FGW's new coach-lettering system...

[allypally]

First Great Western knew the issues when they took over the franchise and they failed to cover them.

If they didn't like what the DfT proposed they shouldn't have bid.

[MoonKid47]

First Great Western knew the issues when they took over the franchise and they failed to cover them.

If they didn't like what the DfT proposed they shouldn't have bid.

FGW is a shambles of a TOC. I think they should be given 1 month to turn around and make changes or risk loosing their franchise. But with the DfT like they are that probably wont happen...

[gblandford]

I took the 15:01 FGW train from Exeter to paddington. I was in coach B which should of been a standard class coach. For some strange reason Coach B was a first class coach converted to a standard class coach. this caused problems as expected.

[WSR2005]

The last time I travelled on an FGW train was a HST Paddington - Taunton. We had a pre-booked ticket, specifying our seats in the carriage. In the end, none of the seats in that coach had our number on them, so we just took up some unused seats.

The Adelante on the way up wasn't too bad however

Tim

[XPTE]

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/LiveUpdateList.aspx

Judging by the service updates on their website, there seems to be a lot of "train faults" with FGW. I look on there every day out of habit, and there's allways train faults. With services to Great Malvern terminating early at Worcester Shrub Hill seeming to be the most common.

Also a lot of Weston Super Mare-Filton Abbey Wood seem to get terminated early at Bristol Temple Meads for apparantly no reason atall.

[Pompeyfan]

you lot make me sick.
its taken over the running of a regional opperation thats far from simple given the mess that wessex left it in,

can't agree with that at all.if you can tell me where wessex were not good i might consider changing my opinion. for example wessex were using 3 car 158s all through the day with special timetabled loco hauled services to brighton. they started a mini interior refurb that was very good and comfy and made local links. such as exmoor explorer and others. most trains exterior was clean and tidy and the inside was up to the same level.

the local trains also ran to time for most of the time. the only problem i had was them using 2 car 158 on the 07:49 & 15:24 P2P. when i complained via their website i got a resonable explanation

[y2flexy]

First Great Western knew the issues when they took over the franchise and they failed to cover them.

If they didn't like what the DfT proposed they shouldn't have bid.

FGW is a shambles of a TOC. I think they should be given 1 month to turn around and make changes or risk loosing their franchise. But with the DfT like they are that probably wont happen...

Didn't DfT strip Connex of it's franchise? could happen!

[salopiangrowler]

I think the DfT are looking into First's GW franchise. Why else would they Give NEG the East coast for 7.5 years

FGW made promises, Like tony blair, failed to deliever 99% of them.
FGW had plans, Alice (Alison Forster CEO) in wonderland, it was only a dream
FGW got more trains, couldnt run them
FGW refurbish trains, only to see the new MTU's going up in flames now and then

if FGW were stripped of the franchise i could see Virgin getting it as an apology from the DfT for loosing the VXC franchise.

[BR7MT]

if FGW were stripped of the franchise i could see Virgin getting it as an apology from the DfT for loosing the VXC franchise.

That is highly unlikely as Virgin were not one of the original bidders for the Greater Western franchise back in 2005.

Regards,

Dan

[6rdfar90]

Well, I think Virgin would do a better job of it regardless

[mattvince]

Any refranchising would be open to all bidders, not just those shortlisted for the previous franchise bid. In any case, DfT purport to make rigorous examinations of all bids, so whoever puts what in whatever bid has just as much chance of tickling the DfT's fancy as any other. Unfortunately, I don't think any bidder can pull any canny tricks out of the bag - there isn't the scope to do so, now that all the 'desirable' regional DMUs have been snapped up (ie Class 158s), the Pacers are likely to last as long as they did last time they went West, and there isn't anything, other than 14 Class 180s, to work the IC routes. PIE is at least a decade away, so no scope for new stock on IC routes in the interim, and DfT isn't prepared to think about electrification until 2015-ish. So there really is a huge mess, which isn't really solvable with just a change of shareholders, directors and a rebranding exercise, no matter how good the bid is on paper. Greater Western is perhaps too big to manage as a single entity - splitting it back into constituent parts (IC Great Western, Thames Valley, 'Wessex', or combinations of the above) is an option worth considering.