Getting DafTer

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road

All four shortlisted bidders for the new Thameslink train fleet are expected to submit fully funded finance packages.

At an optimistic £1.5 million per vehicle that means ringing commitments totalling £6.6bn.

In these turbulent financial times that much finance simply doesn't exist.

Particularly when the customer is calling for price cuts on leases it was happy to sign less than a year ago.

So DafT has asked each bidder to come up with funding for a quarter of its fleet on the basis that the commitments from the three unsuccessful bidders can be transferred to the winner's financial pot.

Railway Eye finds it hard to believe too, but we are assured it is true by a harassed looking man in red braces down to his last Porsche.

'Allo 'allo

Whilst DafT occupies itself with moving the deckchairs around it is instructive to see how our continental cousins are meeting the challenge of encouraging modal shift from air to rail.

The FT revealed last week that national-flag carrier Air France is looking to move short-haul flight passengers onto Europe’s high-speed railways.

The company is holding discussions with Paris-based Veolia Transport with the aim of having Veolia run Air France branded trains from the airline’s hub at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport to destinations across Europe.

The potential for such services can only increase as the number of electrified high speed lines in Europe multiply. Last year the LGV Est opened between Paris and Strasbourg and a new line linking Antwerp and Amsterdam is due to open next year.

If the plan succeeds AirFrance will reduce both fuel costs and carbon emissions.

Meanwhile in the UK electrification policy can be summed up by the word "maybe", additional lines to address capacity have been kicked into the long grass whilst NR (at DafT's behest) undertakes a "study" and procurement of a 21st Century UK high speed train is mired in non-compliant bids and late reshuffles to bid consortia.

C'est Magnifique, Mais Ce N'est Pas la Gare

Que bono?

Who stands to benefit from today's leak that Network Rail is to undertake a review into the construction of five new main lines?

Not Network Rail which is struggling with its obligations to maintain and renew the existing network. Were NR to conclude that more lines are required then it is unlikely it would be able to undertake such labour and capital intensive projects itself.

Nor the TOCs who would much rather the infrastructure owner addressed current capacity constraints through incremental upgrades (additional junctions and doubling of track) or infill electrification to allow better utilisation of scarce rolling stock.

Perhaps the greatest surprise of all is that this major review isn't being led by the Department for Transport which, after all, is responsible for transport strategy. More importantly it would fall to the DfT to steer any resulting schemes through Parliament and secure funding from a reluctant Treasury (which still hasn't stumped up for Crossrail yet).

The story emerged on Friday, not from within the notoriously leaky railway community, but via political sources in the Westminster village. Industry commentators, even the very well informed, were caught completely unawares.

The timing of the leak was telling, it followed the damning speech made by Chris Bolt on Thursday, in which he lambasted the industry for a lack of strategic vision and declared that the Office of Rail Regulation would now produce its own long term strategy to fill the gap.

By getting Network Rail to undertake this White Elephant of an exercise Ministers will achieve a number of aims.

Firstly they can spike ORR's guns by pretending that work on a long term strategy is just about to begin.

Secondly they can suppress calls for incremental capacity increases and infill electrification by making these subordinate to the results of this massive study.

Finally, it will effectively bury High Speed 2 - the proposed high speed route that will link London to the West Midlands and which has broad industry support. With todays announcement that five high speed lines are to be evaluated the industry consensus on HS2 will dissolve in a frenzy of self destructive self interest.

As if proof were needed of the cynicism of this exercise today's leak claimed that NR will review two options to Birmingham one alongside the West Coast Main Line the other alongside the Chiltern route. Thus setting even local supporters of HS2 against one another.

Sir Humphrey and his masters must be very pleased with the way yesterday's fag packet idea has been portrayed by the media today as a major development in railway policy !

Micromanagement

Much excitement at DafT this morning following reports from Down Under that Rio Tinto plans to introduce diverless trains on its 800 mile freight network.

For an investment of just $371m Rio hopes to be able to do away with drivers, increase capacity and control the network from Perth some 800 miles away.

The Fact Compiler looks forward to visiting the new DfT National Control Centre in Marsham Street.