Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
 No recent travel & transport from BBC stories as at 10:15 03 Apr 2025
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]		 15/04/25 - End, Rail Future consultation
15/04/25 - Everything Electric
16/04/25 - Walk from Chetnole
10/05/25 - BRTA Westbury

On this day
3rd Apr (1944)
Wick and Lybster Railway closed (link)
Train RunningCancelled
08:03 Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth
09:49 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
Short Run
05:40 Penzance to Cardiff Central
09:14 Didcot Parkway to London Paddington
•
PollsOpen and recent polls
Open to 06/04 17:34 Do you hold a senior railcard?
Closed 2025-04-02 How far do you walk on average per day?
Closed 2025-03-30 Would you take an extreme one day (leisure) trip, by air?
•
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
•
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
•
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
•
Train companiesSelect from:
GWR
SWR
XC
Chiltern
TfL
TfW
WMR
Southern
• Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple Meads • Bath Spa • Chippenham • Swindon • Didcot Parkway • Reading • London Paddington • Melksham
Exeter St Davids • Taunton • Westbury • Trowbridge • Bristol Parkway • Cardiff Central • Oxford • Cheltenham Spa • Birmingham New Street
April 03, 2025, 10:26:23 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[109] Daily Mile - coming to Melksham for April
[103] [OTD] Senior Railcard launched 1st April 1975
[53] Nottingham to Bristol TM open access service proposed
[49] On this day. South Australia's triple decker train experiment.
[47] [OTD] 2nd April 1962 - First Panda Crossing
[46] It's not the train that's the problem...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Great Western Coffee Shop > Sideshoots - associated subjects > Railway History and related topics > OTD - 4th February (1996) - First rail franchises take over
Pages: [1]
« previous next »
  Print  
Author Topic: OTD - 4th February (1996) - First rail franchises take over  (Read 1217 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43734



View Profile WWW Email
« on: February 03, 2022, 22:36:41 »
The very first rail franchise started in 4th February 1996 - Stagecoach for South West Trains and Great Western Holdings for the Great Western franchise which at that time was the intercity services - Thames Trains and the Wales and West frachises were awarded later.

South West Trains was modified to add in the Island Line; Great Westerns was taken over by First, and then Thames Trains and Wessex, which had split from Wales and West was added to it. Stagecoach lost the rebid in 2017 and First Group (70%) and MTR▸ (Mass Transit Railway, based in Hong Kong) (30%) took over.

I'm not sure I like the instability of changes - but then passenger numbers have grown over the 26 years like never befor, so can it all be bad?  Would it have grown all the better with more stability, or grown stale and not grown so much?
Logged
Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules via admin@railcustomer.info. Full legal statement (here).

Jump to top of page • Jump to Forum Home Page