GWRF2020-02 Splitting the current franchise area into two franchises

[whole diary]

[bobm]

The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Spotlight piece referred to by member woody in Across the West is available here.

Contains a short clip of the Secretary of State's "announcement" and some of the background.

[grahame]

The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Spotlight piece referred to by member woody in Across the West is available here.

Contains a short clip of the Secretary of State's "announcement" and some of the background.

Also very interesting that the Secretary of State has "absolutely no intention of reducing services to the South West" under the Cross Country Franchise.  So that's good news for Paignton, Bath and Newquay, right?

[IndustryInsider]

An almost universally unpopular idea.  Which makes the fact the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) didn’t opt for it somewhat surprising.

[bradshaw]

Having listened to the full recording of the Commons Transport Committee, I felt that one interpretation was that there would be an increased service to the South West BUT I am not sure he specified Cross Country was operating it.
It could be that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would provide the service connecting out of the Cross Country trains.

[paul7575]

The 2015 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) franchise refers to the Devon and Cornwall GWR mainline service being 2 tph except in those early and late hours where certain extended services eg to/from Penzance would remain operated by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)).  In other words the overall service offer was a combined effort.

Then the very latest XC consultation (which is still ongoing) was proposing removal of  those off pattern XC services but they’d have been replaced by the local TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), in the case of Penzance:

West of Plymouth to Penzance: Great Western Railway (GWR) are enhancing service provision by introducing two trains per hour between Plymouth and Penzance from December 2018. This enhancement gives passengers west of Plymouth better journeys and connections. Cross Country services are early in the day eastbound and at the end of the day westbound, and some could potentially be covered by a longer operating day by GWR. (Note that we are not proposing any changes to the Summer Saturday-only services to Newquay).

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/714761/cross-country-passenger-rail-franchise-public-consultation.pdf

In the south they were proposing cutting back from Bournemouth to Southampton as SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) were adding more trains to Bournemouth.  Hopefully that’s been binned as well.

[bobm]

Swindon Advertiser - first with the news..... http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/16402303.railway-franchise-will-remain-intact/