MOVED: No FGW to Hereford ??

Hi, Bathgreenpark9f, and welcome to the forum.

You and I have been in correspondence as to why a thread with a "Scary Subject" has been moved into the Rumour Mill, and why that Rumour Mill isn't public readable. I'm disappointed that I didn't make myself clear in my email to you when I suggested you post your concerns here - I was talking about your concerns with regards to the Hereford services, rather than about our decision to have a board called "Rumour Mill" - I understood you appreciated the reason for that, writing "OK thanks , understand this, ..."

OK ...

1. On the "Rumour Mill"

On occasions, posts are made on the forum which cannot be substantiated and which are of questionable accuracy, or which are taking a "reductio ad absurdum" line. If these posts were to remain generally viewable to guests, or to users who hadn't yet been around here long enough to appreciate the pinch of salt with which they should be taken, then we would be doing a disservice to such readers by mixing fact with what's potentially fiction, to the dilution of our usefulness. So we made a decision to move such posts - while they remain in question - to a more secure area where (for example) they won't be indexed by Google, nor read and taken as gospel by visitors casually browsing the site.

The threads in the Rumour Mill are available to any member of the forum. You just need to complete enough posts to take you over a threshold which will (amongst other things) confirm your understanding of the posting guidelines, and just what posts in these extra areas mean. I may have inadvertently mislead you into thinking the Rumour Mill was an "invite club" by saying I could promote you into it after just a couple of posts. However, that was an extra concession and the board is open to all members subject only to the threshold of experience.

2. On "No FGW^▸ services to Hereford".

Ah - the title is rather too provocative. Under the ITT^▸ (paused in October), the specification is for number of services calling at various places - including Hereford. It was rather less prescriptive than the current franchise, so (in theory) allowedfor all sorts of scenarios at the commercial choice of the operator. You'll see threads elsewhere talking about Portsmouth - Cardiff services being split at Westbury, with a Portsmouth - Westbury service meeting a Westbury - Bristol service end on, and then yet a different service Bristol - Cardiff; in theory, that would have been possible. With the Brown report suggesting a move back to more prescriptive specifications, I suspect that the thing will be rewritten in due course without the crazier options.

I want to post this fairly fast so that I don't leave you hanging around ... maybe another follow up in a few minutes.

Addition / Edit - checked the thread. No change. In summary "The fact remains that the Greater Western franchisee is required as a minimum to serve Hereford to/from Worcester. Realistically that is going to mean services to/from London for operational and revenue reasons. Even if there were connecting services they can't be farmed out to another operator and the connection must be no greater than 20 minutes."