Until 27 Oct 2014, the early morning weekday trains from Exeter to London involve either a train calling at every station and taking around 3 hours or not arriving at Paddington until 9 am at the earliest. If the train company has a monopoly on all non-car transport to London, this is a profitable approach since stoping everywhere maximises the number of fare paying passengers. I'm ignoring the coach which takes 4h30 as it's not credible for people travelling for work.
If Flybe can launch a flight to effectively compete, First Great Western will presumably want to give some form of competitive response. I'm guessing the most effective way of making life hard for a EXT-LCY route is to add capacity and/or improve train times rather than dropping prices. I'm not familiar with train franchising or scheduling procedures and hope someone else may have more knowledge.
How easy is it for FGW to add a train departing Exeter at 0600, stopping only at Reading and arriving at Paddington about 0800 ? Would Network Rail just refuse track access ? Would the franchise terms make this difficult ? Are trainsets and staff available ? Is there room at Paddington for this ? How long would it take before FGW could operate such a train ? Comments from those with knowledge much appreciated...
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 23rd Apr 2014 at 09:39.