Tag: Rail Franchising
£75k fine a drop in the ocean for First Group
Train operator First Capital Connect has just been fined £75,000 by a UK judge regarding an incident in which up to 700 passengers were stuck for over 3 hours on a train, partially in a tunnel, with no toilets, no ventilation and minimal lighting.
To a conglomerate such as First, which reported over £200m profits in 2012, this has to be a drop in the ocean, and is an absolutely derisory amount compared to the – just over £100 per stranded passenger.
It also begs the question about who is going to pay for this. First Group shareholders? Unlikely. It feels more likely to come out of our pockets, as fare increases, reduced franchise payments to the Treasury, or increased subsidy from the DfT.
We can't change the "token" fine imposed by the judge – it should probably have had an extra couple of zeros on the end, really – but what might be reasonable is an assurance from the First Capital Connect MD David Statham or Group CEO Tim O'Toole that this fine will ring-fenced, such that it is paid entirely out of group surplus, and must not be allowed to impact the travelling public at large.
Better still, maybe they could pay it out of their no doubt generous bonuses, given the buck stops with them?
I'm also wondering how much has actually been learned from this incident, given the "analysis paralysis" that seems to affect rail operating incidents at the moment?
Author Mike HughesPosted on 16 September 2013 Categories Opinion, Rail, Transport, TravelTags fine, First Capital Connect, First Group, Rail Franchising, Railways, stranded passengers, utter farce
Here's an idea, Richard… #seatslineupwithwindows
The folks over at Virgin Trains are well-chuffed that they are going to continue to run the West Coast Mainline on a "caretaker" franchise until 2014.
The decision, along with the promise of a review of rail franchising in the UK, also seems to have restored RB's wavering faith in the system, as he is now appealing to the public for ideas to help Virgin win the 2014 competition.
So, I have a suggestion…
I'm really not a fan of poor industrial design, and think the Pendolino contains a number of design faux-pas which negatively affect the passenger experience, which I've written about before.
But, the biggest of these has to be that the seats don't line up with the windows.
Despite this being cracked by railway engineers as long ago as the 1900s, the view from the window seems to have become a forgotten talent when it comes to putting together modern trains such as the Pendolino.
Fixing the existing problem on the Pendolino won't be easy. It has significantly less window area that it's predecessors (or the Voyagers that Virgin also use). Maybe a more sympathetic reconfiguration of the interior, such as moving luggage racks to positions which don't have a window, will make things better for the existing equipment, which will be approaching it's mid-life at franchise renewal time.
But, it needs to be one of the things built into the specification when ordering new trains in the future. It will improve the passenger experience by making the train seem more spacious, and help combat the travel-sickness some associate with travelling on the Pendolino.
So, a view outside. Maybe that's the biggest single improvement that Virgin Trains could deliver. Make the #seatslineupwithwindows.
Author Mike HughesPosted on 19 December 2012 Categories Opinion, Rail, TravelTags #seatslineupwithwindows, industrial design, passenger comfort, Pendolino, Rail Franchising, Richard Branson, Virgin Trains, West Coast Franchise1 Comment on Here's an idea, Richard… #seatslineupwithwindows
West Coast Rail Franchise hits the buffer stops
BBC Breakfast journalist Susannah Reid: "Well, this is all very embarrassing for you."
Transport Secretary, Patrick McLaughlin: "Yes"
Late last night, the UK Government brought a stop to the controversial Inter City West Coast rail franchise, which had been awarded to First Group, displacing the incumbent franchisee Virgin Trains.
Not only was there criticism that the DfT had awarded the franchise to First largely on the basis that it offered the Treasury more money over the life of the franchise, but that the First bid was also allegedly "lower quality", while Virgin criticised the First bid as"unsustainable", suggesting that First's West Coast operations would go the way of East Coast out of Kings Cross – that First would surrender the the franchise, and the Government would be left to use public money to pick up the pieces.
There was also public outcry and grass-roots "underdog support" for Virgin's operations, including a massive e-petition to Government to urge investigation and reconsideration of the decision.
Due to give evidence this to the judicial review Virgin had requested, the Government have slammed the brakes on hard, while reportedly some DfT staff members involved in the process have been suspended pending an investigation.
But, this all has a cost to the taxpayer.
Firstly, the Government have said they will need to reimburse costs to the franchise applicants – and this probably means the non-shortlisted companies (Abellio and Veolia) as well as First and Virgin. Branson's blog said that the recent ICWC bid cost Virgin £14m, just to put the franchise bid together.
So, we're looking at shelling out something in the region of £50m of public money to the companies who applied for the franchise, to defray their expenses in placing bids.
