No, this is about how we can deliver what we say we will on a more consistent basis, and enhance our offering where possible.

We recognise that we’re not delivering catering consistently or to the level we would like. This includes staffing levels of customer hosts which is something we’re looking to address – we have recruited a number of weekend customer hosts to improve our offer at weekends.

Unless a train is exceptionally busy, we shouldn’t be operating a static trolley and on the vast majority of services where we offer catering this isn’t what happens. 

We are reviewing our Food and Drink offer and we will keep you updated on progress.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), in common with other train operators continues to receive taxpayer subsidy.  This began during the pandemic and while rail passengers are returning, we still need DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) support to operate our services.  That subsidy needs to reduce, as part of our National Rail Contract we are therefore set a challenging, reducing budget. Our priority has been on protecting the timetable as much as possible.  We hold Local Transport Forums and seek local views on changes.  We are not planning any major changes in our next timetable.  That said, we have been given approval to trial additional direct services from Bristol to Oxford and we will also operate additional services in Cornwall once the Mid Cornwall Metro completes.  This follows the increase in services to Carmarthen (65 extra services a week) last year, a clear demonstration that we are able to both manage the budget and provide more rather than less services.

Fares and ticketing are primarily a matter for the DfT and the new Government has spoken about a “best fare guarantee” as part of their wider rail reforms including setting up Great British Railways.

Regulated fares are controlled by the DfT, and rises are usually based on RPI^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context)) for the preceding year. This would’ve meant an increase of 9% but government intervention capped this at 4.9%. Many of our customers on our long-distance routes do make use of Advance Purchase tickets, which offer substantial savings on the headline Peak or Off-Peak fares.

We have also worked with local partners on initiatives like our Cornwall and West of England Pay-As-You-Go (the first such schemes outside of London) which has introduced single-leg pricing, and we introduced a new Long Weekender ticket last year which allows off peak travel on peak services where customers opt to return on Mondays rather than Sundays.   There is still innovation in fares, we also recognise the need to simplify fares and that can mean removing ticket types that are lightly used. 

We have also been able to make station improvements and it’s incredibly exciting to have worked with local partners to open Ashley Down station just last week – the second new station to open in Bristol after Portway Park & Ride opened last year along with Marsh Barton in Exeter and Reading Green Park too. Work is developing well on Okehampton Interchange next to the A30 which will be the 200th station that GWR operates when it opens.

Each of these new stations was part funded by local Government. The West of England Combined Authority also funds the additional MetroWest services for Gloucester and Westbury, and Cornwall Council will fund Mid Cornwall Metro services when they start.   GWR has opened more new stations than any other train operator.  We work well in partnership, both with Network Rail, and the DfT, but also with our local and regional stakeholders.  Partnership can deliver great benefits and there is still more to come.

West of England Combined Authority investment continues with the Henbury line and hopefully the Portishead line too, as well as Charfield station in South Gloucestershire.

Work also continues on Network Rail’s development at Oxford, it has not been easy, but the benefits – in particular East-West Rail – will be huge, and as mentioned we are currently trialling our direct Bristol-Oxford service on Saturdays. This is the first-time direct trains have run between the two cities since 2003.

We’re also working closely with Network Rail on accessibility projects across the network, we know the importance of improving access to rail particularly for those with accessibility needs – this includes at Theale, St Erth and Tilehurst where installation is currently underway.

It would be remiss of me not to mention HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) and Old Oak Common; this is a huge project and the impact this year is being primarily felt on Sunday 17 Nov and 27-29 December when the lines between Ealing Broadway and Paddington will be closed to enable station construction work. We will be diverting some of our Devon/Cornwall and South Wales services to Euston instead of Paddington as well as the Night Riviera sleeper, with other services terminating at Reading or Ealing Broadway (full info available at www.gwr.com/christmas). These types of closure will take place at various points in the coming years, while the build continues and we’re planning for Euston diversions whenever the lines to Paddington are unavailable for an extended period. It should also be noted that at times during the construction there will be a reduction in access to London Paddington, where we will operate a two line railway (rather than four lines). This will be during late evening, overnight and on some weekends.  This may mean a reduction in services. We’re also working with the Department for Transport, Network Rail, HS2, Elizabeth Line and other industry partners on the impact on GWR services once the station build is complete in the early 2030s and HS2 services begin operating from Old Oak Common.

Regarding conversation of last trains and disruption - our Passenger Charter is available here https://www.gwr.com/about-gwr/our-business/passengers-charter

I think Daryn covered off in his spoken remarks - it's not that there's a shortage of drivers and guards in the business, but rather terms and conditions - as well as, for example, training requirements, engineering works etc - mean we do not always have the number of colleagues available to run our full service, particularly on Sundays.

You may be aware that most of our high-speed drivers and some on board crew do not have Sunday in the working week, and therefore in common with rail operators across the country, we are reliant on volunteer overtime.

This is also one of the reasons why we run a reduced number of services on a Sunday too. In recent years, all new GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers joining the business have a Sunday commitment, but it will take time or a change in terms and conditions before all drivers have that obligation.

It's welcome that ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) (the train drivers union) have accepted the Government’s offer of a pay deal, and this will bring to an end the industrial dispute that has been running since 2022.   The offer made by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) did not include any changes to terms and conditions.

On rolling stock we have DfT approval to discuss the potential to bring additional rolling stock into our fleet. Those discussions are taking place now and we hope to be able to give more detail on progress very soon.  This will increase resilience across our long distance, regional and local routes.

