Great Western rail franchise - Delay Repay

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Transport,

This is a Freedom of Information request.

The current "FRANCHISE AGREEMENT – GREAT WESTERN" between (1) The Secretary of State for Transport and (2) First Greater Western Limited (as published at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy...) says:

"4.8 Co-operation in respect of implementation of delay repay

The Secretary of State and the Franchisee shall co-operate in good faith with the intention of implementing a revised Passenger’s Charter including “delay repay” passenger compensation provisions (or such other passenger compensation provisions as may be proposed by the Secretary of State) on or before the first anniversary of the Start Date" with “Start Date” being defined as "02.00 on 20 September 2015".

This deadline has now passed and GWR (the trading name of First Greater Western Limited) has said that "this was reviewed and Delay Repay won't be implemented under the current franchise" (this was published by GWR on Twitter in response to a customer enquiry).

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please provide all correspondence and documents relating to the proposed implementation of Delay Repay within the Great Western rail franchise since the date of the published Franchise Agreement (22 March 2015).

For the avoidance of doubt this shall include but not limited to: letters, emails, briefing notes, minutes of meetings (and their attachments where they exist).

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

Geoff Needham

Department for Transport

Dear Geoff Needham,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information which
has been allocated reference number P0014046.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Information & Security Division
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

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Rail-franchise-correspondence, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Needham,

 

Please find attached a response to your Freedom of Information request,
reference F0014046.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

[1][IMG]          Craig Welsh 
Rail Executive, Passenger Services 

4/21, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR  
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

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Secretary, Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association left an annotation ()

GWR's Twitter may have reverted to the letter of the Franchise Agreement and say that "we agreed to co-operate with the DfT with the intention of implementing Delay Repay". But the fact of the matter is that they have not implemented Delay-Repay, at least for season ticket holders, by the September 2016 deadline (see http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fare...). Still worth pressing for the information that DfT hold on why GWR have not complied with this Franchise Requirement.

Dear Mr Welsh,

Thank you for your response.

Having now considered the clarification offered by GWR, I do still wish to proceed with this FoI request being formally responded to.

I think it is beneficial to explain that my reasoning for this decision is that as a regular traveller on the GWR network, I believe it would beneficial to understand the reasoning behind why I am often left to feel a "second class" passenger purely by my residency location.

Further, whilst I welcome the suggestion that GWR will implement the Delay Repay 15 scheme recently announced by HM Government, I see no sensible reason why this should prevent implementation of the Delay Repay scheme that GWR was compelled to intend to implement with "good faith". I believe this is of interest to myself and the wider GWR customer base.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Geoff Needham

Geoff Needham left an annotation ()

Secretary, Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association - thanks for your thoughts. Having considered this, I have now confirmed my wish to proceed with this request.

Rail-franchise-correspondence, Department for Transport

Dear Mr Needham

I write to confirm receipt of your e-mail and note the confirmation that you wish to proceed with your original request.

We will now undertake a search of our records and shall provide you with any information we have which is relevant to your request. We will reply to you as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Craig Welsh  | Correspondence Manager, Passenger Services, Department for Transport

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Dear Rail-franchise-correspondence,

Please advise of the status of this request.

By my calcuations this is now overdue following my message of 28 October.

Yours sincerely,

Geoff Needham

Rail-franchise-correspondence, Department for Transport

Dear Mr Needham

Thank you for your e-mail.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you. We are currently in the process of collating the information which we hold in regard to the proposed implementation of Delay Repay on Great Western Railway.

We shall provide you with the information you have requested no later than Thursday 8 December.

Yours sincerely

Mr Craig Welsh | Correspondence Manager, Passenger Services, Department for Transport

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Rail-franchise-correspondence, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Needham,

 

Further to my e-mail of 5 December, please find attached a response to
your Freedom of Information request, reference number F0014046.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D25160.EF4718D0          Mr Craig Welsh 
Correspondence Manager,
Passenger Services 

4/14, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road,
London, SW1P 4DR
[2]Follow us on twitter
@transportgovuk 

 

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