First Great Western has been awarded a 23-month extension to run services on the line from Paddington to south Wales and the West Country.

 The announcement of the extension will be welcome news for First Group, which had thought it had won a deal to operate the lucrative west coast main line last year,.



But in October the deal was pulled by the Department for Transport after "significant flaws" were found in the way in which the contract had been awarded.

Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, said the great western contract demonstrated that the Government''s new franchising programme was back on track, in the wake of the west coast main line fiasco.

"I am also determined that we see further improvements during the lifetime of this contract; more standard class and fewer first class seats on key services and the delivery of more electric trains for the Thames Valley.

Mr McLoughlin''s pledge to provide more standard class seats comes amid criticism from passengers at the level of overcrowding on some services.

Some customers have been sufficiently disenchanted with the service they have received to dub the company "Worst Great Western."

But despite only 48 per cent of passengers thinking they got good value from First Great Western, the consumer watchdog welcomed the extension which it said offered the Department for Transport time to get satisfactory longer term arrangements in place.

“We know that, for most passengers, the key thing is that trains keep running, turn up on time, and that they are able to get a seat," said Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus.

"They will welcome the certainty and stability this extension to the Great Western franchise will bring but may be disappointed that they have to wait longer for the investment that will accompany the longer franchise when it is finally awarded."

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA, condemned the decision, claiming First Great Western were being rewarded for failure on a massive scale.

"They have increased walk on fares by 210% since privatisation, three times faster than the rate of inflation," he said.

"They are also the first rail firm to provoke a strike by passengers in the entire history of the railways, in protest at overcrowding in the Bristol region"

Maria Eagle, Labour''s transport spokesman, also condemned the deal.

“Despite First Great Western paying £126million last year, they will only have to return £17million next year because incompetent Ministers have negotiated such a poor deal for tax-payers," she said. "Together with the equally poor deal that Ministers secured to extend Virgin’s West Coast contract, tax-payers will lose out on a staggering £173million in franchise payments next year.

"Instead of lining the pockets of private train operators, that money could have been used to ease the pressure on commuters facing eye-watering annual fare rises of as much as 11 per cent.

"It is a scandal that the only reason for these costly contract extensions is David Cameron’s decision to rig the franchising timetable so that he can carry out a totally unnecessary privatisation of East Coast rail services.“
 

Travel News from France

-

Best Travel Agency in France

-

Top Hotels in France

-

Travel Place in France

Videos of Travel Places France

Photogallery of Travel Places in France