National Express makes best of bad job

Good news for fans of owner groups that are shadows of their former selves...

Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive, said: "We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Berlin Ringbahn. Following on from our recent success in winning two contracts to operate regional rail services in North-Rhine Westphalia, it confirms that our experience as the operator of the UK's leading franchise is recognised internationally.

That would be just the one, single, sole, solitary UK franchise held by National Express would it?

How the mighty have fallen. 

Rail Barbie emerges at National Express...

This from National Express...

Elaine Holt to join National Express

We are delighted to announce that Elaine Holt will be joining us from early January as a Bid Director in the Rail team.

Elaine brings a wealth of industry experience to National Express. As well as her most recent position as Chief Executive of Directly Operated Railways and Chairman of East Coast Main Line Company Limited, she has previously been Managing Director of First Capital Connect, held senior positions across First Group and spent 13 years at British Airways.

Elaine's appointment demonstrates our continued determination to assemble a very strong bid team to allow us to compete for upcoming franchises.

Suggestions that NatEx intends to exit rail appear somewhat premature...

UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles...

TFC, you're losing your touch!

This would have made a much better headline:

"National Express calls Holt to rail franchising!"

NatEx not interested in West Coast franchise?

This from The FT...

“We’re not interested in intercity franchises; we need to prove ourselves with c2c and East Anglia and use them to win back political confidence,” the [National Express] source said.

Eye wonders how long it will be before DafT implores NatEx to beef up bids for the new West Coast franchise that will run to 2025?

NatEx - learns lessons from East Coast debacle

Just how far is Dean 'Long-tongue' Finch prepared to go, to ingratiate himself with Petrol-head and Cruella de Villiers?

This toe curling piece of National Express arslikan from the Gruaniad:

Dean Finch, chief executive of the firm, said the Department for Transport was right to warn passengers that it may scrap a fares cap that limits price increases to 1% above inflation.

"It is absolutely legitimate for anybody to look at, in terms of raising revenues," said Finch.

"Everybody complains about rail fares being awful, but we have more than 1bn journeys on the railways every year. That tells you that in the overall scheme of things the railway is an effective form of travel and is an integral part of peoples' lives."

Of course National Express knows all about 'raising revenues'.

Why less than a year ago the Bus Bandit group was banned from bidding for new franchises by former Secretary of State Lord Adonis.

The reason?

Whilst its East Coast franchise may have been an "integral part of peoples lives" it certainly wasn't that integral to National Excess, who threatened to dump the operation unless they paid a lot less lovely lolly to the tax-payer.

Sadly it was not to be and the group not only forfeited the premier East Coast franchise but its then Chief Exec as well.

No matter. National Express have obviously learnt their lesson.

No doubt NatEx will continue to focus on 'raising revenues', but this time at the expense of the poor bloody passenger.

Ministerial Statement on Franchising

RAIL FRANCHISING

My Department will shortly begin a consultation exercise on the future of rail franchising policy. This consultation will provide industry partners with the opportunity to comment on the Government’s approach to rail franchising and whether bidders for longer franchises would be able to offer investment in improvements to trains and services. It will also allow the industry to set out its proposals for improving the efficiency and value for money of rail franchises, for both taxpayers and fare payers. I will set out further details to the House in due course.

To enable the next Greater Anglia and Essex Thameside franchises - which are currently in the process of being re-let - to fully reflect the changes resulting from this review of policy the competitions for these franchises, which were started in January 2010, are to be cancelled.

It is currently expected that a new competition for the Greater Anglia franchise will be advertised by the end of the year, after the consultation responses have been considered, with the Essex Thameside franchise following in Autumn 2011.

So that's the formerly doomed National Express back in from the cold.

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

As with all ministerial statements the important bit is what is omitted.

So no reference to what is planned for nationalised East Coast.

Or for that matter the superfluous additional layer of bureaucracy that is Directly Operated Railways.

My departmental colleagues play a most amusing new game.

It is called 'What is the point of Elaine Holt?'.

Answers on a postcard please to Petrol-head c/o Marsham Street.

UPDATE: This from The Major...

Eye's cut and paste of Villiers' statement on franchising omits the final paragraph which talks about East Coast.

It doesn't say much of course... simply talking about "some consequent changes to the procurement timescales previously published".

I guess that means EC stays in state hands for longer.

NatEx continues to exorcise Bowker legacy

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
So National Express Group are not renewing their sponsorship deal with the Football Association.

Of course the deal was originally done by Blackburn Rovers fan Richard Bowker, before his departure to head up Union Railways in the United Arab Emirates.

This from the Grauniad...

The Football Association is facing a new financial headache after it emerged that the transport giant National Express would not be renewing its multimillion-pound sponsorship deal.

Of course this news is probably of limited interest to Eye readers.


But what a marvelous opportunity to publish a picture containing two things that have vanished forever from the East Coast Main Line.

White joins Stagecoach

This from TransportXtra...

