Great Western Coffee Shop

Critical rail services protected in new deals for GWR and Southeastern

Vital connections between the South of England and Wales ensured during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Published 30 March 2020

• government signs new contracts with Southeastern and GWR to ensure vital train services continue to connect the South of England and Wales during COVID-19 outbreak
  
• new agreements with Govia and First will ensure that those who need to can continue to travel and will provide certainty for staff working on the railways
• long-term capacity improvements have also been agreed as part of the contracts

Dear Graham
 
I wanted to drop you a quick note to confirm that FirstGroup and the Department for Transport (DfT) have signed a new Direct Award to continue operating GWR from 1 April 2020, when the current agreement comes to an end.  This will run for three years, with the option for the government to add a further year and will run concurrently with the six months Emergency Measures Agreement now in place with the DfT. 
 
This will mean we can use our experience of managing the route over many years to keep the railway running for key workers and essential travel. Our responsibility right now is to run a service that can be relied upon, and this is where our current focus lies.
 
It is also important to take a moment to look forward to a time when things return to normal, once the current crisis has abated. It will be essential for the local, regional and national economy that we are ready to support our customers, our stakeholders and our communities as they begin to rebuild.
 
The new franchise will allow us to build on the radical changes we have made over the last ten years.    It will not be a stand-still franchise. We will have a full programme of investment in our stations, in our services and in our communities, and over the coming weeks I will send more details of our plans.
 
I did not want this day to pass without sending a personal thank you for all your help in getting us to this point. We really value the support given by our stakeholders and partners and we look forward to continuing to work with you.
 
Best Regards
 
Matthew Golton

PS – If you missed the DfT media release you can read it here
 
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/critical-rail-services-protected-in-new-deals-for-gwr-and-southeastern

From my mailbox ... copied here in spite of saying "personal thank you" as I suspect that Matthew has written to quite a number of people, who, yes, he has personally worked with in partnership over the years and I hope we can continue to do so for years ahead.   There is an excellent team of rail professionals at GWR and together we can help them tackle the challenges ahead.

I've been advised the 3 years will commence when the current emergency timetables revert to normal.

These agreements will run concurrently with the emergency measures agreements announced earlier this week which will see the government temporarily take on the revenue and cost risk associated with individual franchises. These measures ensure that key services will keep running across the UK.

Great Western Railway, owned by FirstGroup, has been awarded a direct award for 3 years, extendable to 4. Southeastern, owned by Govia, has also been awarded a direct award for up to 2 years.

The agreement has a strong emphasis on improving regional connectivity, helping customers return to the railway by making rail a more convenient and environmentally-friendly way to travel. As part of this, GWR will bring additional trains into service to provide thousands of extra seats on regional routes across the network.
There will also be increased funding to improve services for local communities and at stations, and the introduction of a combination of new flexible ticket products for customers who do not commute to work every day, such as discounted part-time season tickets and the extension of paperless pay-as-you-go schemes.

The regulatory statement  (https://otp.tools.investis.com/generic/regulatory-story.aspx?newsid=1382816&cid=858)from First Group gives a few more hints of detail, although not much.

Coronavirus: 'Decisive action' taken on rail contracts

Two train operators have been given new franchises by the government to "provide certainty" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Great Western Railway (GWR) has a new three-year deal, while Southeastern has been awarded a two-year contract.

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52096200


Do we agree it was decisive action, or a final 48 hour panic - "geeze - we gotta do something"?

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52096200


Do we agree it was decisive action, or a final 48 hour panic - "geeze - we gotta do something"?

Well, having suspended the franchises and introduced these Emergency Measures Agreements, they could possibly have put it off. However, if they asked one of their lawyers whether that might lead to problems, the answer was probably "ooh, it could - come back when I've thoroughly read the franchise agreement". So the EMAs would not have bought extra time, they'd be out of time already.