The History Of First Great Western Trains

First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup, which operates services in the west and south west of England and South Wales.

On 1 April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains combined into the new Greater Western Franchise. First was announced as the operator of the combined franchise in December 2005 for a 10-year period.

First Great Western operates high speed services between London Paddington, Cotswolds, South Wales and the West Country, commuter services in London and the Thames Valley and local services in the south west of England. First Great Western operates 210 stations and its services call at over 270.

First Great Western operates a large diesel fleet. High speed services are operated by Class 43 HST train sets with Mk3 coaches, supplemented by three Class 180 Adelante DMUs. Commuter services in the Thames Valley use Class 165 and Class 166 Turbo trains, while local services in the South West are operated with a variety of 2 and 3 car DMUs. Locomotive hauled trains are now in use on services between Cardiff and Taunton.

History

First Great Western (1998 – 2006)

In 1998, the bus operator First Group acquired and rebranded Great Western Trains as First Great Western.[5] First Great Western consisted of the express services out of London Paddington to the West of England (Bristol, Exeter, Penzance) and South Wales (Cardiff, Swansea).

Great Western Trains was formed as part of the privatisation of British Rail. As with all of the original franchises, Great Western was formed as a division of British Rail prior to the franchise being let. The sector consisted of the express services out of London Paddington to the West of England (Bristol, Exeter, Penzance) and South Wales (Cardiff, Swansea).

First Great Western Train

First Great Western Link (2004 – 2006)

First Great Western Link was the former Go-Ahead Group operated Thames Trains franchise which had been operated since April 2004 by First Group. First Great Western Link provided train services from Paddington Station to destinations such as Slough, Reading, Didcot, Oxford, Goring and Streatley, Henley-on-Thames, Newbury, Bedwyn, Hereford, Worcester and Banbury. Train services are also provided from Reading to Gatwick Airport (via Guildford and Dorking), and from Reading to Basingstoke.

The Thames Valley routes were initially privatised in the mid 1990s and sold partly to the managers who had operated the trains under the nationalised British Rail and partly to Go-Ahead Group. They later passed the company under the sole control of Go-Ahead Group, who operated them as Thames Trains.

Wessex Trains (2001 – 2006)

Wessex Trains came into being on 14 October 2001 when the former Wales and West and Valley Lines franchises were reorganised. Wales and West Passenger Trains Ltd took on the trading name of Wessex Trains and the operation of services in southwest England. Wessex Trains ran the majority of local trains in the South West. They did not run the high-speed long distance trains.

First Greater Western (present day)

On 1 April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains combined into the new Greater Western franchise. Three companies — First Group plc, National Express Group PLC, and Stagecoach Group— were short-listed to bid for this new franchise. On 13 December 2005 it was announced that First Group had won the franchise. The new franchise has kept the name First Great Western. Originally, First planned to subdivide its services into three categories based on routes. However, following feedback from staff and stakeholders, the decision was taken to re-brand and re-livery all services as just 'First Great Western'

Routes

A First Great Western HST

Intercity routes

First Great Western operate InterCity services to and from London Paddington:

South Wales

o Reading
o Swindon
o Bristol Parkway
o Newport
o Cardiff Central (half of peak services terminate here)
o Bridgend
o Port Talbot Parkway
o Neath
o Swansea
o Carmarthen
o Pembroke Dock

Bristol

o Reading
o Didcot Parkway
o Swindon
o Chippenham
o Bath Spa
o Bristol Temple Meads
o Weston-super-Mare

South West England

o Reading
o Taunton
o Tiverton Parkway
o Exeter St David's
o Newton Abbot
o Limited service to Paignton

Cheltenham

o Reading
o Didcot Parkway
o Swindon
o Kemble
o Stroud
o Stonehouse
o Gloucester

Named trains

First Great Western operate a number of named passenger trains, including: The Bristolian (London-Bristol), Cathedrals Express (London-Hereford), Cheltenham Spa Express (London-Cheltenham), Cornish Riviera Express (London-Penzance), The Golden Hind (London-Penzance), The Mayflower (London-Plymouth), Night Riviera (London-Penzance "sleeper"), The Red Dragon (London-Swansea), The Royal Duchy (London-Penzance)and The Saint David (London-Swansea). The Atlantic Coast express(London-Newquay) The Torbay Express(London-Paignton) The company operated the last Motorail service, as part of the London Paddington–Penzance Night Riviera overnight sleeper service. This was withdrawn at the end of the summer season in 2005 due to low usage. There is also less known named train that is a express train that runs between London Paddington and Paignton.

