Great Western Coffee Shop

I chanced upon a select committee evidence session on BBC Parliament late last night, which was on the subject of the railways. The transcript is at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmtran/uc219-i/uc21902.htm

Some interesting tit-bits if you have better things to do of an evening than plough through it all.

Q138 Chairman: What about the rolling stock? When we talk about Intercity 125s, are they the only ones that are approaching life expiry?
Dr Harrison: No. I can certainly give you experience from Devon where we have been the unfortunate recipients of Acer trains cascaded to Devon from the north of England. I can see some Members may have experience of these trains. We are disappointed firstly to have them replacing more suitable rolling stock but secondly to note that the White Paper suggests that they will be replaced some time towards the end of the next decade. In other words, we believe that there is a case for more local train units as well as replacement high speed trains.
Q134 Chairman: Are there other areas of the country where, if there was a rebalancing in favour of the passenger, we would get that?
Dr Harrison: I am confident that there is suppressed demand at locations across the UK, either suppressed demand through lack of train capacity or through lack of frequency.
Q135 Chairman: Give us an example.
Dr Harrison: I briefly mentioned earlier the Portsmouth to Cardiff route where the franchise specification has reduced the train capacity from mainly three coach trains to mainly two coach trains. There are people who will not go travelling on the route now because they are not sure whether they are going to get on a train or get a seat. Colin earlier referred to our role in local transport planning. As local authorities, we are very keen to promote modal shift. There is an increasing demand for transport and we cannot do it by building more highway capacity. Therefore, it is a fundamental part of our planning and national, spatial planning that we should invest in alternative modes of transport and rail is obviously an example. 

It was a shame that much of the session was taken up discussing the reasons behind the Rugby fiasco. 

Although Dr Harrison's point is very valid, I (as you know) get very annoyed when I read comments like this. The franchise specification did NOT reduce the train capacity, but the franchise agreement between the DfT and FGW DID.

When I raised this issue with Insider (who is by necessity a mainly pro-FGW commentator) , he largely agreed (link below.)
http://indefenceoffirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/2007/11/answering-some-questions.html

Well, a little birdie told me that FGW were PLANNING to run services from Bristol at 160% full from DEC 2006 in peak hours!

Still doesnt change the validity of my point. The SRA/DfT didnt specify the capacity reductions, FGW included them in their bid.

The DfT then accepted the bid on that basis, as it closely matched the background work conducted by Jacobs Consultancy, and thus the result that the DfT obviously wanted.

Therefore, both parties are at fault, not just one.