'Worst’ rail firm goes from bad to verse

Britain’s worst-performing train company has hired a poet to soothe the tempers of its frustrated customers.

First Great Western, which operates services from Paddington to South Wales and the West Country, insisted yesterday that its decision to engage Sally Crabtree, a Cornish poet, to perform at selected stations over the next four days had nothing to do with its poor punctuality record.



Crabtree, known in artistic circles as “the pink-wigged pocket Venus from Cornwall”, bravely caught a First Great Western train from Penzance yesterday in the hope that it would deliver her to Reading for her first platform performance this morning.

In the afternoon she will move on to Oxford, and later in the week she will set up her stall at Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter St Davids, Barnstaple, Paignton and Plymouth.

First Group, which operates rail and bus companies across the country, said that hiring a poet was part of a longstanding programme to entertain customers waiting at stations; previous acts have included face painters, balloon modellers, bands and carol singers. “It’s part of our annual engagement with our public, and it’s meant to be fun,” a First Group spokesman said.