‘Great Western branded worst rail service in Britain’

Mar 28 2008 by Our Correspondent, South Wales Echo

UNDER-FIRE train operator First Great Western has the LEAST punctual service in Britain, it was revealed today.

Branded “Worst Great Western” by some passengers, the operator, which runs services throughout South Wales, had just 79.7 per cent of trains turning up on time during the last three months of 2007.

The data, released by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), shows FGW lagged more than 15 per cent behind Chiltern Railways, the top rated operator for punctuality with 95.6 per cent of their trains arriving on time.

Today, passengers at Cardiff Central Station slammed the figures.

Ann Powell, 51, a support worker from Canton, Cardiff, said: “A couple of weeks ago I had to wait three quarters of an hour at a station when I was on my way back to Cardiff. I think the service should be more reliable considering the cost.”

Brendan Doherty, 28, from Tremorfa, Cardiff, who works in finance, and travels to Bristol Parkway every weekday, said: “The London service is quite good but when they get it wrong they get it very wrong. They are good at telling you it will only be a 10-minute delay when it is much longer.”

In January passengers were hit by above-inflation price hikes across the network although FGW’s poor performance prompted fare strikes by some consumers.

Michael Lee, the ORR’s director of access planning and performance, said: “If targets for this route are not met in the near future, then the consequences for Network Rail could be severe. I do not propose, at this stage, to look into whether Network Rail is in breach of its licence – but all parties should be clear that this is an option that may be open in the future.”

A spokesman for FGW said: “FGW has accepted that it has not provided the service levels its customers deserve and we have put in place an improvement plan that has been agreed with the Department for Transport. We are already seeing improved performance and this includes our latest Public Performance Measure figures and cancellation rates – we need to do better to deliver consistently across the FGW Network for all our customers.”

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