First Great Western announces exorbitant fare and car parking increases

First Great Western (FGW) is increasing some train fares by over twenty per cent from Sunday 6 September – from that date, car parking charges at railway stations managed by FGW in the South West of England will increase by up to thirty per cent.

First Great Western is withdrawing the existing range of off-peak return fares, where price increases are regulated by the Department for Transport (DfT), and introducing a new regulated ‘super off-peak’ ticket at the same fare, but with much greater time restrictions on usage (for example, customers travelling between Cornwall and London on the cheapest ‘walk-on’ return ticket will arrive in the capital nearly four hours later than at present at 1523hrs) – the new ‘super off-peak’ ticket will not be valid for travel on trains departing from London Paddington on Monday to Friday before 1010hrs or between 1500hrs and 1900hrs (for example, customers travelling from London to Cornwall on the cheapest ‘walk-on’ return ticket will only be able to travel on two through trains on Monday to Thursday departing at 1206hrs and 1406hrs).

FGW will be introducing a new unregulated ‘off-peak’ return ticket at a much higher price, sometimes in excess of twenty per cent – the train operating company is also reducing the prices of off-peak single tickets to approximately fifty per cent of the new off-peak return fare.

Car parking prices at railway stations managed by First Great Western will also increase – for example, the Monday to Friday parking charge at Bristol Temple Meads railway station will increase by twenty-four per cent from seven pounds and fifty pence per day to nine pounds and thirty pence. Passenger Focus described the increases as ‘hard to believe’ and criticised the ‘increased complexity of an already complicated fare system’, while TravelWatch SouthWest, the passenger transport watchdog for the region, said that the rises were ‘legalised mugging’.

New enquiry into rail investment priorities

The House of Commons transport select committee has launched an enquiry into the investment priorities for the rail network – the committee is concerned that, with forthcoming reductions in public spending, it is vital that the Department for Transport (DfT) establishes the right priorities for future rail investment. The deadline for the submission of evidence to this enquiry is Thursday 1 October 2009.

Gloucestershire develops access criteria

Gloucestershire County Council is preparing guidance on developer contributions to transport based on accessibility criteria – the county council will be asking the district councils to adopt the guidance for their local development frameworks.

Bristol promotes transport-health links

Bristol City Council is building a web-based library of evidence outlining the health benefits of both cycling and walking – the available briefings, which already exceed thirty in number, draw on research published in academic journals. The project is been funded by the local primary care trust.

People

James Burt, who has been the customer service director at First Great Western (FGW) since January 2008, has been appointed as the service delivery director for the new Southern franchise – before joining FGW, James was the operations director for South West Trains.

And finally,

Days after the national media carried photographs of the ‘carpet of weeds’ between the two platforms at Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, Network Rail sent a team to the station with strimmers and weedkiller!