There's also the question of who operates the West Coast from December. There's two main options – 1) Allow Virgin to continue, or 2) Have the DfT directly operate the railway, as on the East Coast route from Kings Cross.
Branson had previously offered to continue running the trains while the decision was reviewed.
If this offer still stands, and is non-prejudicial, it would be foolish of the DfT to squander even more public money by not taking it up.
Update 20.00 3/10/12:
The CEO of Passenger Focus has made a very valid point on his blog: Passenger confidence must be maintained. People are creatures of habit and don't like uncertainty.
Author Mike HughesPosted on 3 October 2012 3 October 2012 Categories Opinion, Rail, TravelTags First Group, rail franchise, Rail Franchising, Richard Branson, UK Railway Privatisation, Virgin, Virgin Trains, West Coast Franchise, west coast operations3 Comments on West Coast Rail Franchise hits the buffer stops
When your staff are your best asset…
All stop on the West Coast yesterday, as a mahoosive signal failure at the important Motherwell signalling centre brought everything to a stand between the Scottish Border and Glasgow and Edinburgh. A number of people were stuck on trains in the affected area, which were unable to move for as long as three hours. Other trains were held at the station stop prior to entering the affected area, such as Carlisle.
One of the stuck people was comedienne Janey Godley, who appeared to be slowly losing her mind despite travelling in First Class, and tried to open up a 140 character at a time dialogue with the @virgintrains twitter person.
Eventually things got on the move again, and while Janey had to settle for sausages as opposed to "sex and mince", today she did point out the kindness of the on-train crew toward the passengers during the extended delay…
Nicely done by the Virgin Trains' On-Train staff, who seemed to put a human face on the extended delay. Good to see that staff morale is still relatively high despite the ongoing wrangling over the franchise. Talking of which…
As Virgin Rail Group has applied for a judicial review of the DfT decision to award the "ICWC" franchise to First Group, this has brought the franchise handover date itself of 9th December into question.
We've got the Branson offer to continue to run the franchise on a non-profit basis (donating profits to good causes) while the review proceeds.
However, the other option is that the DfT take control of the franchise until such time as it can be awarded and smooth transfer of responsibility can happen, not dissimilar as they had to do with East Coast.
But, ask yourself, is it a good use of public funds to incorporate a new entity to run ICWC on an interim basis (this includes hiring management, etc.), rather than accept Virgin's offer to keep things on an even keel until a decision can be made.
As long as the VRG offer can be taken on a non-prejudicial basis, could this be delivering best value for the taxpayer?
In any case, spare a thought for the staff caught up in this…
Author Mike HughesPosted on 17 September 2012 Categories Musings, Opinion, Rail, Social Media, TravelTags Customer Service, Janey Godley, Rail Franchising, Railways, UK Railway Privatisation, Virgin, Virgin Trains, West Coast Franchise
Planes, Trains, and a couple of bus companies from Scotland…
Well, the Great British Public have rallied around the underdog, as per usual, this in the Great Train Sale. There have been huge outpourings of support for Virgin Trains since the news that they would not be running the services out of Euston from December, and there is even an e-petition to urge the Government to look again at the decision which is gaining a lot of support.
It's also going to be more than a co-incidence that Virgin Atlantic have announced a move into UK domestic operations the week after the news that the WCML franchise would be going to a competitor. Even though there has been speculation that this was on the cards since BA bought UK competitor BMI, and there must have been planning going on in the background, launching when they did has maximised publicity for the new VAA operation, riding the wave of publicity around Richard Branson saying words to the effect "We probably won't bid for another rail franchise again, unless things change". Because it's diversified, Virgin can afford to "walk away", or at least appear to, and at the same time deliver a parting blow to both the DfT and the incoming WCML franchisee, First Group.
Of course, being the underdog is nothing new to Branson – think of the "Dirty Tricks" affair with BA – so he knows how to play this role pretty well, and the man in the street finds it easy to get behind Branson as being a "people's champion" versus the dull, bland corporates.
However, what happens next? Well, unless Virgin decide to back off, accept the franchise loss, and decide to compete in the air, it's going to cost us (and by "us", I mean the UK taxpayer) even more money:
If the franchise is debated in Parliament as a result of the petition, it will cost the taxpayer money.
If Virgin decide to appeal the decision, and take it to a judicial review, this will cost the taxpayer money.
If the DfT make a u-turn and decide to take the franchise away from First Group, and award it to Virgin, then First will likely want a review of their own, and/or seek compensation. Who's going to pay for that? The taxpayer. Not First shareholders, not Stagecoach shareholders (remember, they own 49% of VT), not Richard Branson, who I'm thinking was evidently right when he dismissed rail franchising as "insane".
