross to deter fare dodgers.

Customer service details remain the same as with NXEC:

Customer Relations (including lost property)
Email: customers@eastcoast.co.uk
East Coast
Freepost RRZG-ZZZX-LKXK
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 5DN
Tel: 08457 225 333
International Telephone Number: +44 191 2275959
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 08:30 – 17:00 (not Bank Holidays)

East Coast Assisted Travel
Email: assisted.travel@eastcoast.co.uk
Tel: 08457 225 225 (select option 2 then option 5)
Textphone: 08451 202 067
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 08:00 – 20:00; Sunday 10:00 – 20:00 Closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day

General Enquiries/Telephone Sales Team
Tel: 08457 225 225
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 08:00 – 20:00; Sunday 10:00 – 20:00 Closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day

We would like to welcome ECMLco and the MD Karen Boswell, who always maintained a good working relationship with ourselves during her time as customer services director of First Capital Connect, unlike the current management who simply wish us to disappear.

We hope that she is able to provide the much needed improvements that the East Coast Mainline needs and we hope that the staff of ECMLco see some improvement to their working conditions and once again are able to take pride in the company that they work for as they once did for GNER.

First Capital Connect have been forced to introduce an Emergency Timetable on its Thameslink route due to the continuing driver dispute.

The new Emergency Timetable which will allow FCC “to operate as consistent a timetable as possible over the coming days”, has cancelled over half of normal daytime services.

FCC claim they are in continuing talks with the ASLEF union, however PFAS has learnt that FCC is now trying to blackmail the drivers into accepting a worse deal.

Drivers working for First Capital Connect who are part of the ALSEF rail union are being balloted for industrial action as a result of First Capital Connects failure to sort out the 2009 pay offer.

The ballot will close on December 09th with an earliest possible strike date of December 16th.

First Capital Connect have known there is a problem with the pay negotiations but have instead decided to continue offering the insulting pay offer and claiming that ‘these are hard times’.

First Group UK rail made a pure profit of £94million this year and have so far not offered any pay increase to any member of FCC staff, despite the fact that their staff helped the company make these profits.

Drivers have already stepped up there protest and are refusing to work voluntary overtime, and bought the whole of the FCC Great Northern route to a standstill last Sunday.

The past few weeks have been far from happy for First Capital Connect who’s idea of customer service is to allow its inspectors to assault pregnant passengers, to blackmail passengers, to wrestle passengers to the floor and then to blame the drivers for exercising their legal right for refusing to work voluntary overtime.

FCC Drivers recently decided not to come to work on a Sunday on the Great Northern route, and caused chaos. All trains were cancelled and some station had no service at all.

Drivers working on the Thameslink side have also refused to work voluntary overtime and as such this has caused upwards of 200 services a day being cancelled due to no drivers.

FCC have constantly claimed that they are talking to the union to prevent this work-to-rule to continue, however the ASLEF union strongly states that they have nothing to do with the drivers refusal to work overtime stating “People withdrew their goodwill on overtime on an individual basis because of what is seen as a rather derisory pay offer.”

As you may have seen over recent months we have had some very worrying reports about First Capital Connect and their levels of customer dis-service that are offered by members of staff.

We have again received today, reports from within the company from members of the revenue which suggest that management within First Capital Connect are bullying staff to perform wrongful actions and disciplining staff that do not meet targets. This is not the first time and based on current trends not the last time, that we have received these kinds of reports and we would like to gather some more information.

If you are a member of staff currently employed by First Capital Connect or previous member of staff we would like to hear from you.

All information will be treated with strict confidence and identities will be protected.

These can be submitted via out contact page from the main site: http://www.penaltyfareappeal.co.uk/pages/contact.php

PLEASE BE AWARE FIRST CAPITAL CONNECT VISIT THE SITE HOURLY AND WILL BE ABLE TO TRACE VISITS MADE DURING YOUR WORK TIME AND THEY WILL TAKE ACTION AGAINST YOU!!!!

We suggest reports are submitted via your own personal computer, without being logged into the First Capital Connect Platform intranet site.

UPDATE: We have again contacted First Capital Connect for comment on this and our previous story, but as seems to be the normal First Capital Connect have failed to respond to our emails. First Capital Connect who pride themselves on ‘Customer Service’ seem to believe that protecting passengers from abusive staff isn’t something that they need to worry about.

We have now forwarded out reports to the DFT who administer the Penalty Fare Scheme. We have also been in contact with local MP’s who are going to take up the issue on our behalf.

Following on from our previous report: See Here

We have received a worrying report from a pregnant passenger that was assaulted by a member of First Capital Connect Staff.

We have been given permission from the passenger to release this information in the hope that First Capital Connect start to listen to their passengers about the appalling behaviour of their revenue team.

Please note names have been removed to protect individual identities.

The incident happened on 03/11/2009 at Farringdon station, where a passenger disembarked from a First Capital Connect Service travelling from East Croydon.