A First Great Western Class 158 standing in Bristol Temple Meads railway station

Performance

After being so for a long time, First Great Western is no longer the worst performing UK rail operator. The latest rail performance statistics show that in terms of Public Performance Measure (PPM), Virgin Trains had the worst performing figures with a PPM of 82.0% over the 3 months for the first quarter of the financial year 2008-9 compared with 89.9% for First Great Western. For the 4 weeks up to the end of March 2008 First Great Western achieved 87.0%, better than National Express East Coast (85.0%) and Virgin Trains (85.5%).

First Great Western were named as the worst TOC in a 2007 Passenger Focus survey.[citation needed] However, a Spring 2008 survey found 79% of passengers were satisfied or happy with First Great Western which is the same score achieved by 5 other TOCs.

First Great western recently admitted to misreporting the number of cancellations in the period from August to December 2007, with revised figures showing the company to have breached the cancellation threshold in the franchise contract. Specifically the company was alleged to have deliberately cancelled trains on the day prior to service without the prior approval of the Department for Transport, and without recording these cancellations on their performance figures. The company was also accused of falsifying records in order to claim dispensation for large numbers of cancellations.

Not all delays are attributable to First Great Western. In September 2007 the ORR defended its position to allow Network Rail an additional 2 months to fix infrastructure problems before imposing enforcement action and fines due to their performance. The ORR also stated that the First Great Western train service "continues to suffer from very high levels of delays attributed to Network Rail" and had described Network Rail's performance as being "exceptionally disappointing".

Poor performance is nothing new to First Great Western as in 1999 former subsidiary First North Western had performance figures dropping as low as 45% punctuality (90% target) partly due to insufficient rolling stock. That was then followed by lengthy industrial action by First North Western staff in 2000 with very few replacement buses.

n January 2008 a fare strike was held as a passenger group said that not enough improvements have been made, despite First Great Western announcing that 2008 season tickets and car parking charges would be frozen until the end of the year.

In February 2008 the Secretary of State for Transport stated that FGW had “fallen persistently short of customers’ expectations and been unacceptable to both passengers and government”. She issued First Great Western with a Breach Notice for misreporting cancellations and a Remedial Plan Notice as a result of exceptionally high levels of cancellations and low passenger satisfaction.[citation needed] As part of the Remedial Plan Notice First Great Western must achieve improvement milestones and specifically lease five more Class 150 units to allow three car trains to be used on Portsmouth-Cardiff services, undertake a much more extensive refurbishment of the Thames Turbo fleet, offer 50% higher compensation for the duration of the franchise, offer 500,000 more cheap tickets on off-peak services and improve station customer information systems. Failure to do this will result in FGW losing their franchise. First Group’s railway operating profit, meanwhile, was reported to have risen 10% in the six months to September 2007.

Contact details

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Telephone numbers

Customer Services    08457 000 125 (open 07:00 to 22:00 daily)
Lost property    08457 000 125 (open Mon to Fri 08:00 to 20:00, Sat and Sun 09:00 to 17:00)

Telesales      08457 000 125 (open 07:00 to 22:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00 to 19:00 Saturday and Sunday - includes
bookings, group bookings, season ticket renewals and reservations)
Website ticket sales    For queries regarding tickets booked online, please call 0870 333 1778
Textphone    0800 294 9209

Assisted Travel    0800 197 1329
Welsh Speaking Enquiry Line    0845 604 0500

Passenger Focus    08453 022 022

Postal Address
Customer Services Team
First Great Western
Freepost SWB40576
Plymouth
PL4 6ZZ