The whole crazy privatisation, hashed together by the bungling Major Government, of Britain's railways has cost the taxpayer billions, and delivered minimal benefit to the passenger.
The normal rules of a deregulated market do not apply on the majority of Britain's railways. There is often no consumer choice other than "take it or leave it" for the majority of rail journeys, as only one operator provides a service. Many attempts at competition and open access have either failed (such as Wrexham & Shropshire), have been blocked because it threatens the incumbent franchisee, or are simply non-starters because there's insufficient capacity in the infrastructure.
If a rail operator fails, then services aren't allowed to stop running, because that would have disastrous consequences, instead the Government step in and constitute a quango to run the service, while the private company skulks off.
A bit like bailing out the banks when they screwed up. It's already been done with the failure of Railtrack, and with a couple of franchises.
So, instead of competition and choice, we have an expensive raft of lawyers, consultants, and contract managers that has evolved to support our dysfunctional railway franchising and track access ecosystem.
For instance, because of the punitive blame-placing system of managing delays on the modern railway, there are teams of people known as "delay attributors" who trace train delays through the system, and work out how they were initially caused. Not so that the cause is avoided in future, so the delays are reduced, but primarily so that someone is "blamed" for the delay, so a settlement plan can push "pretend money" around between Network Rail and the train operators, because at the end of the day, it all likely balances out over time, and little real money actually changes hands.
This even costs money and time at the coal face. Example: A friend who is a Guard for a national operator was harrassed by their manager as to why their train took an extra two minutes between two points on the railway that their train didn't even stop at. Of course, they had no idea why, because the train didn't even stop there, and they were busy checking tickets. It left the previous station on time, and the train was on time the next station. Evidently, there was some pressure from a delay attributer on these two minutes even though they had no consequence for those on board the train. How is this a good use of our money?
Of course, this never really translates to benefit for the passenger (or the freight customer) – the various bodies involved in running the trains just point fingers.
There are a number of bodies, including the Bring Back British Rail campaign, who would like to see the railways renationalised, and they may have a point.
Ironically, during the latter years of BR, some elements of the business – such as Intercity – actually delivered a significant surplus. This in turn reduced the taxpayer burden on subsidising those services which required it – the benefit of an integrated company.
There have been attempts to build franchises which use this theory, such as the single First Great Western franchise – this used to be several seperate franchises, a profitable Intercity franchise, and subsidy-dependant commuter and rural services – the idea being a franchised operator can't just cream off the profitable stuff, and there's a resultant overall reduction in public subsidy for the commuter and rural services, being buoyed up by revenue from the longer distance services. However, given that First Group are now exercising the break clause in the Great Western franchise, allegedly as it's no longer viable to pay the DfT to run the franchise (due to depressed revenues due to falling commuter numbers), even this hasn't worked out quite as planned.
We've also got a laughable situation where it seems that a state-owned UK company cannot theoretically bid for a railway franchise, but at the same time we've got the commercial/international arms of mainland European state-owned rail operators who did, and now run UK rail franchises – Arriva (who also own Chiltern) are Deutsche Bahn, Abellio (behind Greater Anglia and Northern franchises) are Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and Keolis (who are part owners of Southern, SouthEastern, and TransPennine) are actually majority owned by SNCF. Does this consititute a net flow of taxpayer subsidy out of the UK?
This was recently highlighted in the Scottish Parliament – where you consider that ScotRail is 75% publically funded through subsidy – then why was this going to a commercial for-profit operator? Why could Holyrood not incorporate a Scottish state-owned non-profit company to run the service? Apparently, there's some red tape in the 1993 Railways Act to deal with.
So, returning back to the WCML franchise: Branson is certain the First Group bid will result in an East Coast style bail-out. Now he's competing in the sky, that may even give this a nudge. What if others follow Branson's lead, dismiss railfranchising as "crazy", and no-one wants to take on the poison chalice of the ECML?
If we assume for a moment that the new WCML franchise goes bump before the DfT can re-let ECML, does the Government end up running WCML and ECML?
Is that a foundation for re-nationalisation of train operations through the back door?
Author Mike HughesPosted on 23 August 2012 Categories Opinion, Rail, Social Media, TravelTags Abellio, Arriva, aviation, Deutsche Bahn, East Coast, ECML, First Group, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, rail franchise, Rail Franchising, Railways, Scotrail, SNCF, transportation, UK Railway Privatisation, Virgin, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains, WCML2 Comments on Planes, Trains, and a couple of bus companies from Scotland…