In researching something else came across
the Greater Western Franchise announcement in the National Archives. Some interesting stuff
The franchise has been awarded on the basis of the specification of the original ITT▸ , consulted upon by SRA» /DfT» Rail Group this summer, which included the following service improvements:
additional peak stopping trains between Paddington and Slough running every 30 minutes;
additional morning and evening peak services at Twyford, Maidenhead and Slough;
a regular hourly service between Westbury and London Paddington;
Reading ^ Gatwick Airport off-peak services doubled from hourly to half hourly;
New cross-Bristol, with through trains between Worcester and Taunton, Cardiff to Westbury/Southampton/Weymouth and Weston-super-Mare to Filton.
In addition, the following changes to the original specification have been agreed with the Franchisee;
The London-Cardiff (and vv) off-peak half-hourly service is retained;
A London-Penzance overnight service is retained and simplified with the separate Plymouth portion removed ( the service will continue to call at Plymouth in both directions but will not have a dedicated sleeping coach);
the current level of off-peak mainline stops at Slough will be retained. Slough branch line stops will be retimed to co-incide with mainline stops to/from London, thereby improving connectivity. The performance risks of stopping on the main line at Slough will be mitigated through robust timetabling and this approach has been agreed with Network Rail;
in order to maintain London connections with off-peak stops at Slough (above), the Windsor ^ Slough services will remain a half-hourly service as now (20 minutes in the peak hours);
6 trains per weekday on the Oxford-Bicester line, with realistically timed peak hour services;
faster journey times between London and Cheltenham;
The quantum of off-peak Didcot calls will remain as current;
A daily direct Frome-London return service is introduced;
Better connections with mainline services from the branch lines in Devon and Cornwall;
A direct 1 train per day London-Newquay service will only operate in the high peak of summer (July/August). Due to current track quality it is not possible to introduce a year-round service initially, however DfT, First Group and Network Rail will work together to deliver a year-round service in the future if possible.
In many cases these changes address specific issues raised by stakeholders during the consultation which took place this summer.
