Blind pensioner’s train misery
Tuesday 16th March 2010, 8:03AM GMT.
Shropshirestar.com reader YT Cheung took this picture aboard the 7.51am service from Telford on February 23.
A blind pensioner in Shropshire has hit out at a train company for constantly being cramped on the “fast moving sardine can” to Birmingham.
Rowland Brown, from Lilleshall, near Telford, said getting on an Arriva Trains Wales service to Birmingham from Telford is “disgusting” and he called for train bosses to put on more carriages.
The 67-year-old said the trains are so packed that inspectors cannot come on board to check tickets.
But Arriva said it is sorting out the problem of overcrowding and has added 650 seats to the service.
Mr Brown said: “I was on the train on Sunday and there were two coaches for thousands of people that were going to Crufts, the Liberal Democrat conference and Mother’s Day – it was absolute mayhem”
“All they put on was two coaches and that stops at every station from Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton, you can’t imagine what it was like.
“By the time it got to Wolverhampton it was absolutely packed.
“”I’m a frequent traveller to Birmingham and I’m very concerned because it becomes like a fast moving sardine can.
“Why can’t they run a four carriage train, it’s ridiculous?”
Mr Brown added his guide dog, Elton, is having to get used to it.
He added: “The dog has given me my life back, but the train is not easy.
“He has learned to cope with it, but when you have four people around a table and the dog sitting under it my concern is always there for the dog.
“You have to try and get yourself and the dog off the train and I don’t usually panic but I do worry about the service.”
Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard, who has campaigned for a better service, said it was more evidence that the train company had to “get its act together.”
An Arriva spokeswoman said it had added 650 seats on the “Shrewsbury to Birmingham corridor” since December 2008 and talks with the Department for Transport about further capacity at peak times were ongoing.
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They have been overcrowded since the beginning of the 1990s. I expect there are far more passengers now and they are ‘still’ only putting a couple of carriages on!!!
People pay good money to travel and Arriva should put on extra carriages. No excuses and no problems only solutions.
Is this the only travel mode that people have to put up with being treated as ‘money received’ rather than ‘human beings’? If the passengers were sheep being transported across England, the RSPCA would soon be complaining about conditions.
Come on Arriva, get your act together.
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I totally agree with this man!!! I used the same service for three years whilst at university and the service was an absolute joke! A peak hour train (8am in the week) for a journey that takes over an hour and there are only two carriages for which hundreds of people pay the “privilege” of peak hour fares!! After getting off the service many-a times I (amongst many others I’ve witnessed) have often had to sit down for fear of passing out as the trains are so crowded and there is no ventilation whatsoever. One time, an employee of Arriva was getting irate because people were pressing against the back door cabin – now I know it’s not his fault but honestly, is it the hundreds of people you’re trying to herd onto the train like cattle??? They need to start showing some respect for the people that use this service!
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I see the Elf ‘n’ Safeway stasi have stopped the Derbyshire cheese rolling custom yet this is allowed to go on!! er..why?
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All they need is one extra coach and this wouldn’t happen. Seriously, how much would that cost the company?
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@bigbeast: thats a good point. At work the other day we had the health and safety force us to cancel a meeting because there were too many people in the room (12 instead of a maximum of 8).
Why isnt H&S all over this? To busy going after softer targets? Too challenging for them to tackle a real problem that is putting people at risk?
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Tom
I agree with you and it prompted me to go and take a look at their gross profits for 2008 (2009 only interim reports.
http://www.investis.com/arriva/docs/Annual_Report_2008.pdf
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This is typical of the way in which the “great” british public allow themselves to be treated as we are now a nation of complainers not doers.
1 day of concerted protest by those who use this “service” would solve the problem but you are all too concerned with me ,me, me to stand up as a group and stop this nonsense.
If everyone – and I mean everyone – stood in the doors of the train so it could not move the whole network would be disrupted. Blockade the car parks at the stations and claim your human rights are being infringed by Arriva.
Keep it all calm and professional and the law cannot touch you – if the police ask one person to move another takes their place immediately and the debate must start again.
Get the press and TV crews there on the same day and show Arriva up for what they are to the whole world.
This is the way in which the French do things and change happens.
Remember – united you stand ,divided you fall.
The solution is in your hands – but I won’t hold my breath as the Great has gone from Great Britain!!
Before anyone asks – no I won’t be with you as I refuse to travel on public transport and prefer to destroy the planet in my 4×4!!
