Great Western Coffee Shop

Eight Years of Great Western Railway - on this day, 15th September 2015

What has been achieved under the GWR branding, and what has failed?

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The biggest failure has been the 769s and all the stock problems that has caused. Are they going to repeat it with the 230s if expected to work elsewhere other than Greenford? Why buy all those extra cars of S stock?

Any tool that is designed to do two or more jobs rarely does one best.

The 387 emu has been a success limited by only where it can go due to cut backs in electrification.

The Electrostars have been a massive upgrade but the introduction of the Elizabeth line has resulted in many commuters seeing little improvement in journey times due to long dwells at Reading and the effective removal of GWR services at some stations.

But the biggest failure, which I think is true of all long distance providers, is the failure to address the leisure market, especially the premium sector. The demise of decent first class seats and catering has resulted in something which more resembles a commuter experience and not that of a service which will draw people from their cars.

LNER's approach to the provision and selling of their services, including 1st, is very different to that which GWR is able to take - and for some reason Hitachi tend not to send LNER trains into service with unclean exteriors. Perhaps it is that the Hitachi - LNER relationship is set up in a different way.

Mark

I have to say that I haven’t really noticed any great problems with the general exterior cleanliness of the IET fleet.

The leisure market is *booming*  ??? ??? At weekends at least & is actually beating the peaks on Monday & Friday  ::)
There would very quickly be overcrowding complaints if they were to attract many more out of their cars.

Unclean IETs - I haven't seen (m)any & neither is there a thread of complaint on here about any?  ???

There was an issue with some carriage washers and how they cleaned IETs in 2019ish.  Some sets were notably dirty when in service and windows not the clearest.   Adjustments were made and the presentation visibly improved. 

Four year's ago, then? Time to forget something that minor, I reckon.

Failure to address staff shortage issues, especially on Sundays, over many years when it was within their gift to do so.

What's that got to do with carriage washers?  ??? ::)

Nothing whatsoever. I was addressing Graham's original question.

I missed this – Happy Birthday, Coffee Shop!

Not so much the Coffee Shop as GWR.   But I have been very much aware that the forum has been running under First Great Western rather that Great Western Railway.   Here are a couple of screen shots from some work I've been doing in the background.  And, yes, I am aware that "Great Western Railway" may change to "Great British Railways", or local operations such as "Wecatrains" as the next phase.

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Looking back on the original question posed by Graham

"What has been achieved under the GWR branding, and what has failed?"

- can anyone provide a list of the achievements?

In amongst the horror of the current unreliable service issues, there are / have been a number of good steps too.  Starting very locally, I look to the all day, every day service we have timetabled, with trains which have sufficient capacity and are safe.  Looking further afield, Okehampton, Portway Parkway and others are achievements, as are service frequency increases down to the tip of Cornwall and other improvements such as Cheltenham Spa services via the Stroud Vallley now mostly running to London.   We have seen new trains coming online on the main line services which are electric for some of their distance.

How much of this is because of the rebranding?  I don't know the answer to that; there is some pride and a great deal of promotion in the brand which has, in the extraordinarily and unplanned events of recent years - I'm thinking Covid especially - been a flag around which people have been able to rally with pride.   We joked at the famous five adverts when they started - I will admit - but they and the green and the GWR have become synonymous with train travel in our area, and in hindsight I comment the people at GWR - FGW as it was know when the planning was made - for their decision to go with the new brand.

Yup, quite a few steps forward (which tend to get forgotten like late trains along the North Cotswold Line and a much improved service for Llanelli and Carmarthen), but quite a few steps backwards as well.

Although obviously not something for which GWR bears much, if any, direct responsibility I rather think the failure to complete electrification to BRI - both possible routes - and SWA should be on the -ve list. Perhaps the GWR powers-that-be could have argued the case more strongly?

On the +ve side the Devon Metro service has to get a mention even if the programme started in pre-GWR times. 

Add Didcot to Oxford to that list! I imagine that the powers that be might read a representation from First Group/GWR and then ignore it in the light of the message from the Treasury via DfT and ORR.....