30th Mar 2020 10:39
(Alliance News) - FirstGroup PLC on Monday said it has signed a Direct Award with the UK Department for Transport to continue operating the Great Western Railway.
The franchise operates trains between London and points west, such as Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff.
The new agreement commences April 1 and will run until the end of March 2023, with the possibility to extend by a year. The agreement will run alongside the Department for Transport's Emergency Measures Agreement for at least the first six months.
Emergency Measures Agreements transfer all revenue and cost risk of Department For Transport-let rail franchises to the government to ensure that trains keep running, allowing key workers to keep travelling. At the conclusion of the EMA period, Great Western Railway will operate services as a franchise with revenue risk shared with the Department for Transport.
The FTSE 250 public transport operator said the agreement will result in Great Western Railways bringing additional trains into service to provide thousands of extra seats on regional routes across the network. There will be increased funding to improve services for local communities and at stations, the introduction of a combination of new ticket products such as discounted
part-time season tickets, and the extension of paperless pay-as-you-go schemes, FirstGroup said.
"Whilst the immediate focus of Great Western Railways is to ensure that key workers, vital to the country's response to coronavirus, can get to where they need to go, continuity of rail services will also be critical to a restoration of normal life when the present uncertain and difficult situation is overcome. In the longer term this new agreement will mean that customers can return to rail as their preferred choice of travel," said FirstGroup Chief Executive Matthew Gregory.
FirstGroup shares were trading 0.1% lower at 47.46 pence each on Monday morning in London.
By Ife Taiwo; [email protected]
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