New Franchsing Policy - DOR rejoices!

This from Directly Operated Railways...

Today’s announcement
In this morning’s announcement, the Transport Secretary said he has decided that the East Coast franchise will now be returned to the private sector in February 2015, some five years and three months after DOR took over the business in November 2009. The decision means that the competition process for East Coast will re-commence almost immediately.

DOR has actively worked to prepare the business for a return to the private sector when the Government decided that the time was right. Due to the delay to the original programme caused by the cancellation of the West Coast competition last autumn, DOR agreed with the Government that it should prepare a fresh medium term business plan to cover a five year period starting in April 2014. This work is almost complete and will be used to guide the further development of the business over the remaining two year period of operation before the new franchise is scheduled to start, and to inform the work of bidders at the appropriate time.

East Coast today
Since 2009, the East Coast business has been transformed. The Company has returned more than £640 million in cash to the taxpayer, achieved record beaking customer satisfaction, and last year delivered the best operational performance on the route since records began in 1999.

Clearly DOR can't wait to get rid of East Coast...

On planet Vulcan railways are nationalised

Welsh national anthem mangling MP John Redwood has been having a go at Network Rail.

Not unsurprisingly he is concerned that over the last year the infrastructure operator "had to write off £567 million from the value of all the derivatives and financial instruments it holds."

Money which, the Vulcan believes (and probably quite rightly), could be better spent in his Wokingham constituency on "a bridge over the railway line to ease congestion" and "a new station", as well as "safer level crossings" nationally. 

So far so good. 

But then he has to go and spoil it all. 

He concludes his blogpost with the following: 

"I was less amused to learn from the borough council that Network Rail wants to charge the council a fee for suggesting a bridge over the railway line to try to tackle safety and congestion... 

"And they are meant to be a nationalised public service.".

Perhaps he'd like to remind Gideon and the National Audit Office of this fact?

Help DOR choose a new MD for ICWC

Time for an exciting new Eye survey!

Using your skill and judgement help Directly Operated Railways select the new MD for the soon to be nationalised InterCity West Coast franchise.

Make your contribution to running Britain's railway in the poll on the right...

UPDATE: This from Sir Roger Stair-rail...

Hmmm.. Current leader in the poll is Bradley Wiggins - who is contracted to Team Sky, owned by, er... Sky... Prop. R. Murdoch...

Murdoch or Branson? 

If only Jeremy Hunt had got Transport instead of Health !!

DOR prepares to mobilise for ICWC nationalisation

Phones have been ringing across the industry as Directly Operated Railways assembles its West Coast team of Last Resort.

Despite McLoughlin's warm words about Beardie at today's Transport Select Committee he remained clear that the DfT would continue with First's winning bid, m'learned friends allowing.

Expect the state owned tanks to arrive at Euston on the eve of the 9th December.

The brothers back a return to BR

This from Agnes Fairchild...

I read with interest this weekend's report, sponsored by RMT, ASLEF, Unite and TSSA, which urges The Labour Party to consider proposals for renationalising the railways.


And who can blame them for wanting a return to the halcyon days of 1978/79, when a Labour Government last presided over a state owned railway!

I myself am particularly excited at the prospect of reinstating SeaLink Ferries, SeaSpeed Hovercraft services and British Transport Hotels.  

Frustrated engineers in Derby are no doubt already sharpening their pencils in anticipation of the resumption of a gas turbine APT programme, (what price IEP now?).  

And the re-nationalisation of Travellers Fare will of course delight all those that mourn the passing of the British Rail sandwich.


Of course 1978/79 was also famous as the Winter of Discontent, where, after tens of millions of working days were lost through union strike action, the Government capitulated with double digit pay settlements.  

Beer, sandwiches and trebles all round!

UPDATE: This from John...

Please can I add a heartfelt wish to this:

Please can we have Red Star Parcels back at the same time?

Same day deliveries around the country were a real boon to British manufacturing industry, as all the items that were running late could be delivered at the last possible minute!

UPDATE: This from Andrew...

"Agnes Fairchild" obviously lived in a parallel world to the one containing the British Rail that I worked in! 

