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Renewing The GWR Fleet – Chippenham 1 February 2017: Summary & Comments

Andy Mellors gave his presentation to a full-house joint IRSE/IET meeting. He began by outlining his career as a railwayman, first with British Rail and then with a succession of train operating companies. This was followed by an overview of the franchise process, a process that had been interrupted by problems with placing the East Coast Main Line franchise. As a consequence of this the Great Western had until recently been operated under two successive short-term Direct Arrangements (DA1/DA2). This was a restriction imposed by the European Union. He later said that these short-term franchises had at least allowed them the opportunity to reconsider what should form part of their future bids.

 

At the moment the company operated with 1,000 vehicles and 1,200 staff. The new franchise was expected to see major changes to the fleet and to affect everyone in the company. This process started with a re-branding of the company, to capitalise on the value of the historic GWR name.

 

Obviously the decision of government to electrify some of the lines in the franchise region will have a major impact, as will the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Intercity Express Programme (IEP) to replace the InterCity 125 with Class 800/801. The IEP determines a large part of the composition of future fleet but it also changes the way that vehicles are maintained, i.e. in workshops operated by Hitachi. New vehicles will require new operating and maintenance procedures. While Hitachi will have responsibility for the vehicles that they manufacture Great Western will be under new obligations to return stock for maintenance on time. However there are other external factors, such as the extension of Crossrail and the introduction of HS2. The former will involve the handover of several of the stations on the eastern part of the network and the later the vacating of the Old Oak Common depot. The various franchises are also interlinked as rail vehicles are supplied via train leasing companies operating nationally. Thus if a franchise releases stock it may cascade down to other franchises.

 

From the passenger point of view the new franchise is required to increase capacity and frequency of trains and to reduce journey times. Part of the increase in capacity will be achieved by introducing longer trains. Some of the new vehicles will be 26 metres long as opposed to the 23 metres of the present stock. To fit the platforms the longer vehicles will have tapered ends and the doors will be placed relatively nearer the middle. The increased space at the ends will be used to make better provision for the disabled and improve storage for large loads such as bicycles. In some locations longer platforms will be required but because trains will be fitted with powered doors and GPS it will be possible to determine which doors to open at the shorter platforms.

 

Because the Devon and Cornwall lines have relatively steep gradients it is intended to introduce a new AT 300 design that will be a higher-rated version of the IEP Class 801. As they will be close relatives of the Class 800/801 and effectively part of a continuing production process it is expected that they will share the same high availability. In addition, to increase the frequency of trains at the western end of the franchise, some HS 125 sets will be refurbished and run in a shortened form. Cornwall Council believes it is important that Cornwall has business links with London and so has continued to support the sleeper service, which will be improved.

This was an interesting and wide-ranging talk that illustrated very well the complexity of operating a modern rail franchise. It certainly seemed to me that the franchise operator was operating under a lot of constraints outside of its control. Perhaps the adoption of the ‘GWR’ name hides a secret longing to return to the days when the company controlled everything, from the non-standard gauge to where the driver sat!

 
Class 800/801
AT 300