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Post by snoggle on Feb 5, 2018 18:00:58 GMT
Grayling has made several announcements on the franchising process
East Coast franchise - Stagecoach have breached a key financial covenant on the franchise. They can therefore only keep going for a few months. DfT examining options for future operation up to introduction of "East Coast Partnership" in early 2020s. Either a "not for profit" operation by Stagecoach with extra benefits for passengers or the return of Direct Operation by the Dft. Stagecoach cannot be banned from bidding for current or future franchises - DfT have taken legal advice.
West Coast franchise - Direct award confirmed for another up to 2 years term with Virgin Trains West Coast.
East Midlands franchise - Shortlisted bidders confirmed as Arriva, Stagecoach, Abellio, First / Trenitalia.
Grayling is clearly utterly wedded to private firms running the railway. Lots of ludicrous references to "bad" British Rail and how awful it was despite it being 20 years ago when it was last in place. Pointless comparison given how much has changed.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Feb 5, 2018 18:05:58 GMT
If Stagecoach can only keep going for a few more months on East Coast won't the entire franchise need to be put up for retender? I do wonder what seems to be the issue with the East Coast franchise for TOCs as Stagecoach don't seem to have been the first company to have problems with it.
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Post by ThinLizzy on Feb 5, 2018 19:25:33 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2018 21:22:22 GMT
This sounds like a mess, but i wonder whether the passengers will suffer ? New trains still coming. Is it a battle now between Westminster and Scottish Government? |
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Post by snoggle on Feb 5, 2018 21:31:36 GMT
If Stagecoach can only keep going for a few more months on East Coast won't the entire franchise need to be put up for retender? I do wonder what seems to be the issue with the East Coast franchise for TOCs as Stagecoach don't seem to have been the first company to have problems with it. No it won't. We have been here twice before! The legislation governing the railway and franchising is designed to ensure operations continue without the public being affected. Mr Grayling offered two ways forward - one which allows Stagecoach to carry on but on a "not for profit" basis. In effect they become a contractor who are only paid the cost of operation and nothing more. The second option would be for Stagecoach's franchise to cease and for the DfT to appoint a management team (similar to Directly Operated Railways that ran "East Coast") who would take over the operation and inherit all of the contracts Stagecoach currently hold and the staff. The entire structure is designed to allow things to transfer between legal entities. The key issue for the DfT is to ensure the trains keep running. Grayling will no doubt not want a public sector operation on his watch but he may have no choice but to cut Stagecoach loose. The politics are difficult all ways round. The current plan is to keep developing Mr Grayling's bizarre "East Coast Partnership" contract with a view to that being let in 2020. Therefore the interim arrangement, whatever it turns out to be, will apply for roundly 2 years. |
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Post by snoggle on Feb 5, 2018 21:38:56 GMT
This sounds like a mess, but i wonder whether the passengers will suffer ? New trains still coming. Is it a battle now between Westminster and Scottish Government? It is a mess. However the East Coast has been a mess twice before. The bigger worry all round will be the economy - all commuter and Inter City franchises will be deeply sensitive to any drop in commuter volumes or business travel. I doubt passengers will suffer - franchises swap over all the time and most run smoothly. The bigger problems recently have been more to do with Network Rail - their issues at Waterloo shafted SWR's takeover and early days. A point Mr Grayling made during questions in the House this afternoon. A SNP MP stood up and ranted on incoherently for nearly 5 minutes and asked a load of irrelevant questions. Clearly he thought the sun shone out of the posterior of the SNP's railway policy but then he would! I don't see the East Coast franchise being a huge issue for Scotland. Yes it serves Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and Aberbeen but only relatively infrequently for the latter 3 stations. It is a Westminster controlled franchise and the government have to sort it out. |
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Post by SILENCED on Feb 5, 2018 21:57:28 GMT
This sounds like a mess, but i wonder whether the passengers will suffer ? New trains still coming. Is it a battle now between Westminster and Scottish Government? It is a mess. However the East Coast has been a mess twice before. The bigger worry all round will be the economy - all commuter and Inter City franchises will be deeply sensitive to any drop in commuter volumes or business travel. I doubt passengers will suffer - franchises swap over all the time and most run smoothly. The bigger problems recently have been more to do with Network Rail - their issues at Waterloo shafted SWR's takeover and early days. A point Mr Grayling made during questions in the House this afternoon. A SNP MP stood up and ranted on incoherently for nearly 5 minutes and asked a load of irrelevant questions. Clearly he thought the sun shone out of the posterior of the SNP's railway policy but then he would! I don't see the East Coast franchise being a huge issue for Scotland. Yes it serves Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and Aberbeen but only relatively infrequently for the latter 3 stations. It is a Westminster controlled franchise and the government have to sort it out. re SNP ... Scotrail is performing so well! 😂😂😂 You would hope DFT will try and sit down and work out why this franchise keeps failing ... so any future ITT does not encourage unstainable tender requirements leading to unstainable tender submissions. |
