New trains pledge

Beleaguered rail firm First Great Western has promised that moretrains will call at commuter stations in the Bath area in its nexttimetable.

The company this week took the wraps off its timetable for 2007-8, which begins on December 9.

FGW, which has just appointed a new boss as it attempts to buildup passenger confidence after a period of overcrowding whichculminated in a fares strike, says the new timetable provides"significant service improvements".

And it says a further round of improvements is planned for May2008.

The Bath-based More Trains, Less Strain group organised the faresstrike and its concerns over delays and lack of rolling stock havebeen echoed by official watchdogs and politicians.

Tom Stables, FGW's commercial director, said: "First Great Westernused the customer feedback from the December 2006 timetable to makesignificant improvements to the new timetable. We believe thistimetable will address many of the suggestions received fromcustomers, stakeholders, MPs, and Welsh Assembly members."

The timetable will see improved half-hourly connections to andfrom London Paddington created by changing services from Bristol andWeston-super-Mare, with high speed trains stopping at Keynsham.

The firm will also change services from Bristol and Westbury toprovide an hourly

service with calls at Oldfield Park and Keynhsam and twoadditional trains in the morning peak period. It says this will meanimproved connections at Bath for passengers going to and from London.

More trains on the Portsmouth to Cardiff route will call atBradford on Avon in future.

Bath MP Don Foster said he was pleased to see more trains stoppingat stations such as Keynsham and Freshford including extra middle-of-the-day services, and to see extra high speed services through Bathin the morning and evening.

He said the firm had also agreed to construct the timetable sothat services ran to the same regular pattern - so-called clockfacetimetabling.

But he said he was worried about FGW's ability to get enoughrolling stock to run on local services and by the possibility offares rises in the future.

"We would have expected changes in fares in September, but FirstGreat Western sensibly decided not to make any changes until the NewYear. I'm hoping they're not going to be whacking up the prices. Wealready absolutely pay through the nose."