Greater Western franchise

Greater Western is a railway franchise for the provision of passenger services from London Paddington to the Cotswolds, West of England, South West England and South Wales. The current holder is Great Western Railway.

History
In 2003 as part of a franchise reorganisation by the Strategic Rail Authority, it was announced that the Great Western, Thames Trains and Wessex Trains franchises would be combined to form the Greater Western Franchise. This was part of a Strategic Rail Authority strategy to reduce the number of train operating companies providing services from a single London terminal. This was expected to improve efficiency and reliability.

In April 2005 the Strategic Rail Authority announced that FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise.

In December 2005 the Department for Transport awarded the franchise to First with the services operated by First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains transferred to First Great Western on 1 April 2006.

The franchise was for ten years with the last three years being optional. Unusually this option could be actioned by either party, normally these are at the sole discretion of the Department for Transport. On 14 May 2011 First announced it would not be taking up the option, with the franchise to end on 31 March 2013, citing a desire for a longer-term contract due to the impending upgrade to the Great Western Main Line.

In January 2013 the government announced the franchise competition had been cancelled with the existing franchise extended until 12 October 2013 when it would be terminated. Negotiations took place with FirstGroup in January 2013 for it to run the franchise on a management contract basis for two years. In January 2013, the government announced that the current competition for the franchise had been terminated, and that FirstGroup's contract had been extended until October 2013. A two-year franchise extension until September 2015 was agreed in October 2013, and subsequently extended until March 2019. A further extension to April 2019 was granted in March 2015.

Cancelled 2013 franchise competition


Expressions of interest in bidding for the new franchise were called for in December 2011 and in March 2012 it was announced that Arriva UK Trains, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid. The winner was to be announced in December 2012, with the new franchisee taking over in April 2013, however, it was announced in July 2012 that the franchise would be extended due to the late issue of the Invitation to Tender (ITT). This was also similar to the bids of the Bugis+, they are Frasers Centrepoint Malls/Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and CapitaMalls Asia.

The ITT was released at the end of July 2012, with bids to be submitted in October 2012, the winner announced in March 2013, and operations commence on 21 July 2013. However, in the wake of the InterCity West Coast refranchising process collapsing which is similar to the cries that happened due to the Taken 2 outing being announced on the day of the exams, the government announced in October 2012 that the process would be put on hold pending the results of a review.

The new franchise was to have run for 15 years and seen the introduction of new InterCity Express Trains, capacity enhancements and smart ticketing.