TravelWatch Southwest
Newslog Monday February 4 2008

Department for Transport Rail Rolling Stock Plan: ‘More Disappointment for the South West’

The Department for Transport has finally published the long-awaited rail rolling stock plan. The Government expects the train operating companies in England to take delivery of thirteen hundred new carriages during the period to 2014. Cross Country will receive just six new carriages (for the Birmingham – Leicester route), First Great Western will take delivery of fifty-two new carriages (for London and Thames Valley suburban services) and South West Trains will have one hundred and five new electric carriages (no details given of future route deployment).

The rail rolling stock plan also states that an unspecified number of class 150 units will be transferred from the London Midland franchise to First Great Western for deployment on ‘regional services around Bristol’ – these trains will be cascaded to FGW when London Midland takes delivery of new class 172 units which are due to enter service from summer 2009.

So disappointing news for the South West - no additional diesel rolling stock for South West Trains, which is committed to commencing an hourly service between Exeter St Davids and London Waterloo via Salisbury from December 2009 and an unknown number of class 150 units cascaded to First Great Western.

‘Access for all’

Slightly better news for the region came from the Department for Transport with the announcement of the railway stations in the region which will receive funding during the year commencing 1 April 2008 to improve accessibility – the list of stations to receive funding is as follows:-

First Bristol and First Somerset and Avon implement new ‘customer-unfriendly’ policy

First Bristol And First Somerset and Avon have announced that, from 3 February 2008, where a bus driver is unable to give the exact amount of change to a customer, the passenger will be issued with a ‘change ticket’ which must be redeemed within seven days at one of the seven remaining travel centres at Bath, Bridgwater, Bristol (Bus Station), Bristol (Colston Avenue), Taunton, Wells and Weston-super-Mare.

A customer travelling between Warminster and Westbury will have to travel to Bath to redeem a ‘change ticket’, while a passenger in Yeovil will have to go to either Taunton or Wells. ‘What a nonsense’!

Any customers who do not have easy access to a travel office must ensure that they have the exact money for their fare in future – the new policy is designed, no doubt, to further increase the companies’ profits!

Bizarre changes to Wilts and Dorset Bus Network in Dorset

Wilts and Dorset have introduced a new bus network in Verwood, Dorset – the new services 36 (Bournemouth – Verwood) and 37 (Poole – Verwood) both undertake an identical clockwise circular loop of the town. Verwood residents who wish to travel by bus to and from the town centre now find that they have a short direct journey of less than ten minutes in one direction, but have to travel via Ringwood or West Moors with a change of bus in the other direction with a journey time of over fifty minutes!

Where was this new bus network designed? – the Go-Ahead group head office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne?

And finally,

The inexorable decline in travel offices operated by FirstGroup bus subsidiaries continues – the Yeovil travel office closed on Friday 25 January, while the St Austell travel office will close on Friday 8 February.

Why are FirstGroup and Go-Ahead closing local travel offices, while Stagecoach maintains their network?