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First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western LtdCopyright page of the FGW website detailing the companies legal name (retrived 15/07/06), a British train operating company owned by First Group, which operates services in the South West of England.

In 1998, the bus operator First Group acquired Great Western, along with its subsidiary North Western Trains (later First North Western), and re-branded it with its present name.

On 1st April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains combined into the new Greater Western Franchise. First were announced as the operator of the combined franchise in December 2005 for a 10-year period.BBC News report on the Greater Western franchise being awarded

Great Western Trains (1996 - 1998)

The company was formed as part of the privatisation of British Rail. As with all of the original franchises, Great Western was formed as a division of British Rail prior to the franchise being let. The sector consisted of the express services out of London Paddington to the West of England and South Wales. Instead of being franchised to an existing private company, this sector was instead bought by its managers and employees in 1996 (one of the first two to be privatised), who named the new company Great Western Trains Ltd. The name is derived from that of the earlier Great Western Railway, which served a similar, but larger, area.

Livery

The livery for Great Western Trains consisted of a ivory lower half and green top half, with the Merlin and 'Intercity' logos, later repaints ommited the Intercity logo

First Great Western (1998 - 2006)

In 1998, the bus operator First Group acquired Great Western, along with its subsidiary North Western Trains (later First North Western), and re-branded it with its present name.

In 2004–2005, 22.3 million passenger journeys were made on First Great Western, and passengers travelled 2,718 million kilometres, an average journey length of 121 kilometres.

Performance is improving, and in 2004-2005, 79.6% of trains arrived on time (defined as within 10 minutes of their scheduled arrival time).

Livery

The first version of the First Great Western livery (also known as fag packet by enthusiasts) was a modified version of the Great Western livery, with fader vinyls over the ivory, it also introduced a gold bar containing the First Group flying F and Great Western logos. The Powercars, carried the First Group Logo

When the Class 180 Adelante Units were delivered, they were painted in the intercity version of First Group corprate livery (known as Barbie). This consisted of a blue base, with purple and gold bars and large pink 'flying F's. The doors were painted white to comply with the DDA. The HST fleet was repainted to match as they went through overhaul, however the livery on the power cars has been altered, following problems with dirt build up on the large white areas.

The Expanded First Greater Western (2006 - Present)

On 1 April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains combined into the new Greater Western franchise. Three companies — First Group plc, National Express Group PLC, and Stagecoach Group— were shortlisted to bid for this new franchise. On 13 December 2005 it was announced that First Group had won the franchise BBC News report on the Greater Western franchise being awarded.

The new franchise has kept the name First Great Western. Originally, First planned to subdivide its services into the following three categories: First Group press release detailing sub brands

  • First Great Western Express - the original First Great Western route: London Paddington–Bristol–South Wales/Cornwall.
  • First Great Western Link - former Thames Trains services, that were merged into First Great Western before the Greater Western Franchise started. Local/commuter trains close to London.
  • First Great Western Local - former Wessex Trains services: regional trains in the south-west in and around Bristol, Bath, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall.
Following feedback from staff and stakeholders, the decision was taken to re-brand and re-livery all services as just 'First Great Western'. [http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/franchise/en/AdynamicNewBrand.php - Page from the franchise site confirming the abandonment of sub brands

Intercity Routes

First Great Western operate InterCity services to and from London Paddington. These are typically of the following frequency:

All long distance trains on the Great Western network will stop at Reading from December 2006 (as most do already). Swindon is currently served by all trains to Bristol & Cardiff, with Didcot stops by one train per hour on each route. Newport and Bristol Parkway are served by all South Wales services, meaning a train departs from London for Bristol every 15 minutes. Newbury, Westbury and Taunton are the most common stops for trains heading to the South West of England.

First Great Western also provides a limited number of intercity services to Paignton, Newquay (summer Saturdays and Sundays only), Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock (summer Saturdays only), Oxford, Worcester, and Hereford.

First Great Western operate a number of named passenger trains, including:

Intercity services are announced at stations fitted with the Great Western Customer Information Systerm as the 'First Great Western High Speed' services

Commuter Routes

First Great Western operate commuter services from Paddington Station to destinations such as Slough, Reading, Didcot, Oxford, Newbury, Bedwyn, Hereford, Worcester and Banbury. Train services are also provided from Reading to Basingstoke and Gatwick Airport via Guildford and Dorking Deepdene. Prior to April 2006 the franchise for commuter serverices, officially named Thames, was separate from the intercity services. Originally it was held by the Go Ahead Group, trading as Thames Trains, then the franchise was transferred to First Group, trading as First Great Western Link. In 2006 the Thames franchise was merged into the Greater Western Franchise and the Link suffex was dropped.

