Great Western Coffee Shop

Over 50% of GWR's fare revenue comes from leisure traffic - "unusual among train operators" - a line from a keynote speech today by Mark Hopwood at a GWR [tourism and leisure] partner seminar.   And this is a sector of the business that GWR are keen to expand, I suspect not only because of the wonderful places in the South West and South Wales that people can go to, but also because growth in this traffic is likely to be on trains which are not the jammed commuter ones.

Let's see who spots the new campaign first (no spoilers, please, from those of you I met at the seminar - lets' treat this like an embargo - won't be that way for long at all!)

Strange time of year to be starting this...you'd expect it early in a year, not towards the tail end of one?

I won't spoil the game, but I'm assuming if you click here (https://lbbonline.com/news/the-famous-five-star-in-new-campaign-for-great-western-railway/) you may find the answer

Indeed ...
... so it looks like that's jumped the gun.

And at 0:23, they are pointing at which station on the map?

Appropriating another much loved icon of the 20th century.  :o

I wonder how much research into GWR Enid Blyton Entertainment did before agreeing to this.

Looking frame by frame, the finger is drawn across the map to show that they can start on the TransWilts - from Chippenham through Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury ... changing for onward services / the next series or frames looking to indicate they're headed for intermediate stations on the Newquay line.

So That's All Good Then !
Essentially what they are doing are finding out what they do well and doing less of it better  ???

GWR ? OOH?

First jumping the gun again? Surely better to wait until the new trains are in operation. Not only that but Autumn and winter is usually the time services are frequently disrupted due to engineering work. Hardly a good introduction to anyone using rail for the first time for leisure purposes and ending up on a bus or packed train.

But by the time the disruption ends so will their franchise.  By only giving them a short franchise DfT have left them with little alternative but to make the best of what they can.  Autumn and Winter is when the services are usually less crowded with leisure travellers so why not encourage more.

As for the claim that services are more usually disrupted by engineering works during this time - Have you tried travelling around the Swindon and Bristol area by rail during the summer? 

Out-of-home media advertising (also OOH advertising or outdoor advertising) or out-of-home media (also OOH media or outdoor media) is advertising that reaches the consumers while they are outside their homes.

Billboards  ;D   for example

Wonder how much this cost the TOC ?

If they were headed for the Newquay line lets see the sequel to their down journey, the return journey AFTER their adventures at Newquays SURFFEST, their 3 hour wait before finally being put on a rammed double decker bus with standing room only on both upper and lower decks only to be delivered to the main line station to discover they'd missed their booked train and were having to stand all the way back to Westbury where they had to be put into a taxi back to their home TransWilts station because the last northbound TransWilts line train of the day had long departed.

I loved the series of books when I was a kid but recently I was with my niece and her four and two year olds when I saw in a Toys 'R Us store a Five Go Adventuring book with the word 'BREXIT' in the title to which i remarked to my niece, "Gosh, is Enid Blyton still alive and writing."

Agree, I can see why they are doing it because their franchise will be ending soon.

I stand by what I say that trying to promote people to leisure travel, particularly at weekends, right now is a bad move because of so much engineering work taking place leading to less services (overcrowding) or buses. That's of course if the service actually runs due to lack of train crew.

Also the advert is slightly misleading showing a sleek IEP when you are most likely to end up on a 40 year HST for the next year or so. Okay if you are travelling First class which is great on a HST.

All in all a waste of money on an advert that does not show the reality right now. But if that's what First want to spend their money on that's up to them.

That could have come straight out of the TV series W1A.  Brilliant (and I do so love that series, W1A that is!)  ;D

Myself also and yes it was a straight crib from W1A  ;D

OOH = Out of hours, yet another reason for cancellations due to driver shortage.......Five go mad and wished they'd driven or taken the coach instead! 😃

From an internal communication...

'Look out for our spiffing new ad being shown on ITV during Cannonball on Saturday night and Victoria on Sunday night...'

Seriously, they used 'spiffing'?

It fits with the Famous Five theme.....

Of course.

For frequent posters - a further thread at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18751 For those who are not frequent posters, this is an area of the forum for background discussions that are of a nature not suitable for general public availability.   We welcome new members, who after a few posts on the public boards will have access to Frequent Posters, the Rumour Mill, and "And Also" - interesting boards, even through they comprise less that 5% of the Coffee Shop content.

https://www.gwr.com/AdventuresStartHere (https://www.gwr.com/AdventuresStartHere)

SWR have got their new TV advert just right. Simple, straightforward, unpretentious, no blowing ones own trumpet, and without misappropriating we'll loved cultural icons.

Maybe, but the only bit of variable income FGW has any influence over is that earnt by getting the extra seats filled as soon as possible after they are introduced. 

The 20% extra capacity is predicted to be used up within 6 or 7 years due to the general growth in rail travel.  The income generated from it will have already been factored into the franchise bid.   First only makes extra profit by increasing passengers carried ahead of the predictions which means within the first year of so of the new stock (and the last year or so the old franchise).  A cynic would say that if they carry a couple of thousand people now before the new capacity arrives then that is income straight to the bottom line even if the customers never travel again due to overcrowding. 

I can never quite get my head around:-

1. There's overcrowding so we are going to introduce more capacity.
2. We've introduced more capacity so we are now going to go all out to fill it.
3. Oh look, we've got overcrowding again...

That is how the franchise system is incentivised.  The cost of providing the extra capacity and the revenue from filling the extra capacity are all reasonably predictable and therefore costed into the franchise bid on which the ToC reckons on making a small profit margin which is only just enough to make it worth bidding for the franchise.  The only way to make more than a minimal profit is to run the trains overcrowded or to slash the only costs over which the ToC has control (ie staff numbers).  Both approaches can backfire in the long term, but when you've only got a short franchise why should you care?  It isn't like the departing franchisee sells the business on to the next franchisee which would incentive long term investment leading to an increase in the value of the business.  Even if the franchise is successful and you get to keep it for the next franchise term, the calculations are all rebased so the government captures the result of your hard work.  I think the system is called "pretend capitalism"