Is this was privatisation was about?
There was a Service Level Commitment which provided a description of services to be provided on Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday - now sure what it said about Bank Holidays and "Holiday Shoulders", with the franchise holders doing their best to maximise their net receipts after running expenses were taken off. I don't know what detail was in them about replacement transport.
The
SLC▸ for Swindon to Westbury over a decade ago was notorious ... "2 trains a day shall run each way from Swindon to Westbury on Monday to Saturdays. On Monday to Friday one service must arrive in Swindon before 08:30 and one must leave after 17:30. Some bright spark in the old First Great Western Intercity team that won the right to operate the line, previously Wessex Trains, noted that an arrival into Swindon at 07:45 and a departure at 18:45 was allowed, and that if a train ran from Swindon at 06:15 it could effectively form the 07:45 arrival, using a unit off the Stroud Valley line that wasn't needed there until around 07:50 from Swindon, and that with a train as late as 18:45, it had done its day on the Stround Valley and could run back into Swindon at around 20:20. I don't think they ever expected the 06:15 departure and 20:20 arrival to do much business, but they were save the cost of hiring a train for the line.
The Sunday SLC was worse - it said "2 trains shall run from Westbury to Swindon" and we were treated to a couple of years of a northbound service only, with an empty train running the other way. One of the early victories for common sense put that train into passenger service.
We have come a very, very long way since those days.
