Great Western Coffee Shop

Just had an email from First saying that they are withdrawing the popular service 100 Swansea - Cardiff shuttle and replacing it with a new greyhound coach service.

The new route starts operating from 20th september &   there are a few changes to the timetable and i have been told that the service could be extended to London  if  the services does well.

As for the London extension i think there may be demand from Swansea since most of the National Express services & the Megabus services from to/from Cardiff & only 3 national express services start from Swansea.

Another suggestion that some people have put forward is to provide a fast service from South wales to Bristol which stops at the Cribbs Causeway

Um...err... a coach service operated by First in competition with a train service operated by.... um.... First. Has Mr Lockhead gone mum n dad?

It's good to see that Greyhound are proving to be successful if they are expanding :)

Perhaps they are attempting to drive passengers away from the trains so they can axe the (apparently little used) Cardiff terminators.

(a) How do you drive passengers away from the Cardiff terminators (which I strongly suspect are a franchise requirement) by providing a competing coach service between Cardiff and Swansea?
(b) The Welsh Assembly Government is, you may have noticed, rather pro-rail. Can you even begin to imagine the sh*tstorm that would emanate from Cardiff Bay at the first little whisper of the Intercity train service from the capital of Wales to London being cut by 50%?
(c) And last but not least, who on earth told you they were little used? I can only assume you've never got on one of them. Don't just drop in unsourced comments like that without some kind of background justification!

Honestly Btline sometimes I do wonder where you dream up this stuff from  ;D :-X

  Maybe First Group are looking longer term.

  Perhaps when they might no longer have the Great Western franchise, but then providing an
  alternative to rail.

 

I have found the services from London paddington which terminate at Cardiff Central to be rather well used. There are some times on saturdays especially where an hourly service isn't enough.

In fact i think that the London services should in fact all run through to Swansea instead of terminating at Cardiff  providing a 15 minutely service when combined with the local stopping services between the 2 cities

Why? Passenger numbers thin out significantly beyond Cardiff as it is, except during rush hours. Hardly a robust justification for doubling the frequency of the FGW trains.

Not to lose sight here of the initial subject, the shuttles service in South Wales is well patronised and has been running well before First (or even Badgerline for that matter) had any involvement in the Great Western franchise. It can be argued that the coach and rail markets are different as some people will travel on one but not the other. It's also worth noting that First may also wish to make it conveniant to customers who wish to travel to the likes of Cribbs Causeway as it is difficult to get there from Wales without a car. The main competition would be National Express and as long as First have the contract they will not go for the London market, but given how First have lost a number of NX contracts recently this may be a possibility. If it makes money then it will happen.

I have read on this forum (I think) several times that the Cardiff terminators are least used and that they were added by FGW, not as a commitment. Of course, all that could be untrue.

Where?!?!?!?!? Help us out here, give us a link or some other kind of clue  :)

The Cardiff terminators are a Service Level Commitment in the Franchise Agreement:

(b) Seven services shall be provided from London Paddington so that
together with services specified in paragraphs 2.1(a) and 2.1(b) a halfhourly
interval service from London Paddington to Cardiff Central
shall apply between 0700 and 1930. One further service may be
provided during the day.
(c) Nine services shall be provided from Cardiff Central so that together
with services specified in paragraphs 2.1(c) and 2.1(d), a half-hourly
interval service shall apply between Cardiff Central and London
Paddington between 0530 and 1830.

The services 'specified in paragraphs 2.1(x)' are those to and from Swansea.

Source:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/publicregister/current/fgw/fgwcommitment1.pdf