UNDER-FIRE rail company First Great Western today announced an additional £29m package of measures to help its passengers.

Following discussions with the Department for Transport (DfT), First Great Western agreed the comprehensive package of passenger benefits to address poor performance, including cancellations.

Lance Cole, a spokesman for FGW, said the company acknowledged that its performance "has fallen short of its own standards and the expectations of passengers".

The £29m investment includes £5m spent on improvements to the London and Thames Valley fleet.

A further £7m will be spent on enhancing the Customer Information System (CIS) at stations including Oxford.

The bulk of the £5m will be spent refurbishing the two and three-car Turbo fleet, because some of the Turbo trains are now 15 years old.

Work will start this year and finish in 2011. An additional High Speed Train will also be provided.

Zahra Akkerhuys, a spokesman for passenger group Ox Rail Action, said: "The Turbos are in a shocking state and are in need of refurbishing.

"They often smell bad because the toilets are malfunctioning and the heating controls are broken.

"Upgrading customer information at Oxford is sorely needed because at the moment passengers are given conflicting information about the same train on three different boards.

"We are meeting Andrew Haines, First Great Western's chief operating officer tomorrow and we will ask him to outline the finer details of this improvement package and how they affect Oxford passengers.

"My train was late again this morning by seven minutes and what we really want to see is trains running on time."

There will also be engineering upgrades to the Turbo fleet, in a bid to improve reliability.

Other investment includes:

  • Increasing rolling stock by leasing five additional Class 150 units to release Class 158 units for use in strengthening the Cardiff-Portsmouth service from May 2008, which will increase capacity by 40 per cent on most services on this route.
  • Increasing the amount of compensation available under the Passenger's Charter by 50 per cent for claims arising between January 27, 2009 and January 26 2010.

This is in addition to doubling of the amount of compensation available to customers during 2008, announced in January.

  • The provision of an additional 500,000 FGW tickets at the most discounted rates to popular destinations for off-peak travel.

The company has also pledged to recruit new drivers, guards and technicians.

Andrew Haines, FGW chief operating officer, said: "We've put together a robust and realistic plan that sets out our broader vision to re-establish the First Great Western franchise as delivering good performance and benefits to all its customers, stakeholders and the wider regions, which it serves."