Great Western Coffee Shop

BBC Radio Wiltshire, Matthew Smith interviewed Julian Crow and Chris Irwin at 08:25 last Wednesday (11th May).  My notes (may be some typos / missed words - send me major corrections) and my bolding too.

Matthew Smith: Julian Crow is here who is the Regional manager in these parts. Why end the contract now?

Julian Crow: Ends in 2013 - is just option to extend if we wish . Not going to go along with the option, but go along with coalition govt policy which we have always supported by seeking a longer franchise - 15 or 20 years as opposed to just 7.

MS: Why not see out the whole franchise and renegotiate during that term?

JC: Well - we are seeing out the rest of the franchise.

MS: But not the whole 3 years.  The question is what's  going to happen in the intervening 3 years for passengers.

JC: There will be a new franchise competition in 2013 and passengers will see that. The reason we're doing this is the unprtecendented level of investment that is going into Great Western over the next 10 years and we've got massive projects such as electrification and resignalling. We've got new trains coming in  and we've got the rebuilding of Reading station, we've got crossrail and we believe that the best way to manage those projects and to take a longer term view of the development of the rail network across the West Country is with a new longer franchise

MS: Isn't this because you're loosing money though and it's basically a financial decision

JC: The franchise is very different to the one we took on five years ago and I think what we're doing here is reacting to differing conditions and ??? to the Department of Transport and we believe that a longer franchise is the right way forward. We've made that announcement earlier than we needed to simply to give clairty to ???

MS: But you do have to pay the government a lot of money don't you to ??? this franchise - we're talking about 800 odd million pounds over the next few years

JC: It was an option and the world has changed quite a lot since then and I think it's our reaction to this massive amount of investment that's going int the network and we've got a very good track record of developing First Great Western - you'll see very high passenger growth particularly on local services - services around Bristol. We want to be able to plan long term and keep that growth going.

MS:  OK - stay there for a moment. Also with me is Chris Irwin who chairs TravelWatch Southwest - one of the passenger groups. Whaty do you make of this announcement, Chris, and the effect it will have on First Great Western passengers?

Chris Irwin:  I think it was an expected announcement. Julian told a large part of the story jusyt now. I think he might have placed a bit more emphasis on the fact that in the next three years between 2013 and 2016 had the franchise gone ahead that First Group would have been expected to pay over a billion pounds in premium payments to the Treasury so the government's a bit out of pocket and thereby hangs a big worry. If the government suddenly finds it's going to be a billion pounds short in revenue the risk is that the new franchise will be specified / set out in a way that tries to claw some of that money back. Passenger groups, MPs, local authorities really need to worry to make sure that the next franchise is every bit as good and generous as the presnt franchise.

MS: And what is going to happen to the service then? Because this franchise negotition was due to happen but First are saying they're pulling out in 2013 - what will happen to the train service at that point?

CI: Oh at that point the train services will continue.  It's the government that specifies what train services are provided

MS: But who will run them though?

CI: Well Great western can be asked ... First group could be asked to carry on to December 2013 so there's a long time to go. If that doesn't happen then the Government has the right to put in its own management team. We're not talking about the staff. We're not talking about the trains. We're talking about who are the sharholders who are the top management providers of that service so trains will continue. The real question is under the new franchise will we gat as many trains as we have at the moment or fewer. At the moment, the big big problem we've got in this part of the world is there aren't enough trains around. There's overcrowding on a scale there isn't elsewehere in the country. We need more rolling stock; we need more rolling stock now. We can't afford to wait 3 years until we get it.

MS: Some new rolling stock was due to come in earlier, wasn't it?

CI: Indeed. And I think it's a real challenge to First Group to see if their heart is in the right place. Can they close a deal that they have been talking about with the government about bringing new rolling stock in, in the short term, to fill this gap.

MS: Bring in Julian Crow ... will you?

JC: We secured a deal with the Department for Transport last year for 30 vehicles to replace existing trains in our fleet. We're currently negotiating with them on some additional vehicles to the fleet particularly for the Bristol area to ease some of the crowding that Chris Irwin spoke about and I should say that we have been enormously successful in growing the business partiularly around the Bristol area.

MS: What do you say to passengers who just think that the service has got more expensive and that at peak times they still can't get a seat?

JC: The reason for the crowding ... I mean, we have brought additional rolling stock in to the franchise since we started it. The reason for the crowding is the huge number of extra customers, and growth around Bristol is running at over 10% a year so a lot of the additional rolling stock we need is to meet that growth and of course one of the things we wish to establish within the new franchise is a means of taking a long term view. And the other point I would just like to make is that goverment policy towards the railways has changed quite a lot since we took the original franchise up.

MS:  You took on a bigger franchise last time around - the Greater Western franchise - were you as First Group too ambitious in thinking that this could work knowing all the money that you had to pay to the government during the franchise?

JC: No, I don't think that's the case at all. I think times change, don't they, and we've seen a huge shift in government policy in favour of rail and we want to work with them to deliver improvements across the region and we think a new longer franchise is exactly the way to do that.

MS: You're not willing to pay a billion pounds over the duration of the current franchise and extend your option to 2016?

JC: The world has changed since then and it was only an option and that's the reason it was an option.

MS: What about plans for other services. There's been talk of you running more services between Salisbury and Swindon through the heart of Wiltshire and the trial for the summer.  Will that now go ahead?

JC: Yes, the trial for the summer will go ahead on a number of Sundays through the summer there'll be an extra service through from Westbury and Melksham into Swindon and a service back from Swindon though Melksham that goes down to Weymouth in the summer this year and of course we're also introducing a new through high speed train service from Trowbrdge and Bradford-on-Avon through to Paddington in the May timetable so we're continuing to develop services as best we can and really want to take a very long term view of taking the best way to develop rail services to support the economy of the region.

MS: OK - Julian Crow from First Great Western, Thank You.

Julian was at TravelWatch SouthWest yesterday.  In a long and illustrious career, he's been a keen advocate of rail travel, and a tremendous influence for positive growth - especially for some of the more minor services and lines - across the South West. He has represented the rail industry and his employers with an exceptional and infectious enthusiasm, even in some of the most difficult of circumstances.   Julian's easing off on his workload over the next few months, prior to retiring in the late spring / early summer, and his shoes will be very hard ones to fill.   I wish Julian all the very best for the future, and look forward to waving to him in his deckchair on the beach in Dawlish as we speed past on the train to Plymouth and Penzance, as he encouraged us to do in his public address to the meeting.

Anything significant from the meeting Chris (for which I sadly had to give apologies)?

Yes. I always found Julian a most reliable transport representative ( will not mention Highways Agency here in polite company   ;D - actually some good people there too).