Great Western Main Line
Important railway corridor in England
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| 2024 | The remaining 'Castle' Class 255 High Speed Train sets are expected to be withdrawn, ending their service in Devon and Cornwall and being replaced by Class 175 trains. |
| December 2024 | Planned withdrawal of the 'Castle' Class 255 train sets operating between Plymouth and Penzance, to be replaced by Class 175 trains. |
| November 2024 | GWR announced signing a lease for the Class 175 fleet, with plans to enter service in 2025. |
| November 27 2024 | Class 175 unit 175002 became the first unit to transfer to GWR. |
| August 2024 | Rail Express reported that GWR was planning to lease the Class 175 fleet. |
| June 2024 | Great Western Railway implemented a new simplified off-peak weekday service timetable, covering routes west of London including Wiltshire, Bristol, Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hereford, and South Wales. |
| 2023 | 3 Electrostar units were cascaded to Great Northern. |
| 2023 | Former Direct Rail Services locomotive 57312 was placed on permanent lease with Great Western Railway. |
| April 2023 | GWR handed back the Class 769 units to Porterbrook, completing the fleet's discontinuation. |
| February 2023 | GWR purchased assets from Vivarail administrators, including 67 former London Underground D78 Stock carriages and intellectual property rights. The company also employed nine Vivarail staff and planned to trial Class 230 units on the Greenford branch line between West Ealing and Greenford. |
| 2022 | Hitachi planned to test a tri-mode Class 802 train fitted with batteries to reduce emissions when entering and leaving stations. |
| 2022 | GWR was impacted by nationwide railway strikes, the first national rail strikes in the UK in three decades. |
| December 2022 | GWR announced the abandonment of the Class 769 fleet introduction, deciding to hand back the units to Porterbrook in April 2023 due to cost-cutting mandates and poor unit reliability. |
| June 2022 | DfT replaced the franchise agreement with a direct award contract expiring on 25 June 2028, with an option to extend for three more years. |
| June 2022 | Department for Transport replaced franchise agreement with a direct award contract expiring on 25 June 2028. |
| 2021 | The Class 769 was expected to enter squadron service between June and December, but this was later delayed to 2022. |
| July 2021 | Six additional Class 387 units were loaned from Govia Thameslink Railway and integrated into a common pool with GWR's existing 387/1 fleet, while the Gatwick Express service remained suspended. |
| May 13 2021 | Plans were agreed to increase inspections of lifting pads and yaw dampers to facilitate the return of more trains to service. |
| May 8 2021 | All InterCity Express Trains and similar units operated by other companies were taken out of service due to discovered cracks in lifting pads, raising safety concerns about potential injury or derailment. |
| April 2021 | Cracks were discovered in the yaw damper brackets of InterCity Express Trains (IET), leading to the withdrawal of eight trains from service and the initiation of an investigation. |
| April 28 2021 | Six Class 800 trains were withdrawn from service due to cracks discovered during maintenance and sent to Hitachi for inspection. |
| December 29 2020 | Modified Electrostar trains, rebranded as 'Heathrow Express' and refurbished with Heathrow Express moquette, entered service, replacing existing trains. |
| October 2020 | Arriva TrainCare completed a comprehensive refurbishment of the Class 158 fleet at their Bristol Barton Hill depot, including full interior and exterior repaint, new air conditioning, heaters, passenger information system, and toilet systems. |
| August 2020 | The first Class 769 unit (769943) was delivered to Reading TMD, with expectations of entering service in early 2021. |
| March 2020 | Department for Transport awarded franchise extension until 31 March 2023. |
| March 31 2020 | Original franchise term was originally scheduled to end on this date. |
| March 30 2020 | A new contract was agreed for Great Western Railway, setting a three-year term with the potential to extend to four years. |
| 2019 | Great Western Railway initially planned to start services with Class 769/9 units in spring, but the rollout was delayed due to conversion issues by Porterbrook. |
| December 2019 | Class 158 units began taking over services primarily on the Tarka Line to Barnstaple and started working on the Bristol to Penzance route alongside Castle sets. |
| December 2019 | TfL Rail (later Elizabeth line) took over some stopping services to Reading. |
| May 2019 | GWR withdrew all High Speed Trains from services to Exeter, Plymouth, and Penzance, replacing them with Class 802 units. |
| April 2019 | Remaining five 153 units transferred to Transport for Wales. |
| March 2019 | Completion of the Class 800 train introduction period, which gradually replaced the older InterCity 125 train sets. |
| 2018 | Class 158 trains began running alongside the first completed Class 255 Castle set on regional services. |
| 2018 | Landore depot in Swansea was closed for Great Western Railway operations. |
| December 8 2018 | Old Oak Common depot in London was closed, marking the end of its operations for Great Western Railway. |
| August 20 2018 | First Class 802 Intercity Express Train was introduced for long-distance services in the west of the GWR network. |
| July 2018 | Great Western Railway staff threatened a disabled woman, Canadian-born comedian Tanyalee Davis, with police action and removal from a train for using a disabled space for her mobility scooter. The incident involved a confrontation after another passenger demanded Davis move for a pram, leading to a public humiliation incident that the company later acknowledged should not have happened. |
| June 2018 | Networker Turbo trains were scheduled to begin running on Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour services from summer 2018. |
| May 2018 | TfL Rail took over services from Paddington to Heathrow. |
| April 2018 | Completion of Class 150/1 unit transfers to Arriva Rail North. |
| November 2017 | Department for Transport announced intention to negotiate a franchise extension for Great Western Railway until April 2022, with an option to extend for two additional years. |
| September 2017 | Great Western Railway began introducing Class 800 Intercity Express Trains, gradually replacing the older InterCity 125 sets between autumn 2017 and spring 2019. |
| August 2017 | First transfers of Class 150/1 units began, with three units transferred to Arriva Rail North. |
| June 2017 | Class 180 Adelante units began leaving GWR in stages to join Grand Central. |
| May 2017 | Electrostar services were extended to Maidenhead and later to Didcot Parkway, and from Reading to Newbury. |
| September 2016 | Class 387/1 Electrostar trains began entering service on weekday peak services between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington, using overhead electrical equipment from Heathrow Express. |
| September 2016 | First Great Western began a comprehensive refurbishment of the Thames Turbo fleet, improving lighting, carpets, toilets, and seating layout in response to a Remedial Plan Notice. |
| September 20 2015 | Company rebranded as Great Western Railway (GWR) with a new green livery honoring the former Great Western Railway. |
| 2012 | Class 180 trains were reintroduced on the Cotswold line, diversifying GWR's train service. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Great Western Railway (train operating company), which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.