She has presided over poor punctuality and a row about overcrowding, which led to a fares strike by a small group of passengers.

She will now become Rail Safety and Performance Director at First Group.

Andrew Haines, the group's UK Rail managing director, will take over daily operations at First Great Western.

Andrew Haines - in with the new

Customer complaints

Earlier this year a rail watchdog had called for the government to review the FGW franchise, saying it was an "abysmal service".

London TravelWatch, in its plea to the government this summer, cited late trains, overcrowding and poor customer care.

Earlier this year FGW said it was working to improve its service, but that it was not breaching franchise conditions.

And in June a spokesman for FGW said it was "aware our performance has been poor and we have already apologised for this".

'Sustained improvements'

Moir Lockhead, FirstGroup's Chief Executive, said: "In recent months Alison and her team have been addressing the challenges faced by the new franchise and their efforts have resulted in improvements in our performance."

He also said that Mr Haines had helped deliver "sustained improvements" at First TransPennine Express, First ScotRail and First Capital Connect, the group's newest franchise.

"At each franchise punctuality and reliability has reached over 90% in recent months," said Mr Lockhead.

He also said that FGW and Network Rail were investing nearly £1bn to improve overall performance in the region.

See also:

WILL NEW RAIL BOSS IMPROVE OUR TRAINS?

Bath Chronicle: 20 September 2007

Bath Mp Don Foster has called for the new man in charge of the west's rail firm to dramatically improve the performance of train services.First Great Western has moved its managing director Alison Forster into a new post after the company endured a storm of criticism.

Ms Forster's three-and-a-half-year tenure has been marred by poor punctuality and public rows about overcrowding.

Now she is to be made rail safety and performance director at FirstGroup, FGW's parent company.

Andrew Haines, the group's UK Rail managing director, will take over daily operations at FGW.

Passenger complaints reached their peak at the beginning of 2007 when 2,000 rail users staged a fares boycott on trains over cuts in services and rolling stock.

The protest was organised by the More Trains Less Strain (MTLS) group, formed by passengers in Bath and Frome frustrated by poor train services.

Mr Foster said the change in personnel was of little importance to the people of Bath, and what mattered was that the company now delivered the sort of service people deserved.

He said: "Since First Great Western took over the franchise the service has been pretty appalling. Promises have been made and not delivered. What matters is that the new person in charge makes sure that these promises are now stuck to, and we get the service that we need and deserve."

MTLS spokesman Tony Ambrose said they would shed no tears for Ms Forster.

"Things have not improved on her watch. We still have one in four trains late. First is only just beginning to listen. The Government is also a player in this game and they have to renegotiate this franchise," he said.

Earlier this year rail watchdog London TravelWatch weighed in and called for the Government to review the FGW franchise, saying it was an "abysmal" service.

Moir Lockhead, FirstGroup's chief executive, said Mr Haines had helped deliver sustained improvements at First TransPennine Express, First ScotRail and First Capital Connect.

"At each franchise, punctuality and reliability has reached over 90 per cent in recent months," he said.

He emphasised that FGW and Network Rail were investing nearly £1bn to improve performance in the region.

Mike Greedy, of independent consumer watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "Passengers really won't mind who is running the company as long as they see improvements."

See also:

Rail boss shunted into a siding

Management Today: 19-Sep-07

There’s nothing like a good scapegoat. It turns out that Alison Forster, the managing director of First Great Western, has been moved to a different role, following the rail franchise’s continued poor performance.

The operator, which runs trains between London and the South West, has taken huge amounts of flak from customers for its poor punctuality, overcrowding and customer care, and was criticised recently by rail watchdog London TravelWatch for its ‘abysmal service’.

Regular readers of the MT website should know of our writers’ first-hand experience of First Great Western, which includes seeing police being called to an overcrowded bank holiday train to deal with a fist-fight over a mix-up with seat reservations. To that we can now add last weekend’s debacle, in which one of our staff had to stand and watch as the last service of the day pulled away from Paddington, taking his reserved seat with it, while First Great Western staff struggled to work out what they had done with his tickets.

Sadly, these aren’t isolated incidents. You could therefore argue that Forster should be the one to shoulder the blame. But is it really her fault? Let’s hope not. She will now become the First Group’s director of rail safety.

See also:

FirstGroup moves MD of under-fire Great Western UK rail franchise

Hemscott: 20 Sept 07

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - FirstGroup PLC has moved the managing director of its much-criticised Great Western rail franchise to another job.

The bus and train firm said it has transferred Alison Forster to the newly created position of safety and performance director for the group's rail operations, which also include First Capital Connect, First Transpennine Express, First Scotrail, Hull Trains and freight operator GB Railfreight.

It said in a statement that Andrew Haines, managing director of the group's UK rail division, will take responsibility for day-to-day operations at First Great Western (FGW) until a permanent replacement for Forster is found.

A First spokesman was unable to say whether Forster was given the choice of remaining in her current job. 'My understanding was that she was offered the opportunity to take this important new role and accepted it,' he said.

First has faced heavy criticism for the performance of FGW, which runs services from London to Bristol, Wales and the West Country.

The franchise came bottom in official performance figures for long distance services in the year to the end of March 2007 after only just over 75 pct of its trains turned up within the permitted 10 minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

First had to apologise to passengers in May after a national passenger survey showed satisfaction with FGW had fallen 6 pct points to 72 pct.

Passengers in the south west protested against sweeping service cuts and reductions in rolling stock that First introduced after taking over services formerly run by National Express Group PLC's Wessex franchise.

The outcry forced First to review the service reductions and to introduce more carriages.

First later said the situation had improved and the spokesman said today that figures showed 82 pct of FGW trains had arrived on time in the four weeks to Aug 18.

Infrastructure group Network Rail (NR) has also faced criticism from the UK rail regulator for the poor performance on the Great Western main line.

In a letter to FGW on Sept 3, the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) said it had expressed 'serious concern' to NR about the extent to which delays attributable to the track and signals operator were running ahead of levels projected in an improvement plan drawn up jointly by NR and FGW.