Great Western Coffee Shop

Some of the questions answered by Insider may be ones you have wondered about but have never asked so worth taking a look:

http://indefenceoffirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/

I'm glad Im not the only one who isnt a big fan of the FGW website. Time for a change me thinks FGW  :)

Indeed. I have taken the opportunity to ask some of my own (link below.)
http://indefenceoffirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/2007/11/answering-some-questions.html

Some good ones at that as well.

Here are Insider's replies to my questions (link below) :
http://indefenceoffirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/2007/11/answering-some-questions.html

"Lee, you are quite correct, I did mean the ITT rather than the SLC. D'oh.

We did, however, underestimate demand on some of our routes, leading to Alison Forster's apology in the National press. The DfT were a bit bitchy to be so hard and fast about it, but we screwed up and that was their perogative.

We also made some bad decisions, such as the one you mention involving the Stroud Valley. Hopefully, we can put some of them right.

With regard to your questions, in the first year of the franchise, FGW undertook somewhere in the region of 75 million passenger journeys. It's not really possible to determine how mnay individual passengers that translates to, but it gives you some idea. We've been in the second year of the franchise for approx 7 months now and passenger journeys have grown. I would estimate that we are on track for around 80 million or so but I canm't really be more specific.

Stops have been removed at Malvern Link because of a chnage in the service pattern of Worcester to Taunton services (or so I'm told by someone very eager to give me the brush off). Doesn't make much sense to me, so I'll try and get a more reasoned explanation."