THE new £4.5 billion Intercity Great Western Trains heading for the region will provide slower journey times than those provided by British Rail nearly 40 years ago, a rail union has claimed.

But Great Western Railway, which will be operating the new trains, has dismissed the RMT’s research as being inaccurate.

The RMT cites figures quoted in the publication Building a Greater West – Our new Great Western Franchise, which says the new electric trains will offer passengers a journey time from London to Bristol Temple Meads of 90 minutes.

However, in 1977 a poster issued by British Rail promised journey times on the current fleet of ageing diesel trains of 85 minutes.

But GWR has said that the new trains will in fact offer a quicker journey from London to Bristol by six minutes – completing the stretch in 79 minutes.

The 1970s poster promised journeys from London to Bath in 69 minutes, to Cardiff in 105 minutes and Swansea in 163 minutes. The RMT said their research highlighted that the new trains would offer slower services to both Cardiff and Swansea by eight minutes and one minute respectively.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “This report demonstrates once again that rail privatisation has been one of the biggest ever post war policy failures. Privatised rail services are not only more overcrowded and expensive, they are also slower.

“And of course as well as being publicly owned, BR trains were publicly manufactured for far less cost in the UK, as opposed to the new IEP trains which are manufactured in Japan.

“As well as being told they are to lose their guard and buffet car, Great Western passengers must also brace themselves for trains that are slower than when Jim Callaghan was prime minister and the Sex Pistols were topping the charts with God Save the Queen.”

But GWR rebuffed the report, stating that journey times to Bristol and Swansea would be quicker, while times to Cardiff would remain the same. The train operator did point out that the “small number of trains” that achieved the promised journey time to Cradiff in 1977 didn’t stop at any stations outside of Wales until they reached Paddington, whereas the new trains would.

A Great Western Railway spokesman said: “The comparisons made by the RMT are simply wrong. The electrification of the mainline and the introduction of the new Super Express Trains will deliver a much improved service compared to 1977 including faster journey times and more frequent services.

“Even today we run twice as many trains as British Rail did almost four decades ago, with many more station stops, allowing more journey choices for millions more customers.

"Following electrification, this will continue to improve with trains stopping at more stations and delivering more comfortable, more frequent services, to and from more destinations than was ever conceived possible four decades ago.”