Penalty Fare Appeal Support

Posts Tagged ‘DfT’

London Midland, the train company which runs services out of London Euston to the West Midlands area, has been illegally issuing Penalty Fares on it’s network.

The Penalty Fare rules (4.3) state that correct signage must be displayed at all entrances and exits to/from the railway.

We have been informed by a disgrunted member of London Midland staff (name witheld) that they were instructed to stick stickers over the signage to save the cost of complelty replacing the signs.

We have also had several photographs sent to us of the illegal signage and can be seen below:

We have asked London Midland what they intend to do in regards all the Penalty Fares issued illegally in respect of the singage being incorrect.
We have also contacted the DfT to let them know about the blatent disregard of the rules.

The DfT have asked us to tell you that they responded, and their response is listed here.

If you have ever been issued a Penatly Fare from London Midland in the West Midlands area within the last 6 months please contact us.

As our regular readers may remember we ran a story at the start of the year where by a driver of a late night First Capital Connect service risked the lives of members of the public to talk to a colleague who was sitting in first class.

http://www.penaltyfareappeal.co.uk/wordpress/?p=436

We have again been passed some disturbing footage by a passenger travelling on a northbound service from Finsbury Park where the driver had the door to the driving cab open for the entire journey whilst also speaking to another member of staff who happened to be standing in the driving cab. (This can be seen on the right hand side of the shot)

The weather conditions at the time along the route were far from perfect, freezing fog and icy patches and falling temperatures would have mad driving conditions dangerous at the best of times. Drivers should have their full attention on driving not talking to colleagues.

We are demanding that First Capital Connect take immediate action against the offending driver and assure members of the public that this kind of behaviour is stamped out with immediate effect.

The video is as follows:

Previously when we published the article we were told that there wasn’t enough evidence for First Capital Connect to act on as it was only an image.

Now that we have video evidence of this extremely serious breech of Railway Regulations we hope that First Capital Connect sit up and take notice.

We have received an email from First Capital Connect who advise the following: “We will be investigating this fully as safety is our number one priority.”

We thank First Capital Connect for taking the time to reply and hope that this issue can be resolved.

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

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.

The government today announced, after the markets had closed, via a press release that the state takeover of NXEC would be brought forward.

NXEC will be taken over at 23:59 on Friday 13th November 2009 by Directly Operated Railways under the trading name East Coast.

All staff will become in effect civil servants of the Department for Transport, Passengers will not see any immediate changes apart from the name of the company changing and uniforms changing.

All tickets and reservations previously purchased will continue to remain valid.

The National Express East Coast franchise is to be taken over by the Department for Transport on 12th December 2009.

An internal briefing from the DfT seen by PFAS has confirmed the likely date of 12th December. It also stated that it is unlikely that another franchisee will take control of the East Coast franchise before mid-2011.

The document revealed that the name East Coast will continue to be used, although National Express branding will be removed as soon as “as cost effectively and as soon as practicable”.

The DfT subsidiary Directly Operated Railways (DoR), will be the parent of a new operating company called East Coast Main Line Company Ltd T/A East Coast.

The date of transfer itself is not yet set in stone, and could theoretically “move forward or back”, although currently it would coincide with the start of the new 2010 timetable.

The DfT is indicating that any future developments at National Express, however positive, will now be too late to avert the takeover.

Changes to uniforms will be modest, especially as a new franchisee is expected to take over in 2011. However, there will be new badges from the takeover day, plus new ties for men and scarves for women.

The DfT is promising passengers that the service will not change for the worse, but a survey is currently under way to aid a decision about future on-board catering, and all aspects of customer service will be reviewed for “fitness for purpose”. Fares policy is not likely to change. Staff are being promised, among other things, “greater visibility” of senior management.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 01:01HRS 28TH OCTOBER 2009

28th October 2009

PENALTY FARE APPEAL SUPPORT, RELEASES DAMMING INVESTIGATIVE REPORT INTO FIRST CAPITAL CONNECT’S TARGETED ENFORCEMENT TEAM.

Penalty Fare Appeal Support today released an investigative report into the actions of First Capital Connect’s Targeted Enforcement Team “TET”.

The main reasons that PFAS has had to resort to these actions was due to the increasing complaints we have received from our site users in regards to a group of ‘feral’ inspectors, out of uniform, and due to the complete lack of communication from FCC.

We have been contacted by pregnant females who were bullied by the TET, contacted by parents of children who have had to deal with their son or daughter in hysterics after being spoken to by TET inspectors.

Part of our investigation was also started when we received anonymous correspondence from a manager within FCC who also complained about the attitudes of the TET.

We have also discovered that management have given each individual targets which is totally against the Penalty Fare scheme.

Penalty Fare Appeal Support.
Download the report at: http://www.penaltyfareappeal.co.uk/files/PFAS2009-1-FCCTET.pdf

Notes to Editors:
Penalty Fare Appeal Support was set up to protect passengers from Train Operating Companies issuing unfair Penalty Fare notices in violation of the rules or procedures which exist to protect such people. We inform passengers of the correct procedures and rules.
PFAS also exists to help support passengers which think they have had an incorrectly issued notice and we advise them on what rules have been broken.
PFAS has over 70 years of collective experience in the Revenue Protection area of the railways both during the British Railways era and the current privatised era.

Since PFAS was created, we have had the majority of Penalty Fares sent into our site overturned, due to various rule breaches or inaccuracy’s.

It has recently been announced that Elaine Holt has been given free reign to cherry pick her new management for the newly created Directly Operated Railways.

DOR has been created by the Department for Transport to enable them to take over the failed National Express East Coast franchise via a subsidiary company called East Coast Railway Co Ltd T/A East Coast.

Elaine Holt was chosen by Lord Adonis, Railway Minister to head the new DOR company, rumoured to be on a salary of around £170k.
Elaine left FCC after several failures which happened under her watch, the main failure being that the Thameslink Project was seriously delayed due to the non-delivery of new trains. Any competent Managing Director would have spotted the warning signs way before the actual problem arose.

Staff morale also dropped during her reign and pointless money wasting exercises took place. No wonder that staff call her the fairy princess, and also believe that she will screw up East Coast like she screwed up FCC.

Elaine poached several members of staff on her departure, however this was done in such a way that FCC did not know about it. Karen Boswell, who was Customer Services Director for FCC has now left FCC to work with Elaine at DOR.
Elaine’s PA has also been poached, and PFAS has been told that several other members of staff at FCC head office have given in their notices. With a mind to accepting Elaine’s bribe?

Will East Coast suffer the same fate as FCC at the hands of Elaine and her team of merry wo/men?

This document has now been published at http://www.penaltyfareappeal.co.uk/wordpress/?p=605

Penalty Fare Appeal Support has started an investigation into the conduct and actions of First Capital Connect’s targeted enforcement team, more commonly known as the TET team.

The investigation is ongoing and has been started due to the huge number of complaints we have had regarding the TET team.

The results of this investigation will be given to our contact at the DfT to First Capital Connect and of course published on here.