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First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd,[1] a Britishtrain operating company owned by First Group, which operates services in the west and south west of England and South Wales.
On 1 April2006, 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.[2]
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 after South West Trains), 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 an ivory lower half and green top half, with the merlin and 'InterCity' logos, later repaints omitted the InterCity logo[3]
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.
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 power cars carried the First Group Logo[4]
When the Class 180 Adelante units were delivered, they were painted in the intercity version of First Group corporate 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 Disability Discrimination Act 1995. 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.[5]
The rolling stock used on the Night Riviera sleeper service retained the original green Great Western livery.
The Expanded First Greater Western (2006 - Present)
The new franchise has kept the name First Great Western. Originally, First planned to subdivide its services into the following three categories:[6]
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'.[7]
Intercity Routes
First Great Western operate InterCity services to and from London Paddington. These are typically of the following frequency:
Half-hourly to Cardiff with an hourly continuation to Swansea
Nearly all long distance trains on the Great Western network stop at Reading. Swindon is currently served by all trains to Bristol & Swansea, with Didcot stops by one train per hour on each route. Cardiff Central, 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 withdrew its services to Fishguard Harbour in 2003.
Intercity services are announced at stations fitted with the Great Western Customer Information System as the 'First Great Western High Speed' services
Commuter Routes
A First Great Western link Class 166, these are used on stopping services in the Thames Valley
The Thames Valley routes were initially privatised in the mid 1990's and sold to the managers who had operated the trains under the nationalised British Rail. They later passed the company onto the Go Ahead Group, who operated them as Thames Trains. The franchise was taken over by First Group in April 2004 as part of plans to create a single franchise at Paddington. For two years, the trains were operated under the First Great Western Link banner.
The new 'super' franchise came into effect on 1st April 2006, and the Thames commuter routes, Inter City and Local services were combined to create "Greater Western", with all trains bearing the "First Great Western" name.
A Wessex Trains Class 158, now operated by First Great Western as part of the local fleet. Units will be repainted over the next two years
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 and St Ives holiday lines, and the Devon network of branches to Exmouth, Paignton and Barnstaple. When First acquired the local franchise in 2006, it considered starting the Cardiff–Portsmouth Harbour trains from Rhoose Cardiff International Airport Station, calling also at Barry before Cardiff Central—however this option was not adopted.
Before the "Greater Western" franchise, for a period of time, First ran a service from Portsmouth Harbour to Penzance using a HST. The train made an unusual (for a HST) additional stop at Saltash.
For a fuller description of the routes operated by First Great Western, see the following links.
The Tarka, Riviera and Avocet lines operate as a network known internally as the 'Devon Metro'[8]
No mobile phones are permitted in the Quiet Carriage. Note also the glowsticks on the partition for emergencies.
The company operated the last Motorail service, as part of the London Paddington–PenzanceNight Riviera overnight sleeper service, this was withdrawn at the end of the summer season in 2005 due to low usage.
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).[citation needed]
Rolling stock
Class 43 High Speed Train
High Speed Train departing Bristol Parkway, the leading power car is one of the prototypes for the MTU engine fitments and carries the new 'Dynamic Lines' livery
First Great Western use their large fleet of 43 HST sets[9] to operate most long distance services from Paddington to destinations such as Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Cheltenham, Plymouth and Penzance. Not all of the fleet is leased, with some sets being bought outright by First.
A typical HST set comprises two engines (one at each end) and passenger coaches A-H. In a standard configuration, all coaches will be used. Coach A is the 'Quiet Coach' where passengers are asked to 'respect their fellow passengers' when using mobile phones, personal stereos etc. This coach features 63 seats (forward and rear facing, some around tables), the train manager's office, wheelchair area and 1 toilet (at the opposite end to the office). Coaches B, C and D are 'Standard Coaches' featuring 76 seats (forward and rear facing, some around tables) and 2 toilets (one at either end). Coach E is the 'Disabled/Family Coach' and features 75 seats around a greater number of tables (forward and rear facing), 1 standard toilet and 1 disabled toilet (one at either end) and a wheelchair area. Coach F is the 'Buffet Coach'. This coach features 17 First Class seats (1+2 configuration), with some around tables. There is no toilet. Coaches G and H each feature about 47 First Class seats (forward and rear facing, some around tables). In coach G there is a wheelchair area. 2 First Class toilets are located in these coaches, one at either end of the coach.
HST Refurbishment
In 2005 First Great Western announced that the High Speed Train fleet was to be re-engined and refurbished. It is expected that there will be two fleets of HST, with some 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.[10]
The powercars are receiving new MTU engines. These are being fitted by Brush Traction of Loughborough[11] and the program is underway with the first re-engined powercar (43175) entering service in July 2006 following fitment of ATP. This powercar is easily identified as it carries a temporary blue livery[12] and has new headlight clusters.
