We took with us a dossier prepared by two St Albans commuters about their recent experiences using First Capital Connect’s Thameslink service.  Issues covered were

• the hopelessly inadequate knowledge of FCC staff during disruptions, when passengers using smartphones and social networks seem to know far more than platform staff but then get hopelessly frustrated because the latter cannot confirm things;
• poor and incorrect announcements, so that people are allowed to board trains which FCC know will end up being at a standstill down the line outside Radlett or wherever;  or being advised to go to Hatfield and catch a bus when a Thameslink train will come in half an hour and so is still the best alternative;
• the continued lack of effective interworking beween FCC and Network Rail, for example the age before the broken electronic information board at Farringdon was replaced;
• the refusal of East Midlands trains to accept FCC tickets during disruptions, which would at least allow St Albans commuters a sensible and timely alternative;
• increasingly high levels of off-peak overcrowding and the way that FCC has quietly dropped its previous passenger charter commitment that ‘we plan services so off-peak you should always have a seat’; and
• all the flaws of the delay repay scheme for commuters, particularly the way that compensation vouchers can’t be used for on-line ticket purchases, and compensation is only given when a journey is actually attempted, although often FCC advise people not to travel and commuters have to make alternative arrangements such as working from home.

Norman Baker listened intently.  He is already raising the issue of poor passenger communications during disruptions with ATOC, the industry body which represents rail franchisees.  The key thing is to look at best practice elsewhere (it does exist) and then ensure that all operators reach these standards.  He also revealed that the next generation of franchises will focus far more on outputs than on inputs – so the passenger experience will matter far more.  This meets one of my own long-held hobby horses, that Government has been all too ready to remove franchises when the Treasury is not paid, but strangely reluctant to bite when it is the fare-paying passenger who is let down.

By sheer chance, he was due to have a meeting with Tim O’Toole, chairman of the First Group parent company of FCC, later this afternoon and promised to raise all these issues directly with him – including giving him the above-mentioned dossier.

So we’ll watch this space.

PS Norman is also the minister to thank for getting next year’s fare rises reduced from the planned RPI+3 percent to the previous RPI+1 percent

PPS On the way there and back (on trains that were on time and using the south bank exit from Blackfriars for the first time) I was re-reading the appropriately titled Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood – no Erste Kapital Konnekt in Berlin…

The picture taken by Gary Shore of Gaslight shows Norman and myself telling the audience at the end of the meeting that we were off to The Goat, where Norman had performed in a gig back in 1978, long before he got into Parliament and achieved his current reputation as a tireless campaigner and Liberal Democrat spokesman on transport.

But first of all there was the serious stuff.   Chris White, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Herts County Council, opened the meeting and set the context.  I then covered all FCC’s multiple failings which have been well rehearsed previously in this blog – just type First Capital Connect into the search box on the right hand side.  I pointed out that statutory mechanisms exist for franchises to be taken back temporarily into public sector management as has happened with East Coast Mainlines currently and previously happened with the terrible Connex.

The audience was then invited to share their own experiences,  and we had a stream of interesting comments and questions, including whether it is now possible for FCC to lose their franchise.

Norman listened hard to all the points and interjections, and then gave a thoughtful and detailed response, showing a considerable grasp of First Group and FCC’s history and performance both on Thameslink and elsewhere.  He reeled off the statistics on FCC’s relative performance not just over this last winter but for the previous few years and showed how they had consistently under-performed the rest of the rail industry.

He agreed with members of the audience that FCC’s business choice not to employ a sufficient number of drivers and rely disproportionately on rest day working barely justified the argument that all the consequential train cancellations were the result of force majeure when the drivers quite legally refused to play ball.  Since this was the basis of the Department for Transport deciding FCC were not in breach of their franchise obligations, it does indicate an unhealthily close relationship between ministers, officials and franchisees.

The core of his argument was that current franchise arrangements are far too Treasury-focused when they should be passenger-focused.  So the franchises were taken away from Sea Containers and National Express on East Coast Mainlines when they failed to pay the Treasury, while no similar action was taken against FCC when they failed their passengers.  We have a railway run for the Treasury and not for the public.

He was adamant that FCC should not have any franchise extension after the end of the current term in 2012 and that they had to be on  notice for any further failure to deliver their promises to passengers.

Norman ended by painting a vision of longer franchises with passenger-focused targets rather that Treasury ones.  He highlighted the investment being made by Chiltern Railways (which has a 22 year term) in a brand new stretch of track which will create a new route from Oxford to London.  More money could be pumped into the system by making Network Rail match international benchmarks for efficiency and so lower the industry’s costs, by cutting expenditure on new motorways, and by channelling funds through the new National Infrastructure Bank envisioned by Vince Cable.

And on a final note, he alerted us to announcements to be made later this week by the Liberal Democrats on a new vision for fares and better ways of compensating passengers for poor performance.  Watch this space.

The mechanism exists for rail franchises to be handed back if franchisees fail to deliver the promised service.  FCC seems to have had a charmed life in hanging on to its lucrative monopoly, it is time that passengers had their say.

So we are calling a public meeting for next Tuesday 16 March to discuss whether FCC should now lose their franchise.  The main speaker will be my friend Norman Baker MP, Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesman in the House of Commons.  The meeting will take place at Marlborough Road Methodist Church in the centre of the city (see directions here) and starts at 7.00 pm with doors opening at 6.30 pm – so do put the date in your diary!

When I successfully proposed my motion on rail franchises at last autumn’s Liberal Democrat conference, Norman summed up the debate.  The Daily Mail has described him as having ‘consistently been a thorn in the Government’s side’. In 2001 he was named “Inquisitor of the Year” in the Zurich/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards and, in February 2002, he won the Channel 4 Opposition MP of the Year Award.

It’s going to be a lively meeting, I hope to see you there.