| OTD - 4th February (1996) - First rail franchises take over Posted by grahame at 22:36, 3rd February 2022 |      |
The very first rail franchise started in 4th February 1996 - Stagecoach for South West Trains and Great Western Holdings for the Great Western franchise which at that time was the intercity services - Thames Trains and the Wales and West frachises were awarded later.
South West Trains was modified to add in the Island Line; Great Westerns was taken over by First, and then Thames Trains and Wessex, which had split from Wales and West was added to it. Stagecoach lost the rebid in 2017 and First Group (70%) and MTR (30%) took over.
I'm not sure I like the instability of changes - but then passenger numbers have grown over the 26 years like never befor, so can it all be bad? Would it have grown all the better with more stability, or grown stale and not grown so much?
