Consultation Question 9What additional seasonal train services do you consider to be particularly important to retain or improve in the next franchise?
Why?
Explanatory textMany routes served by the Great Western franchise experience substantial fluctuations in demand, e.g. during summer and other holiday periods, or associated with Christmas shopping, such as Bath or Bristol Christmas markets.
For predictable, seasonal variations in travel demand, we anticipate that the train service specification for the next franchise will include some specific requirements, e.g. for changes to service patterns to reflect summer patterns of demand, continuing the current practice, unless there is a good reason to do anything differently.
For special events, it is not feasible to include specific requirements about every event that might take place across such a wide franchise geography, but we will strengthen the requirement for the next franchisee to have a clear plan for how it will meet the needs of passengers travelling to and from special events, working with event organisers, the police and other local partners.
See
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19037 for the background to this topic