Twyford

In light of the terrible weather conditions and the flash floods I wanted to let you all know about FGW's compensation procedures. The statement below was issued by FGW's Customer Services Director, Glenda Lamont in response to the flooding the week before last, however I am pushing them to ensure they continue to extend this compensation for the duration of this bad weather:

“Although the National Rail Conditions of Carriage state that rail operators are not required to provide compensation for incidents outside the control of the rail industry, such as severe weather, we recognise that the recent unusual July weather has resulted in some of your journeys being significantly delayed.

I understand how the cumulative affect of these delays has frustrated customers, particularly our season ticket holders and other regular travellers.

We would therefore like to offer compensation to all customers affected by this disruption. In particular we would like offer our season ticket holders a gesture of goodwill in reflection of the repeated delays and the impact this has had.

Should you require further information about how to claim or any other aspect of our service, please do not hesitate to contact First Great Western Customer Relations at:

First Great Western Customer Services
(Freepost), PO Box 313
Plymouth PL4 6YD
Tel: 08457 000125
Email: fgwfeedback@firstgroup.com”

You may also be interested in an email I received recently from FGW regarding the other reasons for the recent delays:

“[Since the beginning of the month] we have had 3 fatalities, 2 lightening strikes and 6 major signalling problems. In particular, this week [week commencing 9th July] an intermittent fault with signalling at Acton caused disruption on Monday, Tuesday and most severely on Wednesday. The latter failure caused disruption for much of the day. Network Rail has been working to deal with the most recent signalling problem and have assured us their engineers have the situation under control. We would like to apologise for the delays your constituents may have suffered and you can be assured that we are working closely with Network Rail to ensure the number of incidents of infrastructure failure such as this are minimised.”

Please do continue to keep me informed about the problems you are experiencing with the service. I have met with First Group and Network Rail today regarding the December 07 timetable again. Their internal consultation procedure should be over in a few weeks and I will update you on their proposals on 1st August.

I would also like to offer my support to those of you whose homes and businesses have been affected by the flooding. If you feel there is any way I can be of assistance to you regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP