DfT issues ITTs for LTS and Thameslink 3000

This from the DfT... 

The first invitation to tenders have been published by DfT since launch of a new rail franchising schedule.

The government has today (26 September 2013) published 2 invitations to tender (ITT) for the Essex Thameside and Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise competitions. 

These are the first to be issued to bidders since the Department for Transport launched its new rail franchising schedule in March.

They have been shaped by the recommendations made by the independent Brown review into rail franchising. 

ITTs ask bidders to set out detailed proposals of what they will deliver should they win the franchise competition.

Rail Minister Simon Burns said:

"Rail franchising has been a force for good on our railways and the department has been working hard to roll out its new franchising schedule. 

"These are the first invitations to tender to be issued since the independent Brown review into rail franchising, which endorsed the government’s approach to the railways.

"We are now looking for innovative bids that provide value for money for taxpayers and put passengers right back at the heart of our railways." 

It is anticipated the successful bids will be announced in May next year. The Essex Thameside contract will begin in September 2014 and run for 15 years.

The Thameslink and Great Northern elements of the TSGN franchise will start in September 2014 with the Southern element being phased in by July 2015. The franchise will run for 7 years. 

ENDS

Has c2c been forgotten?

So what has Petrol-head got planned for the franchise with the silliest name?

C2C wasn't mentioned in recent franchise announcements and the staff are still working on the DfT instruction that the franchise ends in May 2011.

Meanwhile, according to DfT, the new Essex Thameside franchise isn't due to be tendered until 2012

With no refranchising process announced will the trains stop running in six months time?

Unsettling times for the staff who operate the railway as their future is looking somewhat uncertain.

Meanwhile expect performance to collapse as anyone who is any good heads for pastures new.

Mutley moment at the DfT

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Oak leaves have been added to Lord Adonis' Орден Ленина in recognition of another heroic act of railway statism that will get them dancing round their handbags in Essex.

Andy baby has stepped in where even uber-privatiser Richard Bowker feared to tread and announced that when c2c is refranchised in 2011 the line will be named Essex Thameside.

It would have been oak leaves with diamonds had he reverted to London Tilbury and Sarf'end - the railway that serves where it says on the tin.