Rail passengers who became so infuriated by patchy timetables in South West England have taken matters into their own hands and set up their own train firm.
Now, Go-op has been given the green light to run trains on a core route of Taunton in Somerset to Westbury in Wiltshire, operating via Castle Cary, Bruton and Frome.
Six or more trains will operate each day to improve the service levels in these towns, while also providing connections for trains to and from Yeovil, Salisbury and Exeter.
The plan backed by the Office of Rail and Road regulator will also see some services extended from Westbury to Swindon, and from Taunton to Weston-super-Mare.
Go-op will compete with Great Western Railway (GWR) which calls at more than 270 stations across western England and South Wales in and out of London Paddington, including Penzance, Exeter, Hereford, Bristol, Oxford, Reading, Cardiff and Swansea.
The new firm is the brainchild of social enterprise advisor Alex Lawrie, who became frustrated with the patchy, delayed or non-existent service when trying to take the train for work after moving from Gloucestershire to Yeovil with his family in 2004.
The 56-year-old married father-of-three told The Telegraph: ‘Picture me standing on a windswept station platform in Yeovil. I’m travelling around Somerset, attending meetings in various different towns, and I can’t stand driving.
‘Who knew when the trains were going to be? They were scattered all through the timetable and the connections just weren’t there.
(From left) Go-op board members John Hassall, Alex Lawrie and David Warren at Swindon
Go-op has been given the green light to run trains on a core route of Taunton in Somerset to Westbury in Wiltshire, with connections onto Weston-super-Mare and Swindon
‘I was thinking – I know that there are railway lines in existence joining these places. Why on earth can’t we get between them? That was the start. I was, simply, a frustrated rail passenger.’
Mr Lawrie came up with a plan to improve local rail connections using existing track, and was given a £500 grant by the Co-op supermarket group after presenting his ideas.
This was enough to begin an application for a new ‘Open Access’ railway provider and eventually led to Go-op, the UK’s first co-operative railway.
Other examples of ‘Open Access’ operators who compete with franchises include Hull Trains and Lumo which run on parts of LNER’s East Coast Main Line route.
Go-op now has nine directors, including former NHS consultant anaesthetist Nick Kennedy and ex-Network Rail senior development manager David Northey.
The ORR announced last November that it had approved the Go-Op service with conditions to ensure it has sufficient finance and rolling stock in place in good time.
Go-op launches its public share offering in the council chamber at Swindon Borough Council
Go-op currently plans to start this December at the earliest, and must do so no later than December next year in order to use the capacity granted by the ORR.
As part of ORR’s decision, Go-op must provide evidence by this November that it has enough finance to start operations, fund level crossing enhancements and that the necessary rolling stock is secured.
Go-op has therefore started a Crowdfunder campaign with a target of £2.6million and has reached £80,000 so far – on top of the £600,000 already raised. It also hopes to generate more cash from a mixture of community shares and loans.
Talking about funding, Alex Lawrie told the Green Signals railway podcast last month: ‘What we’re offering is a balance investment – it’s a mix of social impact, social benefits but also a financial return so that people can use it as a way to preserve and enhance their capital.
‘That means we have quite a mix of people who’ve made a very basic £25 membership investment, but also people who’ve put in tens of thousand of pounds as a long-term investment, maybe getting the benefit of venture capital tax reliefs.’
Go-op will begin by using diesel rolling stock but wants to look at using battery-operated trains in future.
Go-op will compete with Great Western Railway (GWR) which calls at more than 270 stations
In the long-term, it hopes to work with the West Somerset Railway heritage line to connect with mainline services at Bishops Lydeard, and is supporting campaigns for new stations at Cullompton, Wellington, Somerton and Langport.
It also wants to extend the route beyond Swindon – not to London, but rather to Oxford and the Midlands.
However, present service provision on the Melksham branch between Westbury and Swindon is understood to be limited by the infrastructure.
This means that where single track railway is in place, there are only so many trains that can be run before costly infrastructure improvements must be considered to operate more.
A GWR spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We have always had a very competitive and compelling offer for rail customers between Taunton and Westbury, as well as regional services throughout Wiltshire.
‘In fact, Great Western Railway has been instrumental in investing in new services and building demand on the TransWilts over the past 15 years to the point that markets have opened up for other businesses to pursue.
‘We also recognise that any additional rail services have the potential to bring choice and benefits for customers, and we look forward to welcoming any improvements to the network.’
Go-Op trains will call at Castle Cary train station in Somerset – famously where Glastonbury Festival revellers travel to before heading to buses that take them to Worthy Farm each year
The ORR said last November that it had ‘weighed up the beneficial aspects of this application relating to competition and the introduction of new, better journey opportunities for passengers’.
The regulator added that it had taken into account the Government’s support for the application, and decided that ‘all these considerations be given greater weight than the anticipated very limited impact on government funds and train service performance’.
Martin Jones, deputy director for access, licensing and international at the ORR, said at the time: ‘Our decision gives Go-op the opportunity to bring the first co-operatively owned train service and the first regional open access service in the UK.
‘We think this novel proposal can benefit passengers across Somerset and Wiltshire.
‘We will closely monitor Go-op’s progress towards meeting the financial and rolling stock requirements that are needed before it can bring the services into operation.’