Longer term, the DfT have approved funding to allow us to set up a team to looking at the options for replacing our local and regional diesel fleets which are now some of the oldest trains in regular passenger use in Britain.  This offers the potential to introduce a new train that could operate on all our routes.  Our team are also looking at what infrastructure interventions would also be required to optimise use of any future fleet.

We did also step in and take on the trialling of Fast Track battery charging technology which is now being tested on our Greenford Branch.  This technology has the potential to transform battery train operation on branch lines in particular and we are proud of the role we are playing in the trials, which will be significant for the whole of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

IETs are around 3-4 more times reliable than HSTs - and performance is even better when operating under electric. It's worth noting the IETs do more than the HSTs were doing (eg hourly Cheltenhams, 2-hourly Carmarthens, and as noted above running on regional services too).

Any loss of life on the railway is tragic, and on the advice of Samaritans – who we work very closely with – this isn’t something we talk about much publicly as it can lead to more incidents.  You’re right that we do take our responsibilities seriously and as well as working closely with the British Transport Police and local Police forces we work very closely with the Samaritans. 

All of our frontline colleagues complete safeguarding training and there are some remarkable stories of our station and on-board team members going above and beyond in intervention and saving people’s lives. 

We also support initiatives like Samaritans’ Brew Monday which encourages people to talk about how they are feeling, helping others to identify if someone is feeling vulnerable or at risk.

On physical infrastructure, we’ve collaborated with Network Rail on getting prevention fencing installed at key stations in the Thames Valley, most recently completed at Maidenhead.


We also recommend the Samaritans’ excellent Small Talk Saves Lives campaign, which includes signs to look out for and suggestions for how members of the public might approach someone they believe may be vulnerable: https://www.samaritans.org/support-us/campaign/small-talk-saves-lives/how-to-start-a-conversation/. 

This modification programme is still ongoing, we have no more than 2 trains away at any one time to limit affecting our availability and ability to deliver our service.

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has given us permission to explore adding more trains to our fleet, no further news at the moment, but as soon as there is news we will share.

On IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train), earlier this year, Mark brought back Barry Milsom – who previously held my role in the Executive team – as Projects Director. Barry has been tasked with working directly with Hitachi on several key interventions through Project Unity.

I should start by saying we know some customers retain nostalgia for the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) but the data clearly shows that IETs are much more reliable – particularly when operating on electric – and our customer survey data shows a marked improvement in satisfaction compared to the HSTs too.  Not only that HSTs are very heavy diesel users and IETs are therefore more reliable, better serve our customers and better serve the environment.  They are a better train.

Our challenge remains getting the right number of vehicles into the right place each day.  That’s more complicated when there is disruption of course, and this is something that will improve as performance improves.

We have 93 IET sets, split between the 800 and 802 fleets, some of which are 9-cars, the rest 5-cars. We require 80 sets each day to run our planned service.  This leaves 13 spare for maintenance and to cover for those sets that we lose to damage and vandalism.

We have seen in recent weeks a real uptick in availability, and we’re now more regularly getting 80 sets we need each day.  If there was disruption the day before however some of those sets might not be in the right place at the right time – this can lead to services running with fewer coaches than planned especially at start up. Our team do all they can to avoid this, and will work throughout the day on set swaps to try to rectify the situation. And of course this is preferable to cancelling a service outright, but we know short formations can lead to busier services and a more uncomfortable experience for our customers. This is a key area of focus for the business and I’m confident we’ll continue to see improvement as the work continues.

I should say too that as a result of our National Rail Contract and the reduction in taxpayer subsidy post-pandemic, we did make the decision to reduce the size of our fleet, but to maintain the timetable improvements we made in 2019.  We could not have done that without the flexibility of the IET fleet, which allowed us to schedule more services as five cars, bringing IET services on regional routes like Gloucester-Bristol or our regional Cardiff services to the South West. We made these choices to protect the timetable and service frequency on the vast majority of our routes.

Clearly capacity is stretched and there are trains that are very busy.  We are working with the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) on the potential to bring more trains into the fleet and I will write a little more on our rolling stock strategy later.

Thanks for the question regarding Ashley Down, that is a very good point and I will make sure my team in Control is fully up to date with contingency plans including special stops where needed. It’s great to see the new station open (3000 journeys on Day One) and of course there’s so much more to come in the West of England with the Henbury line and (we hope) the line to Portishead.

Detail here in Network Rail's Wales & Western CP7 Delivery Plan (pg 10) https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Wales-and-Western-CP7-Delivery-Plan.pdf

You may be aware that last November, the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) opened an investigation into Network Rail and Thames Valley performance. The scope of this investigation has now been expanded to cover the entire Western route.  NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be reporting back to the ORR on their plans for improvement across the network, and they have put the first part of their plan into action.  This is Project Brunel with a focus on the Thames Valley and services into Paddington.

Forum members will know just how significant this bit of railway is, with all of our high-speed services using it. This means delays are felt not just locally but as far away as Cornwall and Carmarthenshire.

Performance has been improving on this vital section of line since the plan began implementation but we are still seeing too many disruptive issues, particularly with axle counters.

We have granted additional access and NR are working hard to make the most of all the opportunities for renewal and replacement.

Our business, and particularly my team in Train Service Delivery and Performance, will continue to do what we can to drive the improvements we all – customers, industry and Government – want to see.

We have also seen delays and cancellations, esp at weekends through crew shortages.  ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) have accepted the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) pay offer, but this does not include any T&C changes and Sunday commitments are therefore still new drivers only.