You do understand that this consultation was about what to do with the new short-term direct award franchise up to 2022 that is currently under discussion, do you?
Not to help shape some long-term strategic development plan for a five or seven-year franchise.
The 2020-22 franchise is largely intended to get the GW area through the back end of the delayed improvement work, get the new timetable firmly established and buy some breathing space for both longer-term planning and for DfT to try to get on top of its franchising programme - it was never going to be piling yet more substantial changes on top of the ones we are in the middle of at the moment.
The document includes the following wording in a section about rolling stock:
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A key priority for the new franchise in 2020 will be to consolidate the benefits of this transformation and to ensure that reliability improves substantially. This franchise will also allow us to consider the longer-term options available. We are therefore likely to specify a requirement for the franchisee to appraise options for the older rolling stock fleets, and to develop a business case for alternative solutions for these fleets.
In a context where the Cotswold Line is about to get a new baseline hourly all-day timetable next year, plus peak extras in the direction of the main morning and evening flows (not many people's definition of a poor service) and while the North Cotswold Line Taskforce (mentioned several times in the document) is indeed looking at developing a long-term strategic plan for it, I have no idea what you mean. Without some serious infrastructure improvements, any further improvements in service frequency on the route are not practical anyway.
Pretty much everyone around accepts the service between Worcester and Gloucestershire/Bristol is inadequate, but the rolling stock fleet currently allocated to the franchise for the time being does not allow for an enhanced frequency there.
