It's 90 Minutes. It's David against Goliath. Winner Takes All. But it's not the FA Cup.....!

Well, last night I got to spend 90 minutes Lynne Milligan, Arriva Trains Wales's Director of Customer Service.

The battle lines were drawn in the ghetto of the John Lewis Espresso Bar.
Lynne paid for the tea (no sugar), and this wasn't to be the last time I had a bitter taste in my mouth.

As the Underdog, I set my stall out early.  In typical FA Cup 1st Round style, I needed to take an early lead against the Giant:

1-nil - An unplanned ambush.  
I told Ms. Milligan about a scene I witnessed in that morning at Cardiff's Queen Street station.
While there's improvements going on, ATW have moved in a small army of blue-uniformed "Customer Service Representatives" to check tickets.
As mine has relocated to the Land of the Lost Sock, I now have to queue to buy one.
There was only 4 of us in the queue.  A lady in front being served.  Me.  And two other souls behind me.
The lady in front completed her transaction and moved on to give one of the blue-clad army her ticket.
As she passed, I noticed him at first smile, then snigger, then laugh, and then tell his mate "She's just given me the 'Return'.  She'll never get home tonight".
He didn't, however, call the unfortunate lady back and give her her ticket back.

Horriffic.

I pointed out to Ms.Milligan that it can't just be me.  It can't just be that when I'm somewhere, something bad happens.  I made her realise that this sort of thing MUST happen, almost every minute, of every day.
And I asked her how she felt about that.

By the lack of response, I think she was winded.



All I had to do now was hold on to my lead!



We moved onto my missing season ticket:

Would they be replacing it?  No.
Would they be refunding me for the remaining 3 months?  No.
Did I have any hope of convincing her otherwise?  No.

Basically, they can't afford to either refund, nor replace it.  It would open up an option to the fraudulent-types out there.  
Some unscrupulous soul could buy one, and sell it.  
They could then pay a tenner, get another and sell it.
Repeat ad nauseum.

I can see her point.
1-all.  A worthy equaliser.



What I didn't see coming was while I was sorting out my Defence, I was hit with another quick sucker-punch!



The Giant took the moral lead on about 25 minutes.

I brought up the topic of the non-customer-centric policies, namely: no refunds to Season Ticket Holders.

She was prepared.
It was straight off the Training Ground.
An Annual Season Ticket effectively gives 2 months-worth of free journeys to the holder (unless he loses it!).  Buy 5, Get One Free.  Twice.
She pointed out that that's a pretty good deal.  Unless you lose it.  Twice.
She also pointed out that the Valley's lines are both already loss-making.  They can't afford to refund.  And there is no way they're going to adopt the approach of "It's good for the customer, so we'll do it anyway", like ASOS have done with their proactive refunds.
She was on the front-foot by now, and stepped up with a "refunds are built into the costs as we factor in service levels".

I fought back with a "you just manipulate the stats for your own good", but it was too little, too late.  There was no pulling this one back.

2-1 down.



I re-grouped at the interval, and made a tactical change.  Out came the props.

"Let's revisit the topic of manipulating the statistics" said I.

The main performance indicator that Arriva Trains Fails pointed me towards previously were these: http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Performance/

They say that 97.7% of ATW's Valley's Line trains were punctual (arrive at their destination within 5 minutes of the advertised time) in the last 4 weeks.

However, Ms. Milligan herself admits that the vast majority of these trains are virtually empty during the day.
So, almost nobody cares that the one-thirty-whatever arrived in Penarth with a few seconds to spare.
But ATW can count it as being as valuable as all of the ram-packed-full rush-hour trains.
Useful.
Especially when there's no-one around to see it.

When a tree falls in a forest and no-one's around, does it make a noise?

And it's even more convenient that they don't have to publish the stats for the stations that people actually use (Queen Street and Cardiff Central) as they're not the final destination.
With the pressure mounting on ATW, I pushed for the equaliser with a few maps I'd prepared in true Blue Peter style!

