On Tuesday 24 April I met with the Managing Director of Great Western Railway, Mark Hopwood, to discuss the service on the North Cotswolds Line.
Worcestershire residents have faced a significant deterioration in the service in recent months and a number of constituents have contacted me to raise their concerns with GWR and press for urgent improvements to performance on the line. My fellow Worcestershire MPs, Harriett Baldwin and Robin Walker, have been receiving similar comments from their own constituents so we met with GWR together to discuss the performance on the line in more detail. We also reiterated calls for more frequent services on the line and discussed the ongoing progress with Worcestershire Parkway station, which is due to open next year.
Mr Hopwood explained that the delays on the North Cotswold Line have primarily been due to issues with the introduction of the new Intercity Express Trains (IETs), including the late completion of electrification of the line and delivery of the new trains, which in turn meant the training of drivers started later than expected. GWR apologised for the inconvenience that Worcestershire residents have faced and acknowledged the service they have been receiving has not been good enough. I was pleased to hear Mr Hopwood’s assurances that driver training has now been completed at the Worcester depot and 25 of the 36 new IETs have now been delivered. From September 2018 some of the IETs will be stabled and charged overnight in Worcester, which should improve the resilience of the line by reducing the current reliance on long distance empty train movements. Mr Hopwood also explained that the launch of Crossrail in London in May will free up a number of drivers to be added to GWR service rosters.
I emphasised the need for GWR to urgently improve its communication with customers and Mr Hopwood gave assurances that work to do so is already underway. Local user groups are being consulted and posters will shortly be going up on noticeboards in local stations with details of upcoming ‘Meet the Manager’ events. GWR is also preparing a leaflet explaining why the line has been facing problems in recent months as well as what is being done to address the key issues and Mr Hopwood agreed to consider revising the content of the responses that are sent to customers who complain about the service online.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with GWR’s management team to voice my constituents’ frustration and press for improvements to the service on the North Cotswold Line. As an Evesham resident I know from my own experiences how important it is to be able to rely on the service to run on time and at all the scheduled stops. I hope that now training has been completed in Worcester we will see a noticeable improvement in GWR’s performance and I will continue engaging with the management team to press for further upgrades to the service on the North Cotswold Line.