In mine:

• there was a relatively simple fare structure that applied across the whole country,

• returns from investment in one route provided the money to upgrade another, and it was the most cost-effective network in Europe

• operators and engineers cooperated in the design of locos and rolling stock and used their experience (something that the current Mandarins/accountants/Directors and Franchise owners wouldn't recognise if it bit them on the bum) to produce kit that lasted many decades - & much of it is still working or would be if it hadn't been thrown away,

• the timetables were designed to fit together and to make the best use of resources (& were improving) - rather than just trying to maximise flows to and from London- [how can anyone justify making all passengers wanting to go from a triangle covering the area from Northampton and Newport to Crewe having to use just the Birmingham to Scotland "service" of single Voyagers to get to Glasgow and Edinburgh alternately?  Just look at the table 51/65 services from the 1970's and see the hourly options to get to everywhere - on proper trains of adequate capacity that - like many others - were strengthened or duplicated at busy times]

• most rolling stock was reasonably well suited to its use...

• staff knew about the network outside their own patch, there was a Control who thought about passengers' overall journeys and people were mostly all in it together

I could go on (and on and on...!).

I also have happy memories of boat trains (and multiple reliefs) feeding people and luggage onto ferries within a few yards of the Channel port station platforms, leading on to an equally-simple transfer onto overnight trains to all sort of places across Europe.

Passenger Control also ensured that on one occasion when because of some delay our young family arrived at Shrewsbury from Bristol via New St and Wolverhampton (where we briefly alerted platform staff to the problem) an hour after the last Wrexham service had left.  We were told to stay on board and the unit ran non-stop to Wrexham to deliver us! 

It might not have been "cost effective" in the short term, but it built faith in the reliability of "the railway" and ensured further use.  

UPDATE: This from Logistical...

How lovely to see the old "British Rail sandwich" canard being rolled out again. It brought a nostalgic tear to my eye.

UPDATE: This from Chionanthus Virginicus

I can confirm that the BR sandwich is alive and well in.... Switzerland !!

The trolley (?) on the splendid Golden Pass service (Montreux - Zweisimmen) served two slices of dry bread interlaced with a piece of rather rubbery gruyere - no lettuce, mayo, of fillings etc and only a glister of butter.  

Each to his own taste ...but the train was, of course, On Time.



 

DfT flounders for answers to railway reform

In advance of Friday's industry briefing on rail reform, government spinners have been hard at work.

In the FT today the Department unveiled its latest BIG idea...

Passenger trains along Cumbria's coast would be run by the state-owned body responsible for taking apart and cleaning up waste from civil nuclear plants under an offer made in response to government plans to overhaul rail policy.

Direct Rail Services, a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority that operates freight trains, has held talks with Cumbria county council on taking over the running of passenger services on the coastal branch line between Carnforth and Carlisle.

So let's get this straight.

The solution to the problems of the rail industry is to errr.... get a nationalised company to run the trains!

Well at least this one's British, but for how long?

Cross Country still in breach of franchise commitment

A pretty map has arrived in The Fact Compiler's inbox from retailing website mytrainticket.co.uk

But what's this.

Something is strangely missing from the list of TOC's providing on-board WiFi.

Eye wonders what it could be...


Perhaps time for DafT to stop pussy footing around and actually take meaningful action against DB owned Arriva Cross Country for breaching its franchise commitment.

Eye has something like this in mind...


Presumably swapping one nationalised operator for another won't be a problem?

Nationalised railways flex their muscles...

This from Rose Hill...

In the very week that the European Commission publishes its Recast of the First Railway Package, is it any co-incidence that ATOC publishes its proposals to re-monopolise the UK rail sector?

Around a third of UK franchises are now owned, or partly owned by European state owned railway companies, who make no secret of their dislike of liberalisation.

Imagine the joy if the UK turned its back on it after all and went back to those heady days when we all worked together in a single company in a low cost, cheap and cheerful, kind of way.

Except of course there would have to be more regional companies now – a German one, a French one, a Dutch one and so on.

Of course that would be ok, because they’re all used to working together.

The French and German governments in fact met recently to discuss their opposition to the Recast and by sheer chance, SNCF have now discovered that it will be far too expensive to operate passenger trains in Germany after all. Just fancy that!

Mind you, at least the state owned passenger operators have extensive experience of managing track and signalling, unlike the bus companies who run the other two thirds of the franchises…

Villiers vignettes... on the benefits of privatisation

Telegrammed by Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road
That Bourbon moment...