Former National Express Group chief executive Phil White is to join Stagecoach's board as a non-executive director.

Souter circling NatEx?

Will the last one at Tube Lines turn out the lights

Dean Finch will become Chief Executive of National Express Group on February 15th 2010.

Tube Lines gain is National Express' loss (shurley shome mishtake? Ed)

NatEx "considers" bidding for current franchises

This internal announcement from the formerly doomed National Express (with a bowler tip to Sinoda):

Dear All

I wanted to update you about reports you may have seen in this morning’s newspapers, that Lord Adonis, the Secretary of State for Transport, has announced plans for the re-tendering of the East Anglia and c2c franchises as part of wider reforms for the rail industry.

The reports relate to the first step in the tender process which will see the outline terms for the new franchises sent to potential bidders. The next step will be the formal tendering process, which Lord Adonis has confirmed will not take place until after the general election.

Our position is that we will take time to consider the franchise documents before coming to a decision about re-tendering.

One of the things being proposed is that the c2c franchise will be known as Essex Thameside. This is the Department for Transport’s (DfT) name for the franchise and does not impact on our c2c branding which we will continue to use.

We have a fantastic record of running railways and I know you will continue to focus on delivering great operational performance and unbeatable customer service. The recent bad weather has demonstrated the enormous efforts you make to ensure we run services for our customers.

c2c is the best-performing train company in the UK , a position it has held over a number of years. It consistently delivers the highest levels of PPM performance and has the achieved the best ever MAA in the rail industry of 96.2%. It has the best customer satisfaction rating amongst franchised operators in the most recent National Passenger Survey and operates the most reliable fleet in UK as recognised by the recent Golden Spanner awards.

National Express East Anglia has delivered consistent improvements in PPM performance improving its moving annual average performance from 85% in 2004 at start of franchise to 91.6% at end of Period 9 in December 2009. Our Service Improvement Plan is underway to introduce 30 new trains and17 refurbished trains as part of £185m deal with the DfT, and already we are delivering 28,000 extra seats for our customers each week.

We do a great job every day, and I know that’s a record we are all proud of.

As ever, I will continue to keep you updated with developments as and when appropriate.

Kind regards
David Franks

What a lot of words to convey a fairly simple message.

Allow Eye to translate: 'Adonis - you're a dead man walking. Tories - National Express is still here and if you let us, we can bring something to the party.'

Subtle, not.

UPDATE: This from The Archer...

From Lord Adonis yesterday:
"Recent events have also shown how vital it is that we make it harder for operators to walk away from their franchises, so performance bonds will rise and we will expect much larger guarantees from parent companies."

And from today’s OJEU notice:
The future franchisees should have sufficient financial backing to place a performance bond and a season ticket bond. For Essex Thameside, these are expected to be up to GBP 15 million and GBP 20 million respectively. For Greater Anglia, these are expected to be up to GBP 40 million and GBP 70 million respectively

So National Express will indeed need to bring something to the party if they want to retender

Namely bonds to the value of £145 million!

Snow plays havoc with Adonis plans for NatEx!

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
Let's hope that Lord Lenin Adonis is keeping his promise to monitor closely the performance of the remaining franchises operated by evil National Express.

Under cover of the snow chaos those back-sliders and recidivists at ludicrously named c2c are not only operating a full timetable but as at 12.00 the PPM for the day is a risible 97.67%, with three trains arriving outside the TOC's 4 minute target!

The sooner Elaine Holt takes over, the better...

UPDATE: This just in from Rudi over at Merseyrail...

Merseyrail trains are running normally (as they did yesterday) to the normal (not revised!) timetable with PPM for today at 94% at the moment.

And remember, our trains are 3rd rail and there is lots of snow on the ground; not usually a good combo...

There have been no buses at all on Merseyside since 1700 last night and a lot of roads are closed or impassable so we are virtually the only way of travelling into and out of the city.

All of our staff got to work first thing this morning, a lot of them on foot, and all stations are open.

Good effort!

UPDATE: This from a Mr Patrick...

Down here we have cars stuck in driveways and at the side of the road, airport closed and all local buses suspended but 4 trains per hour from my local station to the city centre with minimal delays!

Just goes to show what the real 21st century mode of transport is!

UPDATE: This just in from Captain Deltic (for it is he)...

What a strange coincidence, the two TOCs with the highest PPM scores also seem to cope best with the worst weather conditions since the last ice age - and on busy commuter routes.

Could this be a reflection on the quality of the management by any chance?

NatEx reinvogorated in the New Year!

The formerly-doomed National Express is playing hardball, is spinning or has taken Lord Adonis' shilling.

This from the BBC...

Rail fares for National Express East Anglia are either being frozen or being reduced, the train company has said.

Eye awaits confirmation from Readers, Passenger Focus or Barry Doe (to whom we wish a speedy recovery).

UPDATE: This from Passenger Focus...

There will be some increases peppered around but broadly it appears to be true!

Good for them!

Whether restrictions have changed is something we are still looking into...