Date: 22 January 2007

My ref: T:R1/3/a

Your ref:

Contact: Ruth Sanders

Direct dial: 01934 634531

Email: ruth.sanders@n-somerset.gov.uk

Alison Forster

Managing Director

First Great Western

Milford House

1 Milford Street

Swindon

SN1 1HL

Dear Ms Forster

Timetable Consultation December 2007

We were grateful for the useful meeting between members of the Severnside Community Rail Partnership and Andrew Griffiths, your local Bristol area manager, held on 4 December, when officers from all of the local authorities in the sub region were able to discuss their authorities’ aspirations for change that should be incorporated into a revised timetable for December 2007.

The meeting was very positive and agreed a set of principles for revision to the existing timetable and identified priorities for change. These principles have recently been reiterated in a letter from Keith Walton, Chair of the Severnside CRP in a letter to Andrew Griffiths, which was I think copied to you. The purpose of this letter is to let you know that we endorse all of those principles.

Top of the priority list identified at the meeting was the need to restore clock face even interval timetables. This is particularly applicable to southbound services between Bristol Temple Meads and Weston-super-Mare. Although we originally welcomed the concept of a standard cross Bristol pattern of services, this should not be at the cost of a regular clock face service and bunching of am and pm peak services. We would prefer the restoration of the principles of the previous timetable, which gave us regular clock face even interval services in each direction with alternate services to Gloucester/Cheltenham and to Cardiff.

We would also like all local trains to stop at Weston Milton station, especially in the peak hours and for the HSTs to stop at Worle in addition to the existing stations.

If a change to the franchise specification is required to implement these changes, we will be very pleased to write a letter of support to the DfT. I would be grateful if you could confirm that it is FGW’s intention to seek to implement the above revisions to the timetable from the earliest opportunity, which I understand to be December 2007.

Yours etc

Councillor John Crockford Hawley

Executive Member for Strategic Planning and Transportation

CC

Andrew Griffiths, Bristol Area Manager

Glenda Lamont, Director of Customer Relations

Keith Walton, Chair of the Severnside Community Rail Partnership