page_title: Great Western Railway (train operating company)
section_title: Overcrowding
hierarchical_section_title: Great Western Railway (train operating company) / Performance / Overcrowding
caption_attribution_description: English: Passenger numbers on Great Western Railway from 2012/2013 Q1 - 2015/16 Q3 (rolling 12-month figure)&#91;1&#93;
context_page_description: Great Western Railway is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the Greater Western railway franchise. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-city services along the Great Western Main Line to and from the West of England and South Wales, inter-city services from London to the West Country via the Reading–Taunton line and the Night Riviera sleeper service between London and Penzance. It also provides commuter and outer-suburban services from its London terminus at Paddington to West London, the Thames Valley region including parts of Berkshire, parts of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire; and regional services throughout the West of England and South Wales to the South coast of England. GWR will also be providing and maintaining the new fleet for Heathrow Express from May 2020.
  The company began operating in February 1996 as Great Western Trains, as part of the privatisation of British Rail. In December 1998 it became First Great Western after FirstGroup bought out its partners' shares in Great Western Holdings.
context_section_description: First Great Western has been criticised for overcrowded trains, and in January 2007 commuters on the Bath-Bristol service staged a protest against overcrowding. Participants were issued with imitation tickets printed with "Ticket type: standing only", "Class: cattle truck", "Route: hell and back", "Price: up 12%". The company threatened protestors with criminal prosecution and fines of £5,000, but staff failed to enforce ticket requirements. Alison Forster, First Great Western's Managing Director at that time, apologised to customers.
  In January 2008 another fare strike was held as a passenger group said that not enough improvements had been made, despite First Great Western announcing that 2008 season tickets and car-parking charges would be frozen until the end of the year.
  In August 2010 First Great Western was shown to have operated all the top ten most overcrowded trains in England and Wales, mostly between Reading and London Paddington. By December 2011, this had reduced to two.
  In 2011 First Great Western was revealed to be the train company with the highest levels of overcrowding: an average of 16.6% of passengers were shown to be standing during the morning and evening peak times. In 2012 it held the record for the most overcrowded train, carrying nearly twice its capacity, the 07:44 Henley-on-Thames to London Paddington. Paddington, the London terminus for many FGW services, was identified as the most overcrowded station. The company was also listed as the operator with the most passengers in excess of capacity in the south east region in 2012.
caption: Passenger numbers on Great Western Railway from 2010/2011–2019/20 Q2 (rolling 12-month figure)[55]
exif: {}