First Great Western becomes Great Western Railway - Press release and brochure

[whole diary]

[grahame]

20th September 2015: Today, railway company First Great Western will be re-named Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) as it marks the biggest investment in the railways since Brunel. The re-brand is centred on the company^s commitment to putting its people and customers first.

Full press release:
http://atrebatia.info/gwrpresslaunch.pdf

Franchise update brouchure:
http://atrebatia.info/gwrupdate8417.pdf

From a key contact:

As a key stakeholder I wanted to email you personally to let you know about the change, and about our new website www.gwr.com, and our new social media accounts, facebook.com/GWRUK, Instagram.com/GWRUK and twitter feed @GWRUK.  We would be grateful if you could update your records, and your own social media sites to reflect the change, should you include links to our existing sites.

Our email addresses will also be changing, emails sent to our old addresses will be forwarded on but you might want to note that from Monday all FGW^▸ (First Great Western) email addresses will change from name.surname@firstgroup.com to name.surname@GWR.com.

We will be updating as appropriate on this site - you'll have seen much discussion on our way forward, and the significant issues we face - so just as all the trains won't go green overnight ... but already "gwr.passenger.chat" will reach the forum as - on a short term basis only - will www.greatwesternrailway.info

The TransWilts / Coffee Shop / [First] Great Western [Railway] relationship has transformed from being a protest one to something that's very much more a partnership relationship  over the years we've been operating, all be i on occasions a critical friend partner.  Any 99% of the time that's very much for the common good.  The more cynical reader may pick out "I wanted to email you personally" from the text above and wonder if it really was personal ... well - I'm sure there was a template text behind it, but there were also very much current news and personal wishes which were certainly one-off, and very much appreciated

I look forward with a positive view - and with excellent backup to confirm that much of that view is realistic - to this coming franchise, wishing GWR all the best in providing a service that Ismbard Kingdom Brunel, had be been alive now rather than 175 years ago, would have been proud of.

[grahame]

New public contact details ... (sorry - am image, but I will add links.)

[grahame]

With around 5,500 colleagues, 276 stations served, 9,500 services every week ... with 192 train sets, 1.9 million journeys a week averaging 39 miles each and 100,000 passengers (journeys?) at Paddington every day, Great Western Railway is a huge operation and the branding and changes will take time to fully flow through.  Carriage washers are not being filled with green paint rather than water ... and indeed it's economically prudent (and planned, we understand) for it to be a gradual process.   Never the less, with so many changes and new information and social media links, our tiny volunteer team at The Coffee Shop may find it a bit hard to keep up / check out all the links, and I would ask for your forbearance if something's a bit out of kilter occasionally, and - PLEASE - to let us know of anything that's gotten busted.  We have only 2 eyes each working on the server - you (between you) have thousands of eyes and will most likely spot things!

I'm going to spawn a separate "News and assistance" board thread for reports on issues here ... help keep this thread clean, and help everyone have all the reports in one place to reduce duplication and share things to be looked at.

Edit to add - thread to report is at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=16254.0

[Rhydgaled]

The re-brand is centred on the company^s commitment to putting its people and customers first

We are committed to improving the journeys of our passengers

Statements like these really do annoy me unless they really appear to be 100% true. In this case I feel that, while major improvements are being made, there are some aspects of the plans which are not exactly putting customers first.

[Timmer]

The re-brand is centred on the company^s commitment to putting its people and customers first

We are committed to improving the journeys of our passengers

Statements like these really do annoy me unless they really appear to be 100% true. In this case I feel that, while major improvements are being made, there are some aspects of the plans which are not exactly putting customers first.

Warm fluffy PR^▸ (Public Relations) speak that companies pay consulting firms thousands to come up with which is pretty much wasted on the travelling public when the current service is the way it is. Until the new trains arrive that is not going to change.

It could get worse as passenger numbers continue to increase and rolling stock continues to age. Something a new coat of green paint and new staff uniforms can't change no matter how well the intentions are. This is not just restricted to the GW^▸ (Great Western) franchise.

[grahame]

... and general letter (to a big mailing list I suspect - so not giving any secrets away ...)

[SandTEngineer]

I didn't know that IKB^▸ (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) was founder of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  I thought it was a bunch of wealthy shareholders that did.......
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Great_Western_Railway:_1833_Committees