Blunder hits rail franchise chain (From The Argus)
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Blunder hits rail franchise chain
8:06am Thursday 4th October 2012 in News
Passengers hoping First Capital Connect would be stripped of its franchise could have to wait for years longer.
The rail company was due to lose control of the Brighton to Bedford Thameslink service in September next year when a new larger franchise is introduced.
But after the collapse of the deal yesterday for First Group to run the West Coast Mainline because of civil service blunders, the Government has halted the handover.
The new franchise for Sussex will cover existing First Capital Connect services to and from Brighton along the main line through London Bridge and to and from destinations north of London. Southern services that operate across Sussex will be amalgamated into the new franchise in 2015.
Five companies were being considered to run the services - the Go- Ahead Group, the First Group, the Stagecoach Group, the MTR Corporation and the Abellio Group and a decision was due in the coming months.
But yesterday transport secretary Patrick Coughlin was forced to admit that his department had botched the running of the competition to take over the West Coast services so badly that he could not trust the process.
He has ordered an independent inquiry and halted the transfer of any other franchises while the system is reviewed.
Mr McCoughlin told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I want to make it absolutely clear that neither FirstGroup nor Virgin did anything wrong.
“The fault of this lies wholly and squarely with the Department for Transport.
“Both of those two companies acted properly on the advice that they were getting from the department."
For the full story see today's Argus.
Comments(6)
robertster
says...
9:38am Thu 4 Oct 12
It's depressing to think that although the article talks of FCC being "stripped" of the franchise, they could end up controlling ALL of the trains in the Southern, Thameslink and Southeastern areas.
The Heretic
says...
9:54am Thu 4 Oct 12
HJarrs
says...
10:11am Thu 4 Oct 12
robertster wrote:Yes, I agree that the TFL system would be better than the on we have, but a mutual company run for passenger benefit and national interst would be best in my opinion. Interestingly, the TFL contracter is the national German railway company, which also owns several of the UK franchises and the main freight company. So whilst I may complain about shareholders gaining I must temper this with the fact that at least the German taxpayers are beneficiaries.
I agree with HJarrs. But even if the government wasn't prepared to fully nationalise the franchises they should consider alternative models such as the very successful London Overground. Here a private franchise was replaced with a system where TfL controls the network and just employs the private company to do the day-to-day running of it. It's depressing to think that although the article talks of FCC being "stripped" of the franchise, they could end up controlling ALL of the trains in the Southern, Thameslink and Southeastern areas.
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
10:58am Thu 4 Oct 12
HJarrs wrote:Absolutely spot-on.
I heard this morning that the costs were likely to be £300 million completely wasted i.e. pocketed by lawyers. That is just for one franchise. This could easily end up costing the tax payer £500 million plus, with not put one extra train on the tracks.
It lifts the lid on the senseless costs of the privitised railway industry. The franchises should be left to lapse and return at no cost to our ownership. For example not-for-profit Network Rail has been a big improvement on its private predessor Railtrack and East Coast franchise has recently come back into public ownership.
Railway privitisation has done nothing but lined the pockets of shareholders and senior managers and any improvements have been brought about through extortionate public subsidy.
BrightonArchitect
says...
8:09pm Thu 4 Oct 12
HJarrs says...
9:27am Thu 4 Oct 12
It lifts the lid on the senseless costs of the privitised railway industry. The franchises should be left to lapse and return at no cost to our ownership. For example not-for-profit Network Rail has been a big improvement on its private predessor Railtrack and East Coast franchise has recently come back into public ownership.
Railway privitisation has done nothing but lined the pockets of shareholders and senior managers and any improvements have been brought about through extortionate public subsidy.