From: Thomas Lydon
Sent: 19 January 2024 16:39
To: Office of The Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP
Subject: RE: Urgent Need for Improvements in Train Services on the Great Western Main Line
Dear Sir Liam
Thank you for your email on behalf of your constituent, Mr Betts.
He is right, performance has not been good enough recently. Last year and the beginning of this year have been particularly difficult, with the ongoing industrial action (with more to come at the end of this month and beginning of February unfortunately) and an increasing number of weather-related disruptions (including flooding between Bristol and Nailsea), which are not easy to manage, but there have also been too many issues relating to the infrastructure (such as cracked rails, points and signalling problems, and issues with the overhead electric lines), which is managed by Network Rail – particularly between Reading and London Paddington which affects all of our high-speed services including Bristol, Nailsea & Backwell, and beyond.
You may be aware that on 29 November the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) launched an investigation into poor train punctuality and reliability in the Network Rail Wales & Western region, and Network Rail have committed to work with the ORR to identify causes and take steps to address. We have also launched a project which seeks to stable the current situation with the infrastructure, and our senior management team meet with Network Rail each week to review their progress on this.
We did have a number of cancellations because of more IET sets being out of service than normal. This was due to significant damage, and a number that have required heavy maintenance all at the same time, which should have been staggered. We are working with Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE) to resolve this, and we have also used an independent consultant to review Hitachi’s maintenance plan against ours, to form a better plan and to avoid too many trains being unavailable at the same time.
Some of the things impacting our service are not quick fixes, but I want to assure you that our performance and reliability is our priority, and we are working very hard with our industry partners to improve this. Mr Betts mentions Delay Repay, if he does need any assistance in claiming I would be happy to help. Like him, while compensation is an important part of recognising when things haven’t gone right, we would much rather our services ran to time.
I hope this helps and thank you again for writing.
Best wishes
Tom
Thomas Lydon | Public Affairs Manager | Great Western Railway
Milford House | 1 Milford Street | Swindon | SN1 1HL