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Post by snowman on Feb 5, 2018 22:12:26 GMT
Clearly Government doesn’t want double trouble, so they have agreed a 2 year extension on Westcoast from April until 2020 It’s rather unfair of Grayling to say they got their sums wrong, yes they did, but at the time of signing the contract there was supposed to be upgrades to the line ready for this year that aren’t yet done which should have allowed a more attractive service. |
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Post by snoggle on Feb 5, 2018 23:35:54 GMT
re SNP ... Scotrail is performing so well! 😂😂😂 You would hope DFT will try and sit down and work out why this franchise keeps failing ... so any future ITT does not encourage unstainable tender requirements leading to unstainable tender submissions. I'm not up to date on Scotrail. I keep hearing conflicting things - one minute it's wonderful, the next minute the Scottish Transport Minister is saying it's rubbish and calling for people's head on a plate then later on electrification is running late and then later still it's all smiles. Hard to know what's going on. I think the problem with the East Coast route is that it is simply being asked to do too much and there are far too many operators overall. It's the only route with major open access operations, other franchises cross it or overlap it (Cross Country, TPE, East Midlands) and I think there are so many difficult constituencies that it ends up being "promise land" in terms of more services, more direct links to London, more stops at intermediate stations, demands for more expresses etc etc. Then chuck in freight on the top. It is literally impossible to reconcile all those demands and still have a reliable service. We have Thameslink trains joining in soon which adds a new operational complexity. The route is also probably "under invested" which means the infrastructure has a number of weak spots although there seems to have been work done to improve the reliability of the overhead wires which were a perennial source of failure. As I have used the East Coast for several decades I think it is particularly vulnerable to economic fluctuations. There is a lot of business travel which rises or falls depending on the wider economy. Ditto for those people who commute from Grantham, Retford and Doncaster daily. Then chuck in those who work in London in the week but go north for the weekends. Then there is a lot of price sensitive leisure travel - weekend breaks in places like Newcastle or Edinburgh plus the usual visiting friends and relatives stuff. It's a very complex and involved market place which must make it nigh on impossible to predict how it will perform over 7 years or how it will respond to better / different services. To be honest it would probably make a lot more sense, if it were possible, to take the open access operations away but add the service requirements into the main franchise. That may allow more efficient timetables and resourcing. I also think there is more merit in ensuring operators like TPE and Cross Country use longer trains to provide much needed capacity rather than constant demands for more and more paths or conflicting moves with short trains. Unfortunately the current system doesn't allow for such broader thinking. It remains to be seen whether the DfT can write a sensible spec for the "East Coast Partnership" without causing massive upset elsewhere. I have to say I am very sceptical about Crhis Grayling's "all one happy gang" approach to managing trains and infrastructure within single franchises. I can't see it working properly on such a busy route as the East Coast. |
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Post by TNL33036 on Feb 5, 2018 23:52:54 GMT
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Post by snoggle on Feb 6, 2018 1:16:02 GMT
Well that gives a slightly enormous clue as to who they might be buying new trains from if they win the franchise. Also makes sense from the point of view of a mixed skills franchise given Grayling wants his mad "let's all be friends" approach to running a franchise to apply on South Eastern. The irony in that release which praises Alstom's work on Crossrail is that it was Alstom (apparently) who designed and provided the electrical equipment that exploded at Pudding Mill Lane. Oopps!  |
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Post by snowman on Feb 24, 2018 12:13:17 GMT
Abellio has had to pull out of the Wales franchise bid (its partner was Carillion)
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Post by TNL33036 on Mar 6, 2018 18:32:02 GMT
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Mar 11, 2018 0:10:23 GMT
Abellio has had to pull out of the Wales franchise bid (its partner was Carillion) Not many bids left for the Welsh franchise, given that even incumbent Arriva have ruled themselves out this time. |
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Post by snoggle on Mar 11, 2018 0:29:11 GMT
Abellio has had to pull out of the Wales franchise bid (its partner was Carillion) Not many bids left for the Welsh franchise, given that even incumbent Arriva have ruled themselves out this time. Indeed. Interestingly the government have put forward the regulation (probably a statutory instrument) to make the Welsh Government entirely responsible for the Welsh only parts of the franchise rather than it being a shared Cardiff / Westminster responsibility. It remains shared for all cross boundary Wales - England rail services. Explanatory Memo |
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