Why's that? It will be the same tilting train stock, at least for a good many years at the start, similar or the same calling pattern with the VHF timetable, and much of the necessities of the franchise will surely be protected in agreements made with the DFT?
I'm just of a belief that whenever First Group run something they always seem to find a way to mess it up.
Maybe it's because where I live our main local bus route is run by First, with buses often missing or late. In the early evening though when Stagecoach take over it manages to run fine. Then when our train services switched from Northern to First TPE in May last year we now very often face delays, cancellation or services terminating early. Northern ran the service fine.
Even me as a rail enthusiast now chooses to avoid using TPE services for anything other than the commute. I had to travel to Hull with work recently and even though it's a direct service for the station I can see if I look out of the living room window, I opted for a hire car. If someone would have told me told I'd be doing that before we got TPE I'd have not believed them. If they are managing to drive the likes of me away from their services then I'm sure the none enthusiasts would have given up using them unless they had to a long time before me. That can't be good for business.
I may hopefully be wrong and they could be a huge success if they are successful on the west coast.