Local Routes

First Great Western run the majority of local trains in the South West.

Local trains run on north-south routes from Cardiff and Gloucester in the north and Weymouth and Brighton in the south to Bristol and Bath. The company also runs the local routes and branch lines in Devon and Cornwall, such as the Newquay, Exmouth and St Ives holiday lines.

For a fuller description of the routes operated by First Great Western, see the following links.

The company operated the last Motorail service, as part of the London Paddington–Penzance Night Riviera overnight sleeper service. However this was withdrawn at the end of the summer season in 2005

Management and operations

First Great Western have three major depots: Old Oak Common, two miles from Paddington; Laira, near Plymouth; and St Phillips Marsh, near Bristol Temple Meads, with smaller depots at Penzance, Landore and Exeter.

The current Managing Director of First Great Western is Alison Forster. Other directors are Glenda Lamont (Customer Service), Graham Boot-Handford (Engineering), Ben Caswell (Finance), Kevin Gale (Trains), Tom Stables (Commercial Services) and Dawn Murphy (Human Resources). The non-executive chairman is Sir Chay Blyth. Previous Managing Directors have included Chris Kinchin-Smith, Mike Carroll (who is now Managing Director of First Info, a subsidiary of First Group) and Dr Mike Mitchell (now Director General of Railways at the Department for Transport).

Rolling stock

  • Class 43 High Speed Train - Used for long-distance express services
  • Class 57 locomotive - Used for sleepers and Motorail
  • Class 180 ‘Adelante’ diesel multiple unit used for semi-fast services - (Required until the end of 2007 at latest - being returned to lease company once enough refurbished HSTs are available)
  • Class 143 - Two-coach Pacer railbus used on suburban services around Bristol (ex Wessex Trains)
  • Class 150 - Two-coach DMU used on most local services (ex Wessex Trains)
  • Class 153 - Diesel railcar used to strengthen services and on some branch lines (ex Wessex Trains)
  • Class 158 - Two-coach DMU (some three-coach, made of 1 and a half units) used on regional services (ex Wessex Trains)
  • Class 165 - Two- or three-coach Turbo DMU used on commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
  • Class 166 - Three-coach Turbo DMU used on longer commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
  • Class 360 - Four-coach EMU (being strengthend to five coaches) used on Heathrow Connect services (ex First Great Western Link, joint operation with BAA)

Greater Western franchise

Timetable Controversy

The draft timetable for the new franchise has been published on the Great Western website. The timetable is currently open to consultation, and features cuts to local services, especially in the West Country. A document leaked to The Times newspaper suggested the cuts were ordered by the Department for Transport. The DfT denied any such order had been made and tried to put the blame onto First Group.

Stock Cuts

In addition First have been unable to obtain extra stock for local services, as the DfT is refusing to underwrite the additional leasing costs (as required under the franchise regime) after forcing the leasing companies to supply Pacers at a dramatically reduced rate for use on West Country branch lines. This is despite the failed attempt to operate Pacers on the sharply curved branches in the 1980s. It is likely that some Turbos will be put into store, having been displaced on longer runs by HSTs. The three car Class 158s will be reformed as two-car sets

HST Refubishment

26 of Great Western's HST fleet are to be refurbished into a high density layout of mostly airline seats for services in the M4 corridor to Bristol and Cardiff, and to improve acceleration the buffet cars will be removed. The remainder will be refurbished with new seating (leather in First Class) and at-seat power points. Buffets will be retained for long distance services to Swansea and the West Country.

The contract to carry out the refurbishment of the coaches was awarded to Bombardier of Derby, with the first refurbished set due to enter service in November 2006. Bombardier press release (retrived 15/07/06)

The powercars are receiving new MTU engines. These are being fitted by Brush Traction of LoughboroughAngel Trains press release about the first production MTU powercars (retrived 15/07/06)

Livery

The new franchise will involve revinyling the HST fleet into First Group’s new 'dynamic lines' livery Photo of power car in new livery for Intercity services. A second livery will be applied to the DMU fleet. This is based on the names of places served by the franchise, much like the old Wessex liveries. An official mock up is on page 6 of this PDF

Notes

See also

External links

Post-privatisation British railway companies | First Group railway companies | First Group Companies

First Great Western | First Great Western | First Great Western

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "First Great Western".

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