FOUR companies are bidding to run the Great Western Rail franchise from next year.

Current operator First Group – which decided not to take up an option to extend running the franchise under the current terms from 2013 to 2016 – has been invited to bid, along with Stagecoach, National Express and Arriva, a subsidiary of the German state rail company Deutsche Bahn, which owns the county's two other train operators, Chiltern Railways and CrossCountry Trains.

A successful bidder will be announced in December. The new franchise will begin in April next year and is expected to last 15 years.

Meanwhile, it was announced yesterday both Bicester’s stations have seen a combined increase of 12.4 per cent.

The number of passengers using Bicester Town station, on the branch line from Oxford, rose from 104,788 in 2009/10, to 157,446 between April 2010 and March 2011, an increase of 50.2 per cent.

Bicester North has seen an increase of 8.9 per cent, from 1,126,838 to 1,227,590.

Oxford station saw passenger numbers rise to 5,797, 984 last year from 5,427,286, an increase of 6.8 per cent, and usage of Banbury station was up by 8.8 per cent, from 1,706,264 to 1,857,004.

At Didcot Parkway there was a 5.9 per cent rise, with 2,674,310 journeys starting or ending there in 2010-11, up from 2,524,260 in the previous 12 months.

  • For the first time since 2009, a Class 180 Adelante train operated by First Great Western ran between Oxford and London yesterday, as the firm began retraining its crews to operate the 125mph units. Five of the trains are due to enter service with FGW from May, replacing Turbo trains on Cotswold Line services between London, Oxford and Worcester.