Greater Western franchise
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Greater Western is a railway
franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
for the provision of passenger services from
London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...
to the
Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...
,
West of England West of England is a combined authority area in South West England. It is made up of the Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset unitary authorities. The combined authority is led by the Mayor of the West of England Dan N ...
,
South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...
and
South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
. The current holder is
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
.


History

In 2003, as part of a franchise reorganisation by the
Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for Rail transport in the United Kingdom, the railway industry. Its motto was 'Brita ...
, it was announced that the Great Western, Thames Trains and Wessex Trains franchises would be combined to form the Greater Western Franchise. This was part of a strategy to reduce the number of train operating companies providing services from a single London terminal, in order to improve efficiency and reliability. In April 2005, the Authority announced that
FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...
and
Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. In December 2005 the
Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
awarded the franchise to FirstGroup, with the services operated by
First Great Western Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the Greater Western passenger railway franchise. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-city ...
,
First Great Western Link First Great Western Link (FGWL) was a train operating company in England owned by FirstGroup that operated the Thames franchise from April 2004 until March 2006. History In April 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority invited FirstGroup and Go-Ahe ...
and
Wessex Trains Wessex Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the Wessex Trains franchise from October 2001 until March 2006, when the franchise was merged with the Great Western and Thames Valley f ...
transferred to
First Great Western Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the Greater Western passenger railway franchise. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-city ...
on 1 April 2006. The franchise was for ten years with the last three years being optional. Unusually this option could be exercised by either party; elsewhere these options are at the sole discretion of the Department for Transport. On 14 May 2011, First announced it would not be taking up the option, with the franchise to end on 31 March 2013, citing a desire for a longer-term contract due to the impending upgrade to the Great Western Main Line. In January 2013 the government announced the franchise competition had been cancelled, with the existing franchise extended until 12 October 2013 when it would be terminated. Negotiations took place with First in January 2013 for it to run the franchise on a management contract basis for two years.Rail franchising future programme
Department for Transport 31 January 2013
A two-year franchise extension until September 2015 was agreed in October 2013, and subsequently extended until March 2019. An extension to April 2019 was granted in March 2015. In 2016 an extension to March 2020 was announced on the First Group website, and this was confirmed by the government in November 2017, along with an intention to discuss with First a continuation until March 2022.


Cancelled 2013 franchise competition

Expressions of interest in bidding for the new franchise were called for in December 2011 and in March 2012 it was announced that
Arriva UK Trains Arriva UK Trains Limited is the company that oversees Arriva's train operating companies in the United Kingdom. It gained its first franchises in February 2000. These were later lost, though several others were gained. In January 2010, with th ...
,
FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...
and
Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
had been shortlisted to bid. The winner was to be announced in December 2012, with the new franchisee taking over in April 2013, however, it was announced in July 2012 that the franchise would be extended due to the late issue of the
invitation to tender An invitation to tender (ITT, otherwise known as a call for bids or a request for tenders) is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business ...
(ITT). The ITT was released at the end of July 2012, with bids to be submitted in October 2012, the winner announced in March 2013, and operations commence on 21 July 2013. However, in the wake of the
InterCity West Coast InterCity West Coast (ICWC) was a 1997–2019 railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (and branches thereof), between London Euston, the West Midlands, North Wales, Liverpool, Manchester, Carlis ...
refranchising process collapsing, the government announced in October 2012 that the process would be put on hold pending the results of a review. The new franchise was to have run for 15 years and seen the introduction of new InterCity Express Trains, capacity enhancements and smart ticketing.


Possible future services

In October 2013, a document released by the government which described the economic case for
High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
(HS2) included indications of future plans for the national rail network, as a 'Do Minimum' baseline against which HS2 was compared. The assumptions for the Greater Western franchise included: * introduction of a service between and London Paddington; * reduction in services between and Paddington, in favour of
Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Railw ...
service between and Oxford; * removal of services starting at Paddington and ending at ; * the replacement of local services between Paddington and by an extended
Heathrow Express Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway and Heathrow ...
service from , using a proposed western access to Heathrow; * doubling the service frequency between and Paddington; * increasing service frequency between Paddington and ; * increasing service frequency between Paddington and .


Future of the franchise

In November 2017, the government announced it was considering splitting the franchise, to create a new West of England franchise to provide long-distance services between London, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, together with local and regional services across the south-west. This proposal was dropped by the Department for Transport after a consultation. At the same time, the government confirmed its intention to extend the franchise to March 2020, and proposed a further extension to March 2022. In March 2020, a further extension to 31 March 2023 was awarded by the DfT with an option to extend for a further year.FirstGroup says new Great Western contract has appropriate balance of risk and reward
''
Railway Gazette International ''Railway Gazette International'' is a monthly business magazine and news website covering the railway, metro, light rail and tram industries worldwide. Available by annual subscription, the magazine is read in over 140 countries by transport p ...
'' 30 March 2020


References

{{Rail franchises in Great Britain Railway franchises in the United Kingdom