TPE franchise to move to OLR

[Dan G]

The Transport Secretary has today (11 May 2023) announced he will not renew or extend Transpennine Express’s (TPE) contract at the end of the month. This will bring the company into operator of last resort (OLR) from 28 May 2023.

Transpennine Express to be brought into operator of last resort

Transport Secretary has announced he will not renew or extend Transpennine Express's contract.

www.gov.uk

While some improvements have been made over the past few months, it has been decided that to achieve the performance levels passengers deserve, and that the northern economy needs, both the contract and the underlying relationships must be reset.

While making the decision to bring Transpennine Express into operator of last resort, the department recognises that a significant number of problems facing TPE stem from matters out of its control. These include a backlog of recruitment and training drivers, reforming how the workforce operates and most notably, ASLEF’s decision to withdraw rest day working – preventing drivers from taking on overtime shifts and filling in gaps on services.

The decision to bring Transpennine Express into the control of the operator of last resort is temporary and it is the government’s full intention that it will return to the private sector.

In light of this, today’s decision will not instantaneously resolve the challenges being faced on the lines, but will provide an opportunity to reset relationships between the operator, staff, trade unions and passengers.

 

[Mgameing123]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Good news in theory but will anything actually change?

 

[Krokodil]

Good news in theory but will anything actually change?

Well they'll have to update the letterhead and remove any "operated by First branding". Otherwise not a lot.

 

[Neptune]

Unexpected but very welcome news.

At least it means that resting on your laurels because your sister company kept getting rewarded with contract extensions doesn’t always work.

 

[TUC]

This is called 'the illusion of pretending to solve a problem'. As seen with Northern and other examples, having a TOC publicly owned makes zero difference. It's about competence, not ownership.

 

[tbtc]

The OLR sounded like a good idea on paper but their stewardship of Northern has been poor so I’m not convinced that much will change/ improve here

But it’s phenomenal just how badly TPE has been run over the past few years… after years of “squeeze” (being expected to take on the Scottish WCML services so that Virgin could enhance services from Chester to London, losing the 170s because Chiltern could offer a longer guarantee) the Trans Pennine franchise must have been the luckiest in the country in terms of getting big numbers of additional capacity without having to surrender any (other than the temporarily “borrowed” 350/4s)… yet they still couldn’t run trains (or had regular short forms)… it’s amazing how they squandered the resources that they had… so I can’t weep for First

 

[DoubleO]

This is called 'the illusion of pretending to solve a problem'. As seen with Northern and other examples, having a TOC publicly owned makes zero difference. It's about competence, not ownership.

I would disagree in the case of LNER. But while the IR issues and lack of a RDW agreement exist I can't see much changing in the case of TPE.

 

[Jim]

I'll be "that person" - How will this resolve things?


Is the OLR going to suddenly rip up all the things that currently contribute to issues which is what everyone celebrating will think, such as drivers being "entitled to diagram" and the overtime/RDW agreement issues that have dragged on recently, along with of course having to drive new traction every month ish rather than the railway norm of 6 months? Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are a variety of other issues too, but they are a few of many that stand out as being the reason for the dire crew availability?


That is by no means an "Anti ASLEF" or anything post, just the facts as I understand them?

 

[yorkie]

If anyone would like to speculate on what may happen next, please use the following thread:

Future of TPE

In your ideal outcome, what would you like to see happen to TPE? It's been hinted by Huw Merriman today that the company could bevmerged with Northern; as far as I'm concerned that would be the best option, but how would that work in practice? And is that the best course to pursue?

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[43074]

The OLR sounded like a good idea on paper but their stewardship of Northern has been poor so I’m not convinced that much will change/ improve here

But it’s phenomenal just how badly TPE has been run over the past few years… after years of “squeeze” (being expected to take on the Scottish WCML services so that Virgin could enhance services from Chester to London, losing the 170s because Chiltern could offer a longer guarantee) the Trans Pennine franchise must have been the luckiest in the country in terms of getting big numbers of additional capacity without having to surrender any (other than the temporarily “borrowed” 350/4s)… yet they still couldn’t run trains (or had regular short forms)… it’s amazing how they squandered the resources that they had… so I can’t weep for First

I think this is a bit revisionist to be honest

Northern under Arriva had a load of franchise commitments that were just undeliverable and the same low morale/traincrew shortages as TPE, OLR have stabilised it from a traincrew point of view and are now looking at a (sensible) longer term plan.

