Forum topic: Last chance for Govia?

News media are reporting that the Department for Transport is drawing up plans to strip the operator of Great Northern rail services of its franchises if a new interim timetable does not improve reliability sufficiently.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is due to introduce the interim timetable on 15th July.  The aim is to create timetables for Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern services that the company will be able to deliver, thus ending the chaotic situation which has reigned since the May timetable changes and has reportedly seen cancellation or severe delays affecting around 20,000 trains over a six-week period.  According to GTR, the interim timetable "prioritises peak-hours services and reduces service gaps" and is a "key stage in our work to provide a more reliable service to passengers over the coming months".

Though disruption of trains on the Hertford Loop, which serves Palmers Green, has been much less severe than on longer-distance services, the situation is hardly normal.  For instance, during last Friday's afternoon rush hour the sole GTR employee at Highbury and Islington was complaining over the PA system that he was not been provided with information about trains that were running, apologising for the "crap" service, suggesting that passengers should take photographs of the train indicator as evidence when submitting claims for compensation, and warning that there would be no Welwyn services for at least 80 minutes.

Currently Great Northern's website has timetableswhich have "been revised to show services we are planning to operate". The website warns that "There may be additional on-the-day alterations to Thameslink and Great Northern services; which we will advise you of as early as possible by updating Journey Planners and Live Departure Boards. It is essential that you visit nationalrail.co.uk and recheck your journey as close to your time of travel as possible.  If you are planning to travel on Saturdays or Sundays, please plan your journey by visiting nationalrail.co.uk and using the journey planner. Once again it is essential that you recheck your journey at nationalrail.co.uk as close to your time of travel as possible for on-the-day alterations."

As always, the most comprehensive explanation of what has gone wrong appears on the London Reconnections website.  This supports the claim by trade unionists that the DfT itself bears much of the blame for the chaos.  The same point was made to me by a GTR public relations officer who I met at the Bohem brewery opening party.  He was a strong defender of Govia and of privatised railways in general, but said that the number of civil servants employed by the DfT had been cut back so severely in recent years that the department was no longer capable of adequately exercising its functions - which implies that some of the blame attaches to the person in charge of the DfT, Chris Grayling.