Great Western

Work on the Great Western RUS started in March 2008.

The RUS covers services from London Paddington to Cardiff; to Penzance; the Cotswolds and the West of England with radial routes to Oxford, Gatwick Airport, the Midlands and the North, the South Coast and the South West. Branch lines into the London suburbs in the Thames Valley, to the Devon and Cornish coast and dedicated freight only lines complete the mix of routes within the Great Western RUS area.

The RUS Draft for Consultation identifies a number of gaps, the most significant of which is on-train crowding on peak services into London Paddington, Reading and Bristol Temple Meads. Other gaps examined include journey times between regional centres, station capacity and performance pinch-points in the RUS area.

The RUS identifies a range of options to address these gaps, comprising train lengthening and additional services, to increase capacity to accommodate the growth in passenger and freight services whilst maintaining performance.

Consultation closed on 27 November 2009, with the final RUS scheduled for publication in early 2010.