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Post by snoggle on Apr 10, 2019 14:57:02 GMT
Certainly a war of words between dft and Stagecoach, whose shares are down 10% in early trading today. I’m not an expert in pensions but we all know there is a looming crisis. Wouldn’t exactly fill me with confidence if I was an employee of East Midlands. Quite how do Abellio plan to cover these costs ? I note many commentators pointing out how many promises have been broken by Abellio on the Greater Anglia franchise. Is this a poisoned chalice for the Dutch ? From the little that I have read the pensions issue is an attempt to shift responsibility from the DfT to franchisees for historic liabilities. The Pensions Regulator has commented on this approach and warned of the dangers. It looks to me that Stagecoach have heeded this advice and opted not to hang themselves with an unquantified liability. Quite how they can be criticised for heeding the advice of a statutory regulator is beyond me. The problem here, unsurprisingly, is the DfT wanting the impossible. I sincerely hope Dutch politicians start asking some very pointed questions about what Abellio may have got themselves in to. I suspect this is just the start of a long and tortured story about legal challenges, pension problems and franchise breach / default. It has all the makings of a Grayling disaster that some poor soul will have to sort out later on.
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Post by rif153 on Apr 10, 2019 21:07:20 GMT
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Apr 11, 2019 11:10:47 GMT
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Post by snoggle on Apr 11, 2019 11:21:44 GMT
He'll be Prime Minister by then! Interesting to note that Arriva's bid for East Midlands was also disqualified on the pensions issue. Apparently all bids for South Eastern are also non compliant because of the pensions issue so perhaps Stagecoach aren't quite the "bad boy" everyone might think? I think this pensions thing will turn out to be Grayling's biggest mistake at the DfT and one that will run and run.
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Post by snowman on Apr 11, 2019 11:35:57 GMT
He'll be Prime Minister by then! Interesting to note that Arriva's bid for East Midlands was also disqualified on the pensions issue. Apparently all bids for South Eastern are also non compliant because of the pensions issue so perhaps Stagecoach aren't quite the "bad boy" everyone might think? I think this pensions thing will turn out to be Grayling's biggest mistake at the DfT and one that will run and run. Also made Parliament Urgent Questions today with Sheffield MP asking abut it, but Andrew Jones (Grayling's deputy) answered Link
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 12:54:56 GMT
It surprises me that the competition commission hasn't yet asked to review the contract, considering that Abellio will control most of the rail network in the midlands. Also when considering they reviewed the South Western contract when it awarded to First/MTR and asked for concessions to avoid a increase in pricing.
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Post by routew15 on Apr 11, 2019 16:36:06 GMT
Quite disappointed the incumbent operator has not retained the franchise. I have travelled along the East Midland route for 2 years now during the offpeak, I have to say the end to end service run by EMT is good. Customer service is excellent!
Looking forward, the new franchise has some good elements to it. It seems there is an emphasis on Nottingham becoming what looks like an East Mids interchange/hub. It is good to see the Liverpool - Norwich route is being split at Nottingham with the EMT half diverted to Derby. I have never seen that train run on time. I assume it would be Northern taking over the Liverpool - Nottingham leg. This is going to be an early win for East Midlands Railways performance.
As nice as the FLIRTs maybe I hope these are not on order for Intercity service. They may however be good for Regional services. Class 800 feel more appropriate for the mainline route.
I’m not sure how ambitious the funding into station improvements allows EMR to be but if it is similar to GA then that is something to look forward to. A lot of GA stations I have been to and through (admittedly more on the Great Eastern side (that does not include CR station) are well kept and appear to have had a minor or major upgrades.
