History
The Great Western name was derived from that of the Great Western Railway which served a similar, but larger, area prior to nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948. The Great Western franchise was awarded to Great Western Holdings whose shares were held by Richard George, Brian Scott and some other British Rail managers (51%), FirstBus (24.5%) and 3i (24.5%).
In March 1998 FirstGroup bought the remaining 75.5% of shares it did not own to give it 100% ownership. The Great Western franchise was due to run for a maximum of ten years, during which time public subsidy was scheduled to reduce from over £61 million annually to just under £27 million.
Read more about this topic: Great Western Trains
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