TPE were originally supposed to have returned 22 185s to the leasing company, but this hasn't happened due to Transpennine Route Upgrade. They were never supposed to keep all the 185s, in the event it's probably just as well they kept them all given how the Mark 5 introduction has gone and how incapable they seem to be at training crew on new traction.

 

[43066]

I'll be "that person" - How will this resolve things? Is the OLR going to suddenly rip up all the things that currently contribute to issues, such as drivers being "entitled to diagram" and the overtime/RDW agreement issues that have dragged on recently, along with of course having to drive new traction every month ish rather than the railway norm of 6 months? Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are a variety of other issues too, but they are a few of many that stand out as being the reason for the dire crew availability? That is by no means an "Anti ASLEF" or anything post, just the facts as I understand them?

Drivers being entitled to breaks etc. on the diagrams the company has agreed isn’t really a problem to be solved. Of course, as in any other workplace, a lack of goodwill will inevitably mean people are less likely to be willing to be flexible in order to help the company dig itself out of the mess its own decisions have created.

Not sure what you mean by driving a new traction every month as opposed to every six months?

The biggest things AIUI, other than the poor diagraming discussed on this thread, are the RDW agreement and lack of goodwill which likely won’t be sorted until the wider industrial dispute is resolved.

 

[Benjwri]

At least it means that resting on your laurels because your sister company kept getting rewarded with contract extensions doesn’t always work.

Or perhaps a message to a sister company and a few other that it might be time to get things in shape.

 

[Agent_Squash]

The success of OLR seems to be very dependent on the strength of the original private plan and staffing arrangement.

LNER has been successful because they’ve basically been allowed to keep being Virgin, without having to meet insane premium targets. Likewise, Northern hasn’t been successful because Arriva’s plan was a mess and all OLR does is throw in another layer of consultants.

TPE will not improve quickly because the government won’t let it.

 

[Spartacus]

I'm guessing someone's decided that the changes TPE have already been making, or at least planning, are about to bear fruit, so they've come in to take the plaudits...

Dunno if it will help at all with the general bad feeling or help solve the RDW issues, if the people in charge don't actually change then I doubt it.

 

[Danfilm007]

Will be very interesting to see how much this changes in the future

 

[Benjwri]

Did anyone from the OOR bother to tell TPE this? They very much seem to have been unaware, having awarded a contract yesterday for maintenance of the Class 68s:

In preparation for an award of a National Rail Contract from the Department for Transport to Transpennine Express Limited (operated by First Group), it is intended to extend the maintenance contract with Direct Rail Services Limited for the Class 68 fleet of trains. The maintenance contract is expected to be extended in accordance with paragraph II.2.4 below.

It’s the wording of ‘in preparation for an award of a National Rail Contract’ which interests me. It’s very specific and not the kind of thing you’d put in if you knew you were losing the franchise the next day, or were even worried about it.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Did anyone from the OOR bother to tell TPE this? They very much seem to have been unaware, having awarded a contract yesterday for maintenance of the Class 68s:

It’s the wording of ‘in preparation for an award of a National Rail Contract’ which interests me. It’s very specific and not the kind of thing you’d put in if you knew you were losing the franchise the next day, or were even worried about it.

If it's ran by First or not, the 68s still need to be maintained, but I agree

In preparation for an award of a National Rail Contract from the Department for Transport to Transpennine Express Limited (operated by First Group)

This sounds like First expected to keep TPE.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Until something changes its irrelevant. I can only hope some of the more obvious and particularly bad issues (which aren't prevalent at other operators) can be sorted. All operators have some similar struggles but TPE seemed to have infinitely more.

 

[Benjwri]

If it's ran by First or not, the 68s still need to be maintained, but I agree

Light Maintenance of trains is the responsibility of the Franchisee, the contract won’t pass over to the OLR, which is why it expired at the end of their franchise.

 

[Horizon22]

Interesting, although I doubt anything is going to change much in the short to medium term. And if it does, it proves that the wider industrial situation could be solved quite easily, if it was so desired.