When the passenger disembarked from the train at Farringdon station she was met by a group of Revenue Protection Inspectors, A female inspector asked for her ticket and she proceeded to show her Oyster Travel card. The inspector checked the Oyster Card on a handheld Oyster reader and advised her that this was fine. The passenger then proceeded to the ticket office to purchase a zone extension to her travel card.

While she was queuing, the inspector rushed over behind her and told her that the ticket was not valid for the journey that she had made and would have to pay an “On the spot Penalty Fare of £20.00” and demanded cash or credit card payment immediately.

The passenger challenged the inspector and advised that she would like to take this up with First Capital Connect and offered to give her details to the inspector for First Capital Connect to send the relevant information in the post.

The inspector then forcefully snatched the passengers Oyster card out of her hand and said “Ill keep this card and you can do the writing.”

The passenger then became very upset by this whole incident and asked to speak to the station manager. The inspector then stated “I am the manager”. The passenger advised the inspector to give her property back or she would call the police. The inspector refused to give the Oyster card back and she then contacted the British Transport Police who attended the station.

The passenger stayed with the inspector until the police arrived at the station, she attempted again to put her case across to the inspector who told her to “Shut up, your doing my head in”. The inspector then began to walk down the steps towards the platform so the passenger began to follow her. The passenger asked the inspector not to leave as the police were on their way.
Both the passenger and the inspector were standing outside the supervisors office and the inspector asked someone to let her in, The passenger attempted to enter the office to speak to someone in charge, at this point the incident escalated.

The inspector put both of her hand on the passengers stomach and pushed her out of the way shouting “Get out of my F*****g face”.

The inspector then walked into another room next door and the station staff that were in the supervisors office at the time offered the passenger a seat as they could see how upset she was and concerned for the condition of her and her baby.

The passenger then waited for the police to arrive and take a statement, after giving all the details the inspector was arrested and taken to a local police station.

We at PFAS find this kind of behavior appalling and demand that First Capital Connect sit up and take notice that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.
This is one of many incidents that have been brought to our attention, all of which have been brought to the attention of the FCC Managing Director Jim Morgan and the Director of First Group UK Moir Lockheed, who have ignored our emails and requests for comments hoping that we will just go away.

We believe that First Capital Connect have no interest in passenger safety and security and are only interested in profit and as such are fully supporting their inspectors in whatever action they take, even if it is illegal.

We are pleased to announce that the passenger concerned is pressing charges against the inspector and we will provide any updates once we receive them.

Updated Information regarding FCC services in relation to Sunday 8th November 2009.

First Capital Connect are continuing to advise against travel on Sunday unless absolutely necessary. All services are likely to be extremely busy.

If your journey is essential, First Capital Connect Great Northern route tickets will be accepted on the following alternative routes:

Buses:

• Replacement buses will operate between King’s Lynn, Watlington, Downham Market, Ely, Waterbeach and Cambridge (for National Express East Anglia services to/from Liverpool Street).
• Replacement buses will operate between Huntingdon, St Neots, Sandy and Bedford (for First Capital Connect Thameslink route services to/from central London stations).
• Replacement buses will operate between Royston and Whittlesford (for National Express East Anglia services to/from Liverpool Street).
• Replacement buses will operate between Hitchin, Stevenage and Luton Airport Parkway (for First Capital Connect Thameslink route services to/from central London stations).
• Bus routes 300 and 301 between Hatfield and St Albans (for First Capital Connect Thameslink route services to/from central London stations).
• First Capital Connect tickets will also be accepted on London bus services via any reasonable route.

Trains:

• National Express East Anglia services between Ely, Cambridge and London Liverpool Street.
• First Capital Connect Thameslink route services between Bedford and all intermediate stations to central London.
• National Express East Coast services between Peterborough, Stevenage and London King’s Cross.
• National Express East Anglia services between Hertford East/Enfield Town and London Liverpool Street.
• Northern line services between High Barnet and all intermediate stations to central London and Piccadilly line services between Cockfosters and all intermediate stations to central London.

We are still waiting to hear from FCC as to if First Hull Trains will be accepting FCC tickets, and if there will be any additional stops made on their services.

Customers may park at any First Capital Connect operated car park free of charge on Sunday 8th November 2009 (this does not include National Express East Anglia operated car parks at Ely and Cambridge and the National Express East Coast operated car park at Peterborough).

First Capital Connect have just released a statement stating that their will be NO trains running this Sunday on the Great Northern route.

FCC state that is due to “train crew shortages”, we can reveal that drivers have withdrawn their labour for Sunday working in a dispute over the lack of a pay rise this year.

Sunday working on FCC is voluntary and FCC cannot force any driver to work any voluntary shift.

PFAS spoke to a driver as their train terminated and they stated “The greedy robbing ba***ds didn’t give us a pay rise so we are going to hit them where it hurts.”
When PFAS asked further as to how long the dispute was likely to last the driver smiled and stated “Wait and see mate, we in it for the long haul.”

More details as to alternative arrangements will be posted in due course.

ASLEF and RMT unions have continued to state there is no official union approved action taking place.