First this:

Which shows ATW gives itself 6 minutes for my train to complete the last half-a-mile of it's journey.  Google says you can walk it in 10 minutes.

Is this unreasonable?
I'll let the reader decide when shown this:

This is the section shows the first 2 stops of my train, seperated by 1.1 miles (if you had to walk it in the 21 minutes that Google estimates).
ATW gives itself 2 minutes for this section.

That's right.
Twice as far.
Three-times as quick.

Is it coincidence that the last half-a-mile is covered in the timetable at less than 0.1 miles per minute, when the rest of the journey is 0.5 miles per minute?

Personally, I don't think it is.
At the 'normal' speed the train should complete the last stage, it should take 1 minute.
ATW have "added in" (for want of a better phrase) an extra 5 minutes leeway in their favour so they can met their targets.
In effect, they can arrive at Penarth 10 minutes later than it could have arrived (the 5 mins they're allowed and the 5 minutes they've generously given themselves) in order to meet their targets.

And what happens?
Ta-da!
97.7% success rate!

It was clear to see, despite Ms. Milligan's half-hearted attempt to answer these points, that I'd pulled back her lead.

2-a-piece!



You want more?
I'll give you more!

I could taste blood and it wasn't the JL tea.

"If only you would publish the performance stats of the trains people actually use.  That'd be useful.  And it'd be good for the customers" I continued.

Ms. Milligan pulled an email chain from her bag.  She'd asked a manager within Customer Services to find the stats for the 0759 from Lisvane for the last 2 months.  The manager had forwarded it on to their MI team with the request accompanied by "Lynne is meeting with an unhappy customer..."
The reply that came back began: "I'm not surprised he's unhappy! ...".  Good of her to come clean with that!

Apparently, 77% of the time my train is on time.  This is "on time" in their ATW-friendly definition.
But it also means that more than once a week, it isn't.

11% of the time it's Cancelled, or Part-Cancelled.  Part Cancelled means it just went past the in-between stations without stopping.
That's once a fortnight!

They also said, in this 2 month period, the trains had been a total of 186 minutes late (their late, again).
That's more than 3 hours!!!

Slightly different to the 97.7% they publicise.

I suggested that ATW make the stats for individual trains journeys available to the public.
She liked this idea, especially as it would allow them to communicate that they know something's wrong and they're going to do x, y and z about it.
She gave me her word that she would go away today and try to make this happen.

3-2!



Using the "making things public" stance, I segwayed seamlessly into the "Your letter from last week" topic.

I told her I despaired at the use of "leaf fall season".
I pointed out that this is obviously ATW jargon and that 'real people' call it Autumn.

She visibly crumbled.
I think at that moment she felt the same as I did when I read that I couldn't get compensation for my season ticket almost 2 weeks ago!

There was no comeback.
There was no argument.
There was an acceptance that I was indeed correct, and an assurance that no ATW communication WILL EVER contain the phrase "leaf fall season" again.
And I can take full credit for that!

She also said my earlier emails were the reason for the release going out! 
Boom!

4-2!!
Get in!



Was there time for a 5th?

At this point, Ms. Milligan brought up the "Passenger Panel".
It's a focus group of ATW customers that meet to discuss performance, change, successes and failings.
She said there is a long waiting list to get on the Panel, but would like to personally invite me to be the next member!

Obviously, I accepted.
A chance to voice the concerns of the masses to the people that matter was too good to turn down!
I'm hoping that this blog now becomes a conduit for me to pass on the sentiment that the customers of ATW are feeling.

The bonus - which was then explained to me - is that members of this Panel get free ATW travel!

5-2!

Game over!

See you in the 2nd Round!




I'm not on the Panel yet, but I will be soon.

And I really want to hear what's happening across the rest of the rail network.

And if we get through the 2nd Round, then the 3rd Round will see us in a position to take on the Premier League outfits......!

But let's take each game as it comes, eh?

Thanks for your continued and on-going support!

Now, please SHARE!!!