Theresa Villiers: on 22 July. "The hon. Gentleman's views on the railways are well known, although I am afraid that I do not share them. It would have been impossible for there to have been the significant growth in passenger numbers that we have seen since privatisation without the benefits that private sector innovation and enterprise have brought. Reversing things and renationalising the *railways* would be a retrograde step."

Oh bliss, John Major lives!! Talk dirty to us, Theresa

But why did you miss out 'entrepreneurial flair'.

And where was the obligatory side swipe at 'deeply inefficient British Rail'?

The key to good retro lies in the detail. So, sadly, only 7 out of 10.

But thanks for trying.

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Surely the bulk of the growth came after the Strategic Rail Authority was subsumed into DfT and the state took control of timetabling, rolling stock policy, franchise service specification.

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Isn't "rolling stock policy" an oxymoron?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

So how does Theresa explain the growth on state owned London Underground over the same period which was equal to, if not greater than, that experienced on the privatised BR network?

Rail privatisation doomed - Official

BBC reporting that state owned DB is close to signing a £1.6bn deal for Arriva.

Told you privatisation would never work.

The battle for Arriva - Eye backs a winner!

This just in from Ol' Rosbiff - flexing his bowstring finger (and showing that he still has one).

In an attempt to revisit their takeover bid from 1056 years ago, the French Government is supporting SNCF in their pursuit of Arriva.

Meanwhile German rivals DB are dusting off more recent plans to show how railways should be run efficiently for the next 1000 years...

It's a close call between the two.

Of course our German friends are past masters at efficiently moving vast numbers of people in the most trying of circumstances.

But given the ORR's demand that the UK rail asset register is up to scratch perhaps the Old Enemy has the better claim - offering clear proof in the Domesday Book of how do the job very thoroughly (although regrettably they didn't list stations in the 1067 edition).

Either way the brothers must be celebrating.

What with a return to state ownership in the offing.

UPDATE: This from Herr Flickering Tail-Lamp...

Does that mean that DB is no longer interested in Go-Ahead?

UPDATE: This from Lazarus...

My pre-conquest history isn't that great but what actually happened in 954 AD (1056 years ago)?

Also, any fule kno the Doomsday Book came out in 1086. The 1067 version must have been a very early draft.

Perhaps it took 19 years to translate? Eye stands corrected. (Ol' Rosbiff you're fired. Ed)

UPDATE: This from a slightly over cooked Ol' Rosbiff...

I was at uni with the DfT team which worked on recent aborted new carriage procurements - so I must have picked up some bad habits in my maths calculations....

Mediaballs - Independent on Sunday

This exciting East Coast competition from the Independent on Sunday...


But what's this?


The IoS is half right - it's just that the train belongs to another country's state-owned operator...

UPDATE: This from The Master...

It's obvious that the picture isn't a UK station as the couple haven't been dragged off by a couple of PCSOs for threatening the security of the state by taking pictures on a railway station.

Head of East Coast Main Line on the wireless today

You and Yours on BBC Radio 4 today promises an interview with "the woman who has taken over the East Coast Main Line".

As Eye is unsure whether this refers to Elaine Holt or Karen Boswell he will be listening in.

Tune in at 12:00.

UPDATE: Elaine Holt confirms on-air that there are "no plans to take on any more franchises".

Looks like the Noble Lord's Cross Default threat has been relegated to the pi$$ and wind department.

UPDATE: This from a pedantic Chionanthus virginicus...

I don't wish to be pedantic but Ms Holt actually said

"...there are no plans from my perspective to take in any more train companies..." .

Perhaps there may be others who do have plans...???

It's jolly easy to be clever with Listen Again! Eye stands corrected.

RMT opinion poll shocker

According to an ICM poll for the RMT, 70% of the population want to see a return to state control of the railways.

General secretary Bob Crow said: "This poll shows that the Government are miles out of step with voters."

Bob went on to observe that the Bishop of Rome is Catholic and that bears have been known to relieve themselves in woods.

No shit sherlock.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Interesting that on the same day the New Zealand Transport Minister is begging someone to take their railway off their hands.

White flags fly at Marsham Street?

Not so much rowing back, more the full 60 knot reversal!