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And this is why people won’t contribute to reducing emissions by leaving the car at home – public transport is rubbish.
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Posting 5: read page 11 ‘Arriva Trains Wales
At Arriva Trains Wales (ATW), we operate under contract to the Welsh Assembly Government.
We began operating the 15-year franchise in 2003, providing inter-urban, rural and commuter passenger rail services throughout Wales and the English border counties.
The ATW network, over 1,000 miles of track, stretches from Manchester, through north and south Wales and across to Birmingham and Gloucester. Franchise support payments at ATW decline slightly each year over the life of the franchise.’
Basically there is no support by councils in Shropshire or the West Midlands, London Midland have this so its up to them to improve services to ensure the ARRIVA service does not get overcrowded. I have used the service many times and it tends to be people who want the faster train cram this service at Telford when they could have got the London Midland with plenty of seats but they don’t want to board the stopping service at all stations between Telford and Wolverhampton.
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Correct Capt’n
Make a stand and things change
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There’s been quite a bit of comment in Wales over these issues. Apparently a lot of the blame lies with the Department of Transport who originally let the ‘All Wales’ franchise and who designated it a ‘no growth’ franchise – in other words, to keep costs low there was no real consideration for expansion of the system or resources. Most of the extra seats that Arriva claim to have created have come without any significant increase in resources (eg train units) and have been achieved through timetable changes etc etc
Yet rail travel is experiencing considerable growth and there is very little money to cater for it!
It is notable that Arriva actually sink very little of their own considerable profits into their rail services and maybe they should; but they’re following the terms of their franchise at the end of the day. You can bet that as public subsidy (supposedly) reduces, they’ll go cap in hand to the Government to ask for more money to run the routes (or raise prices to even higher levels than they already are.)
Protests would be better directed to the Welsh Assembly Government (who probably aren’t that interested in the train route problems *outside* of Wales, but you never know….) and _definitely_ to the Department of Transport who I suspect thought “Who cares about the railways of Wales and the Marches??!!!” when they were specifying the original franchise.
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to Chris
this seems to show how splitting up the rail network falls down.
If a train is time tabled and is going to birmingham i’m getting on it, i’ve paid my ticket i don’t care that the welsh assembly has put money into the service or that midland should do more to improve.
if arriva don’t want us to overcrowd this train then it should be a drop off only service once it is in england and pick up service only going back to wales.
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Whilst working on one of these trains, I commented “If we were transporting livestock, the RSPCA would shut us down”, a voice from somewhere behind me (I couldn’t turn round) replied, ” I work for the RSPCA, and yes we would”
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Why are you having a go at Arriva? This incident happened on a SUNDAY and London Midland don’t run any services between Birmingham and Shrewsbury on a Sunday. They could easily run services on the line on a Sunday as they have 3 – 4 empty trains sat empty in the sidings all day at Shrewsbury waiting for Mondays services. Lay off Arriva and start pestering London Midland as they manage all the stations on that line between Wellington and Birmingham.
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Bigbeast, posting 3, it was the organisers who cancelled the cheese rolling event, mainly because they couldn’t manage the 15,000 + crowds and traffic in narrow country lanes, not Health and Safety Executive. Secondly, another correction for you, it’s in Gloucestershire not Derbyshire!
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if arriva trains cannot allow you to travel in comfort, they must lose their licence and another train company who can provide comfort should be brought in. where is lord adonis and our mp when they are needed
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with the news yesterday that German rail company Deutches Bahn has made a takeover bid for Arriva, services may improve – they have a 50% stake in Wrexham Shropshire marylebone Railwya already!
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Atcham Jack you have missed the points raised by Chris.
Arriva run a service that is specified to them. The government (be it WAG or DfT) tell them how many trains they get, how many services to run on each line and what fare caps they must observe. Arriva get to set the uncapped fares, car park charges, times that trains run and salaries they pay staff and that is all. Arriva (or any other company selected to run the train) has no influence over how many coaches their train has and there is no second hand train market in the UK and euorpean trains cannot be used as they are too big. To buy new trains takes at least 2 years and a serious amount of money which as you may have noticed, UK plc no longer has. I would not expect any improvement in trains on this line for at least 3 years. DB and WSMR will not change anything if they take over Arriva unless thye can get WAG to pay some subsidy for the now aborted Aberystwyth to London train – now that would get you all excited in Sunny Telford – a comfy rain to stand up on….
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