FOSBR
Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways

Have your say on the new Great Western Rail franchise

Date: January 2012

A DfT (Department for Transport) consultation on the Great Western franchise (currently First Great Western) has begun. The new franchise will start in April 2013, and run for 15 years.

Theresa Villiers (Rail Minister) said: "This consultation launch represents an excellent opportunity for passengers to make their mark and tell us what changes they think should be made. This is their chance to tell us how train services can better serve passengers."

Support Bristol rail services and mention issues that we have highlighted in our response.

Take part in the consultation here.

Progress

On 17th January 2012 Councillor David Willingham – a FOSBR member - submitted a motion to the council which called for the council to ensure that they respond to the consultation for the new Rail Franchise. The motion received cross-party support and was passed unanimously. Amongst other things it stated that the franchisee should provide half-hourly services to existing and any new stations, new and sufficient rolling stock, four-tracking of Filton Bank, and the reopening of the Portishead line and the Henbury loop.

Tim Kent, Bristol cabinet member for Transport, subsequently announced that Bristol City Council have allocated funds to employ staff to work on the development of rail schemes for the franchise. We welcome this, although we are concerned that the council and the West of England Partnership should have been doing this years ago! We hope it is not too late!

Response from FOSBR

In our submission to the council, we urged the council and the West of England Partnership to show leadership in pressing the government and potential bidders to include the following in the new franchise:

  1. In line with the Joint Local Transport Plan, half-hourly services to all local stations must be written into the franchise. It is also important to ensure that these services also run to any future new stations, in order to ensure the franchisee cannot demand extra funding to stop at these stations.
  2. Half-hourly services should also run in the evenings. At present there is a 90 minute gap in the evening timetable on the Severn Beach line and there are insufficient local services from Temple Meads to Parkway at the weekend. There need to be earlier first trains and later last trains on local routes.
  3. As an absolute minimum, current service levels must be maintained. These are higher than the level specified in the current franchise. The current enhanced 40-minute service on the Severn Beach Line should be specified in the new franchise until infrastructure permits a 30-minute service.
  4. The four-tracking of Filton Bank is essential to ensure any improvements and that local services are not reduced in order to enable the new Bristol Temple Meads to London trains, via Parkway, that are proposed after electrification.
  5. There must be a requirement for integrated ticketing and for action to be taken to promote local stations such as Clifton Down and Lawrence Hill as local interchanges, both for changing trains and to connect with bus services.
  6. The rail line to Portishead must be reopened and, as elsewhere, an half-hourly service provided.
  7. There must be adequate revenue protection including spot checks at all local stations and staffed offices or ticket machines.
  8. Cycling facilities must be provided, such as safe route information, lockers and CCTV.
  9. The line between Avonmouth and Bristol Parkway, known as the Henbury loop, must be reopened, with a half-hourly service.
  10. If investment in the infrastructure required to ensure these services is not forthcoming from Network Rail, this should be the responsibility of the franchisee.
  11. New rolling stock must be provided to ensure the efficient operation of services.
  12. We hope that there will be electrification of local services, taking advantage of economies of scale.

Whilst we accept that the priorities are for half-hourly services on existing lines and the line to Portishead, plus new rolling stock to ensure this, we believe it is vital to aim higher and to ensure that nothing is done to prevent further improvements in the future, such as new stations, additional services or light rail.