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Greater Western Franchise

Background

The privatisation of the railways in the nineties created 25 franchises. As part of the planned reduction to 17, a new ‘Greater Western’ franchise has been formed by the grouping of Great Western, Great Western Link and Wessex into one large operator.

Three companies competed for the new franchise:

• First Group the former operators of First Great Western,
• Stagecoach, who operated South West Trains, and
• National Express, who operated Wessex amongst others.

The Bristol Transport Forum issued a press release in July 2005 expressing great concern at the proposals. Read press release.

The winner

On December 13 2005, First Group were awarded the franchise, which started on April 1 2006, and is to run for 7 years. This means they will be running the buses and the trains thus having a monopoly. However, they should be able to integrate the services. First Group said after winning the franchise that they were considering carrying out a feasibility study into the Portishead line. This was welcomed by PRG Chairman Alan Matthews. See also First Great Western’s website

Concerns

First Group are constrained by the Department for Transport’s requirements in what they are able to do. They have produced a new timetable for use from Dec 2006 which contains many service cuts so as to improve reliability. They have promised a feasiblity study on our line, but would not be able to build and run the railway even if they wanted to, without convincing the bureaucrats. The TravelWatch SW website has full details of the franchise problems, and recommends what the individual can do e.g. who to write to etc.