Withdrawal Of First Great Western Buffet Car Services

EDM number 1723 in 2007-08, proposed by David Drew on 09/06/2008.
Categorised under the topic of Railways.

That this House is deeply concerned at reports that First Great Western plan to remove buffet car services; notes that the withdrawal of the buffet car will initially be on routes between London, Oxford, Cheltenham, Bristol and Exeter and that this in turn will impact on the provision of buffet car availability on all services throughout the West of England and South Wales; believes that the buffet car is an essential service for both business and leisure travellers and refutes First Great Western's attempt to play off catering provision against reliability and performance by claiming that removal of buffet cars will improve timings of their high speed train services; further notes that there is no obligation in its franchise agreement for FirstGroup to remove buffet cars and is therefore concerned that this is a cost-cutting measure, which will cause even more discomfort for passengers and is appalled that First Great Western passengers have to endure this latest attack when First Great Western's rail division has announced profits of £120 million on the back of fare increases and significant Government subsidy; and calls on First Great Western to immediately assure passengers that it will retain and improve all its buffet car services.

This motion has been signed by a total of 42 MPs, 2 of these signatures have been withdrawn.