First Great Western new High Density HST Carriage
.
On the 17th January 2006, First Great Western Officially Launched the first of the new refurbished HST carriages. Coach E is the High Density layout and contains only 2 tables in the whole of the carriage.
Also there are new Leather Seats in First Class on a 2 by 1 Layout, First claim this is a first for any UK operator in the UK.
Class 180
First Great Western have supplemented the fleet inherited from British Rail with Class 180 Adelante multiple units.
The fourteen Class 180 ‘Adelante’ diesel multiple units[9] were built by Alstom and entered service in 2002[13] are used for semi-fast services requiring 125mph operation, however they will be replaced with shortened HSTs on most of their current duties.[14] What future these units have is presently unknown.
These sets comprise of 5 coaches A-E, with all (unlike the HST coaches) being used in a typical setup. A 750hp Cummins QSK-19 engine is fitted under the floor of each coach, driving the wheels through a Voithtorque converter. A is the 'Quiet Coach', B is the 'Refresca Coach' (the buffet coach, although the buffet is much smaller and more modern than those on HSTs). Therefore, this coach has a much greater number of Standard Class seats than the small number of First Class seats featured on the HST buffet coach. Coach C is the 'Standard Coach', D the 'First Class Coach' and E the 'Audio Coach'. This setup is unusual in that only one of the coaches features audio entertainment (unlike Virgin Trains' coaches) and that the First Class coach is sandwiched in between two Standard Class coaches (as opposed to being at the front or rear of the train like First's HST sets or Virgin Trains' sets).
Class 143
A class 143 in Advertising vinyls for the city of Bristol
First Great Western inherited the small fleet of 7 two-coach Class 143 Pacerrailbuses from Wessex Trains following the franchise merger in April 2006. They are currently used on suburban services around Bristol, but were to be moving to Exeter depot in December 2006 to operate the Exmouth, Barnstaple and Paignton 'Devon Metro' services. This appears to have been shelved as First Great Western will be receiving more units from Transpennine Express then previously thought. There has also been unconfirmed reports of Network Rail objections. The current livery is an advertising livery for Bristol.
Class 150
A freshly painted Class 150
The fleet of 25 (Now 17) Two coach Class 150 Sprinter units were inherited from Wessex Trains as part of the Greater Western franchise shuffle. The fleet was refurbished by Wessex Trains in 2003 with 2+2 seating arranged in a mixture of 'airline' (face to back) and table seating. The fleet is widespread throughout the former Wessex area and carries a maroon livery with advertising vinyls for South West Tourism. Each unit is sponsored by a district, town or attraction and carries a unique livery. Several are also named. Work has commenced to repaint the fleet into the new First 'Local' livery as the contract with South West Tourism runs out. The new livery consists of a blue body, with pink doors and 3 lines of place names in First Group corperate colours. As part of a national fleet shuffle eight units went to Arriva Trains Wales on the 10 December 2006, and were replaced with 8 Class 158 units. Details of the units that went can be found under Stock Cuts. The fleet will recieve an internal 'refresh' during 2007. 150244 and 150249 are the first two to be repainted into the Dynamic Lights local lines livery and both entered
service on 26 January 2007.
Class 153
A Class 153 in "The Heart of the Wessex Line" red livery, at Truro platform 1.
The Class 153 is a diesel railcar converted from a Class 155 two coach unit in the early 1990s. First Great Western have 15 which are used to strengthen services and on some of the quieter branch lines although stock shortages often see them operate on their own on busier routes. Each railcar carries one of three promotional liveries, these being for the Heart of Wessex Line, the Scenic Branches of Devon and Cornwall, and the St Ives and Looe lines. Two railcars were refurbished in early 2006 by Wessex Trains shortly before the franchise merger. It is unknown if this will be extended to the remaining vehicles. Up to seven railcars are expected to leave First Great Western in the ongoing fleet review.
Class 158
The Class 158 is two-coach DMU (some are three-coach, composed of one and a half units) used on longer distance regional services in the former Wessex Trains area. The fleet is currently in the process of a major reshuffle with units being swapped with Arriva Trains Wales, Central, TransPennine Express, First ScotRail and Northern during the early part of the franchise. Some of the three car hybrid sets have been disbanded which are expected to be replaced with some of the purpose built three carriage units. The fleet also varies dramatically in condition, Wessex Trains refurbished a handful of units in 2005 but some units (especially the former Central units on hire from Northern) are in very poor condition internally. The former TransPennine units also contain a small section of declassified first class seating in one vehicle.
