Sir - You reported (February 22) that, "First Great Western's error made hundreds squeeze into two railway carriages".
FGW are reported to have said that this 'error' was a simple 'rostering' mistake. This gives the impression that this was a 'one-off' mistake.
Nothing could be further from the truth as when we travelled to London Paddington on Sunday, February 3, a three-coach train was also rostered when an HST should have been provided. On this particular day the line between Swindon and Didcot was closed due to engineering work and FGW provided buses to take people direct from Swindon to Reading if they wished.
However many hundreds of people who live in the Swindon area preferred to drive to Didcot and join a train there.
FGW knew the line was shut and could have anticipated that Didcot would therefore be extra busy as a result.
But no thought was given to this and it was standing room only all of the way to London. I suspect that FGW prefer to use short trains on Sundays because it is cheaper for the company.
If the passengers have to endure cramped conditions again, FGW's attitude appears to be, 'so what?' They clearly do not rate customers very highly on their priority listings!
Marcus Lapthorn, Faringdon
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