No wonder some people are shunning the railways for their cars, when
rail companies such as First Great Western implement scandalous
policies such returning carriages to leasing companies in order to save
money, thus leading to severe overcrowding and significant discomfort
for their passengers.

It is good to see passengers fighting this anti-environmental,
anti-passenger move through refusing to buy tickets on the affected
services. I regularly use the (also crowded) London-Reading route run
by FGW and plan to travel without a ticket in support of the boycotters
using the 'More train, Less Strain" mock ticket. Out of interest, how
much fine could I face if caught for supporting the cause when an
inspector finds me with no ticket?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2554809.html

Boycott over crowded trains
BEN WEBSTER

JP wrote:

So do the government underwrite the lease on those four Class 222s that
First use?

Philip.

In message <1169253428.295209.108560@m58g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>, at
16:37:08 on Fri, 19 Jan 2007, JP btinternet.com>
remarked:

There seems to be confusion here.

Will the DfT not allow FGW to lease bigger trains at all, or would they
only allow them at FGW's expense? In which case the lack of such a lease
is entirely FGW's commercial decision [1](which the passengers do have a
right to complain about).

Again, this isn't entirely clear. Is there a law that says a ToC can
only sign contracts (these are non-DfT-underwritten ones presumably)
that are 28 days or less? And why couldn't they just sign a series of 28
day contracts?

davidcookoz@yahoo.com.au wrote:

"Roland Perry" perry.co.uk> wrote in message
news:hbX+zkFDOesFFAbE@perry.co.uk...

Good news for some though, passengers using the SWT service from Salisbury
that arrives at Bristol at 0752 should shortly find it running as a
modernised 3.159, rather than a 2.158...
Paul

davidcookoz@yahoo.com.au wrote:

Presumably you're also going to start filling your car up with petrol
and driving off without paying to protest next time Gordon Brown
increases petrol tax?

If you don't like overcrowded trains, then stop travelling by train.
Using the railway services and refusing to pay for a ticket is
tantamount to theft... the only people who'll suffer will be the poor
sods who have to waste their time issuing fines to dozens of people
every day on the trains; the railways will make more money from the
fines than you would have paid for the tickets.

Mark

I can see this getting rather expensive for the commuters :-(

Perhaps a better way would be for EVERY passenger to make a formal complaint
after EVERY journey where there has not been a resonable level of service. I
do mean EVERY journey for EVERY passenger !

I rather think that if the regulator responsible for the franchise starts
getting thousands of formal complaints every day then they are going to do
something - if only to preserve their own sanity ! Of course, the regulator
might well decide to start ignoring the complaints - but isn't there a
process for complaining about a regulator that doesn't do it's job ?

Anyone know what the formal requirements are for the complaints procedure ?
ISTM that the best way to deal with a company that (from the sound of it)
treats its captive customers badly is to find a way to make life difficult
for them. Causing them the overhead and hassle of responding to lots of
complaints (especially via the regulator) would seem to be one such way and
without the risk of getting a criminal record.