First Great Western Receives Notice
February 26th, 2008 under England, First Great Western, Rail, Train Operating Co's, Wales. [ Comments: none ]

Train operator First Great Western (FGW) received a formal notice from the government that the company is in breach of its franchise agreement as to the number of train cancellations.

The DfT served FGW with a remedial plan notice to improve services. First Great Western was regularly at the very bottom in the punctuality statistics.

Only last month FGW doubled the compensation paid to season ticket holders and apologised for delivering a poor service over the previous 12 months.

Passenger group “More Train Less Strain” staged another fare strike in the Bristol area in protest of First Great Western’s fare increases on 2 January 2008 which saw the cost of some of the most overcrowded routes increase by up to as much as 10%.

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All Aboard for Ebbw Vale Railway
February 7th, 2008 under Rail, Reopenings, Wales. [ Comments: none ]

On 6 Feburary 2008 the Ebbw Vale Railway was reopened for passenger services for the first time in many decades; the last service operating on this line in 1962. It is always good news to see disused lines coming back into use to serve communities that used to be served by public transport in better ways than just an infrequent bus service that saunters along going nowhere fast. Read more »