First Great Western 'struggling to meet demand'
First Great Western does not have enough carriages to cope with passenger demand and is seeking to renegotiate its £1.1 billion contract with the government, it has been claimed.
The train operator wants to reduce payments so it can obtain more rolling stock and claims it is overspending in order to accommodate commuters.
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First Great Western 'struggling to meet demand'
According to information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, FGW requested a review of its contract because at the moment it does not have enough capacity in the region.
FGW, in a presentation to the former rail minister, Tom Harris earlier this year, claimed the Department for Transport had put "substantial service cuts" into the service when it was renewed two years ago, and asked when it would be time for a review.
Timetable cuts on the new Cross Country franchise, operated by Arriva, were putting pressure on its own services and South West Trains had left "substantial gaps" in the West Country by withdrawing trains, FGW added.
FGW carries 79 million passengers a year and operates services between London and Bristol, Wales and the South West.
A rail industry publication has warned that without new stock, customers in and around Bristol could face ever more overcrowded trains or another round of fare increases as a result.
Nigel Harris, of Railway Magazine, said: "FGW does have some rolling stock of its own, but it's not like aircraft when they can lease stuff in as it's needed.
"A new carriage costs between £1.5 million and £2 million, you don't have that kind of capital just sitting around doing nothing.
"Demand for rail services is elastic but the need to provide stock for those services is not.
"This is a problem many of us have been warning about for years.
"FGW only really have two rather unappealing options.
"One is to allow rampant overcrowding, which upsets your customers, or you limit demand by putting the fares up, which is what British Rail did.
"But in the current climate that's not realistic.
"FGW cannot order new stock without government permission so they are then tied down."
FGW and its parent, FirstGroup, nearly lost the franchise this year after breaching its contract twice.
FGW misled passengers by under-reporting service cancellations in 2007, and then exceeded the threshold for cancelled trains in the second half of that year because of staff shortages, the DfT found.
Ruth Kelly, the then transport secretary, imposed a "remedial agreement" that cost the franchise owner £29m and forced it to buy more carriages, increase compensation payments to passengers and hire more staff.
Earlier this year, passengers proceeded to take their own action against the company in a one-day strike.
Fake tickets were handed out by campaigners from pressure group More Train Less Strain to commuters travelling from 20 stations to Bristol Temple Meads.
Dozens of passengers had their names and addresses taken by FGW staff for failing to pay fares for their journeys, instead showing them "Worst Late Western"-branded tickets.
A spokesman for FGW said: "We meet regularly with the Department for Transport and continue to discuss options to improve services to passengers across the South West."
5 Comments
by Andrew Meredith, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Sunday, October 19 2008, 7:41PM
“If they can't make the grade, sack them and get someone in place who can. The Western line is truly a licence to print money; if they are so incompetent that they can't turn a profit, for goodness sake don't bail them out!”
by matt, Bristol
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 9:19PM
“£2m is really not a lot at all.
Is it really beyond the wit of First Great Western to put together a business plan to show how a £2m carriage can be paid for.
One new style 2nd class carriage has 86 seats (these will be full as demand is currently exceeding supply), earning £48 per seat on off peak singles to and from london. Assumes the carriage will do the journey a minimum 3 times a day, every day.
86 x 48 x 3 x 364 = £4,507,776
Revenue of over £4.5 million in just one year for one carriage!!”
by Steve, Southville
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 5:22PM
“My heart bleeds for FGW, it really does.
Still making healthy profits though, aren't they.
Perhaps they should divert some of the dividend payments from their shareholders towards actually providing a half-decent service.”
by Anon, Bristol
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 3:28PM
“Perhaphs they could try replacing some of the First Class carridges that remain empty on most journeys between Bristol and London with Standard Class ones which are currently overcrowded? Surely this would help to alleviate the problem.”
by James, Bristol
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 12:28PM
“Firstly, I cannot believe that "a new carriage costs between £1.5 million and £2 million".
First Great Western signed up to this contract and a commitment to run trains. They should be responsible for leasing a suitable number of trains to run a decent service. FGW trains are a business, part of a massive multinational corporate group, and they should absorb any losses within the group ¿ without running for more money to the government, which this request for an altered contract is. We all know they won¿t make a loss ¿ a year ago when their service was so bad that there were weeks, or months, when hardly any trains actually ran properly and the government actually did resort to stern words they were still laughing all the way to the bank at the end of the financial year.
This does seem to be the no-risk strategy for these corporate times ¿ take home large salaries and massive pensions, take big risks, be largely unaccountable day-to-day to shareholders and run to the government when it goes wrong. And remember that the government is us, our representatives, and ¿we¿ are not only the tax payers but the other half of the population ¿ all the children, the vulnerable, the pensioners who don¿t pay taxes but rely on some of the government money to live day to day. It¿s our family credit, our pensions, our services and our national inheritance these corporations are after. That money is not only ours now, but it was ours when we were young and it would have been ours in the future.
Isn¿t it funny that RBS was yesterday bailed out by the government to the tune of a £20bn injection of capitalisation (and hundreds of billions of loans). RBS sold their massive train leasing business for a monumental profit earlier this year to fund their high-risk takeover of ABM Ambro. RBS¿s train leasing company was on their balance sheet, now it isn¿t and its being replaced with our money. ¿You don't have that kind of capital just sitting around doing nothing¿ is a very telling quote ¿ why haven¿t businesses got capital ready for the leaner times ¿ they¿ve sold it all off in greedy times, to be funded by the needy when they squeal. Make the rest of FirstGroup pay for First Great Western¿s risk on their earlier contract, before the public purse bails them out.”