I would only be too delighted to see First finally relinquish the GWR franchise after all these years. What was a good franchise turned bad in 2006 when the new three in one franchise began. However, they’ve had a lot of help from Network Rail and Dft over the years to get it into the mess it’s in today.
The problem and frustrating thing is, is anyone else going to be any better? While the current franchises problems have in part stemmed from the DfT and Network Rails inability to manage the GWEP, First doesn’t get away scotch free from the mess it’s become either. The sad thing is is that it was doing well as a Franchise until the rebrand. Since then, and as a manager put it to me last week, they’ve tried to make themselves look better while leaving the behind the scenes to fall apart. And now it’s showing, badly.
Going back to my main concern though, who could do any better? Arriva as we know tend to spend as little as possible (just look at the state of XC!), Stagecoach doesn’t like to invest much either other than to keeping its brand across its across its stock / fleets - See the similar franchise EMT for that.
I’m a little sad SWR seems to be failing too, while Stagecoach did ok with it under its tenure, the franchise needed some innovation pumped into it. Something new, something a little different. It had become too stale and Stagecoach had become too complacent - hence why they lost it. But Suprise suprise, Firsts grand plans just aren’t o be making it worse.
Perhaps they need either Mr Haines back at First, or even ironically ex First Group Mr Finch? Don’t forget that NX were vertically in a very similar situation for several years before they lost their core franchises then flogged C2C to Trenitalia!