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Post by rif153 on Apr 11, 2019 16:45:09 GMT
Whilst I agree with you that the reliability of that service is poor, it saddens me to see a vital East-West connection broken. As it is we don't have enough East-West services in the UK and the Liverpool-Norwich service is a key one. Train paths must be a nightmare for the Liverpool-Norwich service, hence why the service pattern is somewhat erratic. I would like to hope that connections will be timed so that people can change between the new Derby-Norwich services and Liverpool-Nottingham ones at Nottingham but somehow I doubt that. People will be reluctant to change and will probably abandon the railways as a result of the change. However, whilst I don't want the service to be split let's wait and see how much damage splitting the service actually does
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Post by routew15 on Apr 11, 2019 18:06:23 GMT
Whilst I agree with you that the reliability of that service is poor, it saddens me to see a vital East-West connection broken. As it is we don't have enough East-West services in the UK and the Liverpool-Norwich service is a key one. Train paths must be a nightmare for the Liverpool-Norwich service, hence why the service pattern is somewhat erratic. I would like to hope that connections will be timed so that people can change between the new Derby-Norwich services and Liverpool-Nottingham ones at Nottingham but somehow I doubt that. People will be reluctant to change and will probably abandon the railways as a result of the change. However, whilst I don't want the service to be split let's wait and see how much damage splitting the service actually does I agree with the principle of E-W connections they are important. My two preferred options would be either; Transferring the entire (Norwich - Liverpool) route to CrossCountry. Dividing the route seems to be the next best option out there. Not sure if a route like this would be in the scope of Northern Powerhouse Railway...
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Post by snoggle on Apr 11, 2019 18:41:10 GMT
I agree with the principle of E-W connections they are important. My two preferred options would be either; Transferring the entire (Norwich - Liverpool) route to CrossCountry. Dividing the route seems to be the next best option out there. Not sure if a route like this would be in the scope of Northern Powerhouse Railway... I don't see what difference the operator makes to be honest. Cross Country don't exactly have a great reputation and their fares are extortionate. What the Liverpool - Norwich service needs are much longer trains and something with wider doors and more luggage space than class 158s. AIUI from comments I've seen elsewhere the service is basically oversubscribed with poor dwell times which then causes delays and lost paths. The narrow doors and car end door positions on 158s are not ideal on such a busy service. I tend to agree with comments that breaking a service like this in two is not the right answer. The correct answer is a full upgrade to the service and vastly more capacity. Breaking long through services is a mug's game on the railway. We should have vastly more inter-urban express or semi fast services in the UK with decent rolling stock that is attractive and has good performance to get the best out of the train paths that are available. Of course this is all down to the DfT who, of course, are not responsible for rail network nor for writing tender specifications. As a complete aside it seems that there will be a once a day Cross Country working from Bristol TM to Stansted Airport in the new timetable in May. I think it currently runs from Gloucester but the positioning run is being livened up.
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Post by sid on Apr 11, 2019 22:04:24 GMT
Whilst I agree with you that the reliability of that service is poor, it saddens me to see a vital East-West connection broken. As it is we don't have enough East-West services in the UK and the Liverpool-Norwich service is a key one. Train paths must be a nightmare for the Liverpool-Norwich service, hence why the service pattern is somewhat erratic. I would like to hope that connections will be timed so that people can change between the new Derby-Norwich services and Liverpool-Nottingham ones at Nottingham but somehow I doubt that. People will be reluctant to change and will probably abandon the railways as a result of the change. However, whilst I don't want the service to be split let's wait and see how much damage splitting the service actually does I agree with the principle of E-W connections they are important. My two preferred options would be either; Transferring the entire (Norwich - Liverpool) route to CrossCountry. Dividing the route seems to be the next best option out there. Not sure if a route like this would be in the scope of Northern Powerhouse Railway... It would be a shame to see the Norwich to Liverpool service split up. I have heard it suggested that it could be operated more cost effectively by Cross Country or TPE, the first train from Liverpool Lime Street has a dead run of over two hours from Nottingham.
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Post by towerman on Apr 12, 2019 10:55:48 GMT
Abellio Have been awarded the East Midlands franchise,was on BBC Teletext news yesterday.
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Post by YY13VKP on Apr 12, 2019 11:27:07 GMT
Abellio Have been awarded the East Midlands franchise,was on BBC Teletext news yesterday. Keep up at the back! Didn’t even know teletext still existed too
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Post by towerman on Apr 12, 2019 14:14:03 GMT
Abellio Have been awarded the East Midlands franchise,was on BBC Teletext news yesterday. Keep up at the back! Didn’t even know teletext still existed too On the red button.
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Post by galwhv69 on Apr 12, 2019 14:26:18 GMT
Keep up at the back! Didn’t even know teletext still existed too On the red button. That thing just redirects me to BBC1 whenever I try and use it lol
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