Theresa Villiers (Shadow Secretary of State for Transport)
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport when his Department plans to begin the pre-qualification process for invitations to tender for the Inter-City East Coast franchise.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary)
In the event that a state company takes on responsibility for the inter city east coast services later this year, the Department for Transport will consult on a new franchise specification with a view to issuing an invitation to tender in the summer of 2010.

"In the event"!?!

Why, suddenly, has an element of doubt crept into the proceedings?

UPDATE: This from The Archer...

As DafT are supremely confident that they can enforce Cross Default it's possible that NatEx have waved the white flag.

So expect an announcement soon on the date of their exit from East Coast.

And perhaps if they play ball DafT will let them keep the other two until 2011.

Wind-up in the Willows #3 (or Laudate Bowker!)

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
Good grief. How much faster does poor old Moley have to back pedal?

Here he is yesterday - eulogising the same bus bandits who reneged on their contracts - or not.

"Punctuality, which is passengers' No. 1 concern, has improved dramatically. It has risen steadily since National Express East Coast took over the franchise, with the moving annual average rising from 81.7 to 87.6 per cent. Daily punctuality levels are now frequently above 90 per cent., and several 100 per cent. days have been achieved."

"We have seen tremendous innovation on the route, with wi-fi being introduced first to 10 trains and then to the whole east coast inter-city fleet—I have ambitions to see that on the service that I use every week."

"Stations on the route have also benefited from substantial and sustained investment, with the quality of the facilities being offered being recognised at places such as Durham, which was declared station of the year at the 2008 national rail awards."

"Finally, we should remember that the inter-city east coast franchise is one of those rare breeds that return a premium to the Department, and that premium is reinvested in the railway industry. Events of the recent past may have reduced the premiums available, but we can still confidently expect a significant return."

The phrase 'Eating sh*t whilst smiling' springs to mind!

Wind-up in the Willows #2

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
More brown trouser laundering by Moley.

"The hon. Member for Peterborough asserted that other operators have received revenue support sooner than four years into the franchise.

"It is true that the First Great Western franchise included a provision whereby revenue support became available after two years, but that was an exceptional arrangement."

So DfT never renegotiates franchise - except when DfT got the franchise specification wrong and First Group have us over a barrel in which case it is an 'exceptional arrangement'.

First for benefitting from NatEx discomfort

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
When and if NXEC runs out of committed money and NatEx hands back the keys, it also gives DafT the £32 million performance bond.

Say it's going to cost DfT a couple of million to run its Holting (geddit) company until Inter-City East coast is re-let again, that 30 million will come in very handy when it comes to collaring FGW's revenue shortfall which is going to be well north of £60m in the current financial year.

How fortunate that DfT Rail's policy of not renegotiating franchises didn't apply to FGW when cap and collar was brought forward by two years.

Wind-up in the Willows

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
It looks as though poor Moley has been given the task of cleaning up after Lord Adonis.

With Marsham Street suffering a collective brown trouser moment after Lord Adonis gave Beau Bowker and his boyz in da NEG hood a very public dissing, there may be quite a bit of cleaning up to do.

This written answer from Chris Mole on the 13th July:

‘Under the National Express East Coast franchise agreement, National Express Group is obliged to meet its parent company loan obligation of a £40 million loan facility. It is also open to National Express Group, at their discretion, to make available support in excess of this’

So NatEx isn't 'walking away' from its contractual obligations, as the Noble Lord repeatedly proclaimed, after all.

Although if Lord Adonis went round with the hat any discretionary tips would be gratefully accepted. And who determined the size of the parent company loan obligation for this 'medium risk' franchise?

Er, DafT!

National Express - making careers simpler

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
TUPE regulations mean that front line East Coast staff have little to fear on the jobs front when the troubled franchise transfers from NatEx to the state.

In reality the franchise will actually transfer to the ubiquitous First Class Partnerships, the Operator of Last Resort and DafT's chosen henchmen for nationalisation work, whose members will be dropped into senior positions at the TOC to replace those directly employed by the departing owner group.

Leaving the displaced bods to rely on NatEx internal re-deployment schemes when the Route of the Flying Scotsman joins Royal Mail, British Waterways and Jobcentre Plus in state ownership.

Of course NatEx is not flavour of the month at DafT right now, and may yet have all its rail businesses confiscated, which Frankly may reduce the remaining career opportunities.

A development that has led cynical train planners to propose changing the reporting number of the iconic 10.00 departure from the Cross to 1P45.