Grand Union has announced that its Carmarthen to London Paddington service has been acquired by First Group PLC.
It is expected that First will place an order for new rolling stock in due course and expects to begin the service in December 2027.
First Group will also operate the new service between Stirling and London Euston, which has track access agreements in place from May 2025 for five years.
First is no stranger to the open access market, operating Lumo services and Hull Trains.
“We are confident that the strength and experience of FirstGroup with its experienced and focused management and delivery team, alongside the award-winning provision of its current open access operations, will provide an excellent service for passengers.”
Ian Yeowart, Managing Director of Grand Union
Responses
Does this mean the Stirling to Euston Train will run from May 2025? What traons are they using?
I think that a London Paddington-Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock and Neath direct rail service would be great with Great Western Railway to continue on working the Swansea service from London Paddington using Class 800 and Class 802 IETs.
And Avanti West Coast who have introduced the Class 805 in service back in June that are operating the London Euston-Wrexham, Chester, Llandudno and Holyhead routes that have replaced the Class 221 Voyagers.
And a new open access rail operator to operate to Shrewsbury from London Marylebone that Wrexham and Shropshire used to operate a direct services to Shrewsbury and Wrexham from London Marylebone way back in the 2000s.
Remember Firstly Worst on Thameslink .. First Capital Connect .. The day they were booted off the franchise there was partying between London and Bedford
How is this possible when labours pledge was to bring the railways back into fully public ownership. Another lie starmer
I bet that means new trains to be ordered whether it’ll be Hitachi, Stadler or CAF to manufacture the Bi-mode trains.
Nice to see that the labour government are fulfilling their promise of unifying the rail network and bringing it all under state control
How do they get away with their double speak and deceit?
The Labour policy of renationalisation was always focused on the franchised TOCs. It has been made consistently clear throughout that open access would not be affected, and the agreement to operate Carmarthen to Paddington was finalised before they took office, this is just the sake of the operation, not it’s approval.
Usual woke double talk.
There are contracted rail services & open access ones.
The contracted services will be run by the government as their contracts come to an end there by saving money by not having to pay shareholders, where ad open access are over & above
Do you understand now?
First Group – so the owners of GWR. So much for competition.
I’ve given up travelling long distance by train from West Wales. The GWR trains are uncomfortable, and if I wanted tepid tea and shrink wrapped sandwiches I’d take a flask & butties! Given the trend in the UK towards uncomfortable seats I doubt this will be an improvement. They need to look at the old HST for the level of comfort and do away with that stupid trolley that blocks aisles in favour of a proper buffet facility – not that they will – so I’ll stick with my car, it’s actually much more comfortable over a long distance.
A friend has told me that the seats we currently suffer on intercity services equate to the lower comfort levels on commuter services in Europe, I wouldnt be surprised.
I hope most sincerely that the new rolling stock will be more akin in comfort and ride quality than the present offering. most particularly in regard to the seats and ambiance. At the least a kitchen / buffet should be provided, bit stuffed in at one end, with some standing space and class separation if still required. It is beyond time that longer distance travel became once again a pleasure, not a bit of an ordeal.