Ooooh, surprise, another unrelated thread has turned into a discussion about how hard done by the north of England is (and how bad Pacers are)...
More seriously though, this micro franchise seems like a pretty daft idea on many levels (which is a relief, because I wouldnt take any vague pledge of Cameron very seriously at the moment unless theres a spending commitment then its just populist hot air easy for politicians to suggest anything at this stage in the electoral cycle e.g. the two hundred DMU carriages that came to nothing).
A few reasons why itd be a backward step:
Firstly, unless theres a magic money tree to dramatically improve the stock (above and beyond the expected improvements when GWML electrification means 165/166s move to the West Country to displace additional Sprinters to Devon/ Cornwall and replace the remaining Pacers or are the 165/166s coming to Devon/ Cornwall too?) then there seems little point. Its not like there are many new/different things that a micro-franchise could do with linear branchlines that are mainly single track.
Secondly, itd put the future of the branches more at the mercy of local funding. Whilst theres been a fervour for devolution (after the Scottish vote), the local franchise only makes sense if the local councils can fund it well given the cuts to tendered bus services in the peninsula, Im not confident that thered be a generous settlement for rail if it were dependent upon local money. Devolution sounds great, as long as someone else is giving you more money to fund it.
Thirdly, whilst I know its popular to say something like big franchises mean the TOC doesnt focus on the distant branch lines (e.g. the oft repeated rural Lincolnshire lines are suffering because EMT only care about services to St Pancras argument), I dont think you can argue that FGW hasnt improved things on the old Wessex franchise during this decade. More DMUs (fighting for a big slice of the ex Snow Hill/ GOBLIN cascade of 150s and replacing their 142s) meaning longer trains, improved frequencies, branches that co-ordinate with main line services... theyve not taken their eye off the ball.
The putting long distance London services in with rural branch lines means the latter are ignored argument sounds valid at face value, but if it were really true then youd expect a TOC like Northern/ ATW to have had the focus to significantly improve their local branch lines (given that they obviously have no Intercity traffic to distract them), which clearly isnt the case. Id argue that FGWs branch lines have had as much (if not more) care and attention than equivalent lines run by ATW/ Northern.
What about the remaining bits of Wessex, if this were to happen? Youd be leaving a pretty small provincial/ Sprinter fleet (once the GWML is electrified to Swansea/ Bristol) whilst I appreciate that this is generally operationally separate from the Devon/Cornwall side, it leaves an awkward rump (give routes like Weymouth/Portsmouth Bristol to SWT?).
What about the practicalities of putting a third TOC (plus some freight) over the single track sections of the Penzance Plymouth line? At the moment FGW can schedule Sprinters to dovetail between the Intercity services, but a local TOC may not be so keen to neatly fill the gaps. Or maybe a local TOC would devote more resources to main line services to take a bigger ORCATS share at the expense of branch lines (since theyll get all of the branch line revenue regardless).
What about asking the people on the branch lines whether they want integration with the main line services or a local franchise for local people? Would they rather see practical improvements like direct trains from Plymouth to some of the Cornish branches or are they more bothered about having a local name on the side of the train?
Lastly, theres the suspicion that Cameron is only saying this because it feeds into the nostalgia of quaint little branch lines, Brunel, the Atlantic Coast Express the kind of railways for people who dont really know about railways demographic of people who like to read John Betjeman (the kind of UKIP voting pensioners more concerned with the cosy past than the scary future?), rather than any practical devolution. If you want a mico franchise then there are better areas to try it (e.g. Heaton depots routes to Whitby/ Bishop Auckland/ Carlisle/ Chathill etc?), but wheres the dewy eyed nostalgia in that?
There is the cynical reason though as well as the nice sounding devolving powers to the South West, this may also be a Cunning Plan to warrant electrification from Basingstoke to Salisbury (on the basis that Salisbury Yeovil Exeter belongs in the South West and therefore gets given to the regional franchise as a flagship route for them), allowing SWT to move to an all-electric fleet if the Salisbury Six is done at the same time. Okay, there are clear disadvantages to this too, but London may see splitting the route at Salisbury as justification for electrifying the bits of the route nominally in the South East whilst dumping the remainder... cynical? :-?
But, in reality, nothing to worry about a glib soundbite from someone who wont have worried himself with the practical problems.