Or that they want to claim “look how it’s improved” even though things are already in the pipeline. Seems all a bit cynical to me.

 

[Neptune]

Likewise, Northern hasn’t been successful because Arriva’s plan was a mess and all OLR does is throw in another layer of consultants.

Care to elaborate on that final statement or is it without base?

Shall we also go with the OLR start date for Northern of 1st March 2020 which had many plans in place but then some event took over 3 weeks later and changed things on the railway forever?

Northern have big plans under OLR. May 2018 proved that Arriva’s plans were crazily optimistic in such a short timescale from franchise renewal, anyone with half a brain could see that. OLR have stabilised it (remember that ARN was losing money at an alarming rate) and looked at the bigger picture and where to go which became clearer in the last year.

Northern have recovered from covid better than most operators but also suffer the same issues as other operators such as staff shortages and IR issues. This is due to a variety of reasons mentioned elsewhere which I won’t go into. The training schools are full and there are still courses being filled for the future. Yes it takes a little time but it will bear fruit.

Now the plans might not be as grandiose as those set out 7 years ago under Arriva but they are going to be more realistic especially in the post covid environment.

There are many things to look forward to such as new trains on the horizon, new and improved accessible stations, new services, TRU which is a long game but will see incremental benefits over time until it is complete.

Would merging Northern and TPE be such a bad thing? Both franchises have had a meltdown in recent years, both cover the same area, both will be now under recovery under the OLR and crucially it is a benefit to amalgamate into a single entity especially at this time of manifesting into GBR.

You can still run them separately but with one set of directors and head’s of each department and it means Northern gains a premium intercity brand to boot.

Cue the person who’s main reason not to merge is a 150 on TPE services which wouldn’t be able to happen in my plan.

 

[billio]

Perhaps in order to liven things up, TPE were running to some unusual destinations from Scarborough. First off to Middlesborough, presumably not via Whitby.

Other examples included Cleethorpes and Oxenholme. Despite much attention by the guard and others the train was allowed to 'run' to Cleethorpes, the passenger information system proudly announcing 'We are arriving at Scunthorpe' just outside York. The whole journey was a comedy of announcements including the BTP message repeating every couple of minutes, so much so the guard had to announce to passengers they should ignore any messages. The trouble was he didn't have the volume turned up so it was really hard to hear what he said.

 

[Tetchytyke]

A cynical fiddling of the deckchairs, nothing more.

As for Northern, it has stabilised under OLR. Hopefully TPE can too.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The decision to bring Transpennine Express into the control of the operator of last resort is temporary and it is the government’s full intention that it will return to the private sector.

This is very interesting. Did anyone notice this?
They haven’t bothered with LNER, Northern or Southeastern, although they weren’t lost under Harper.

 

[185]

It’s the wording of ‘in preparation for an award of a National Rail Contract’ which interests me. It’s very specific and not the kind of thing you’d put in if you knew you were losing the franchise the next day, or were even worried about it.

We were aware of that tender six weeks ago. As were many others, including MPs, the transport select committee and Andy Burnham... I suspect there's been a U-turn by Mark Harper.

 

[josh-j]

I wish we could do away with the ridiculous fiction that railway success or failure is down to private operators.

It is a public service operated using public money. The problem is that the government doesn't like public services and run things down as much as they can get away with.

They fully intend to return it to private ownership do they? What childish politics. Aside from the stupidity of letting a private company cream off public funds, for the most part the problem is management not ownership.

The failures are industry wide. Get rid of ROSCOs, undertake proper negotiations with unions, stop the treasury kneecapping investment (many more similar changes I'm sure). We need an expanded railway and wider public transport network fit for the 21st century, not all this messing around with layers of ownership and management by people who don't believe in investment.

In short, it's probably good at this point to remove First Group execs, but aside from that who cares?

 

[Class15]

Now we need the same with Avanti!!!

 

[Jamesrob637]

There'll still unfortunately be cancellations due to a short notice change to the timetable, which if you look past the text actually equates to something completely different.

 

[newtownmgr]

Nice to see that both first group & the Transport Sec are blaming aslef, for there own failings. A cynical attempt to deflect & pass the buck whilst also inflaming the current situation. Pathetic on there part.