The reformed 158/9s were recently transformed back to there old 158 numbers. Below are the transformations:
The Class 166 is a three coach DMU used on Paddington to Bedwyn and Oxford Services. The Class 166s can also be found on Reading to Basingstoke, North Downs Line and other routes. They are mainly found at Reading and are based at a Depot in Reading. Their main destinations are Reading, Oxford, London Paddington , Stratford Upon Avon , Great Malvern and Hereford. All Class 166 units are receiving a First Great Western Neon Dynamic Lines livery which was applied to 166220 first in October.
Other Types
Class 57 locomotive - Used for sleepers and Motorail
Class 166 - Three-coach Turbo DMU used on longer commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
Class 360 - Four-coach EMU (being strengthened to five coaches) used on Heathrow Connect services (ex First Great Western Link, joint operation with BAA)
Greater Western franchise (2006 - Present)
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[citation needed] . Services from Oxford to Bicester Town/Islip and Banbury/Heyford were also reduced sharply, despite some public protests in Bicester and Heyford.
(Sources - The September 29, 2002 – January 11, 2003 Thames trains time table, the 11 December – 10 June, 2006 F.G.W.L. time tabel and June 11, 2006 – December 10, 2006 F.G.W.L. timetable. The Bicester Advertiser and Banbury Guardian newspapers carried intermittent articles on the protests through-out mid 2005.).
News Reports
On 3 January2007 the BBC Spotlight news (South West) reported of overcrowding on First great Western's local trains and that passengers wanted more trains, however the stock cuts are likely to make the problems worse. [15]
The Stock Cuts
On 10 December 2006 (The start of the winter timetables) First Great Western saw a reduction in their local DMU fleet, as 8 class 150s went off lease, and were handed to Arriva Trains Wales. The sets which went were: 150230/236/240/241/242/251/253/254. This leaves First Great Western with 17 Class 150 sets.
The 153302/308/355/374 and 8 Class 158s are now being stored at Eastleigh.
The 158962-965 are being stored at Reading.
Controversy
First Great Western consulted on a new timetable due to be introduced in December 2006. Campaigners accused the company of cutting evening commuter services, but First Great Western denied this and said there had been significant improvements under the new franchise.
In December 2006/January 2007 First Great Western were responsible for a great number of cancellations and delays each day, mainly attributed to shortages in train crew or a lack or serviceable trains, leaving some branch lines with just bus services, and some areas with little service at all.
From 1 January-10 January2007 First Great Western removed all trains from the St Ives and Looe branch lines in Cornwall (which normally have a class 153 each in winter), so that they could use them for extending services around Bristol.
From 2-5 January, FGW decided to shorten some of the local DMU fleet to try and cut down on the amount of cancellations and lack of serviceable trains.
On 9 January2007 First Great Western announced some timetable changes, in response to customer complaints about overcrowding on local trains [16]File:100 1343.JPGFake tickets distributed by protestors on 22 January 2007
On 22 January commuters on the Bath-Bristol service staged a protest about overcrowding, issuing participants with imitation tickets printed with "Ticket type: standing only", "Class: cattle truck", "Destination: to hell and back", "Price: up 12%". The company threatened protestors with criminal prosecution and fines of £5,000, but staff failed to enforce ticket requirements.[17]
On 24 January, Alison Forster, FGW's Managing Director apologised to its customers about its recent problems[18]. Her key strategy for the company in order to improve services in 2007 appears to be to introduce leather seats in first class, which most passengers believe is the train equivalent of shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic. She has the dubious honour of promoting a debate in the House of Commons following the timetable changes http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070124/halltext/70124h0001.htm]
Worst British Train Service
In 2004-2005, 79.6% of trains arrived on time (defined as within 10 minutes of their scheduled arrival time).[19] *On 22 December 2006, First Great Western InterCity service was declared the worst in Britain for delays, according to figures from the Office of Rail Regulation, with more than one in four trains running late.[20]
Livery
The new franchise will involve revinyling the HST fleet into First Group’s new 'dynamic lines' livery[21] for Intercity services. The Class 166 express Turbos are also receiving this livery.[22] 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.[23]
The Applying of the new 'local lines' livery is taking place on Lane 4 of the shed at Laira TMD.
The 150219 was going to be the first to have the new livery, but had to be pulled out, due to train shortages.
150244 'The West Cornwall Experience' entered Laira on 31 December 2006, and left on 12 January2007 to Exeter St Davids. Entered service on 24 January.
150249 entered Laira on 14 January 2007, and left on 21 January to Exeter St Davids.
