East Coast Business Plan 2013-14

[SaveECRewards]

After being asked by VTEC to take down their business plan document, I mentioned that when the railway was publicly operated we would have been able to access this information by Freedom of Information request.

So in my mailbox over the weekend there appeared a business plan from East Coast. They said they had asked for it via FoI in 2013, it's a shame we can't get the other years plans via FoI anymore, but if anyone had the foresight to ask for them back when EC was still owned by DOR I'd love to see them!

Here's a link to my write up on the document (includes a link to the document itself in there): https://saveecrewards.co.uk/blog/east-coast-business-plan-2013-14

Some interesting things (to me)

• 99% of trains had the advertised catering (compared to the Catering Lottery we have now)
• EC had planned an interior refurb like VTEC did, so it was going to happen even if DOR had continued to run the franchise
• The improvements made to first class in 2011 (complimentary catering, 1st quiet coach, etc) were responsible for a growth of 21% overall and 39% on London to Edinburgh. VTEC has made the catering less dependable and is scrapping first class quiet coaches in a few weeks

So have a read when you have some time. East Coast had a plan and I could see if that had been carried forward by the new operator (which EC was working on the basis of being able to hand over a strong company to the new operator) rather than VTEC barging in and thinking they knew best things could have been different. Of course they also would needed to have bid a more sensible amount!

Reading this makes me sad that a company that was steadily growing and doing a decent job (employee morale was high - it isn't anymore) was replaced by an arrogant bunch that pretended to be Virgin.

 

[Carlisle]

and is scrapping first class quiet coaches in a few weeks.

They did the same on West Coast a few years ago I believe, with no difference to demand for first class as far as I’m aware.

 

[SaveECRewards]

They did the same on West Coast a few years ago I believe, with no difference to demand for first class as far as I’m aware.

Is there anywhere we can get the figures (e.g. does ORR collect them)? There's already angry people on Twitter about the removal of the quiet coach.

Then again I think it's the way VTEC patronisingly tell people things. They say on the quiet coach page that 'they're listening', the Twitter team say the surveys say that's what people wanted. Apparently only 9% of people appreciate it.

I did get this survey and I remember the question was what things do you appreciate most about first class. You had to order them, I can't remember if it was the top 3. But it had things such as complimentary food, complimentary alcohol, complimentary soft drinks, tea and coffee, wider seat, free WiFi, etc. Basically even though I book the quiet coach I rate the other facilities as more important, it doesn't mean that I want rid of it.

An annoying side affect is it'll make it more difficult to book coach K (the current quiet coach) once if becomes a regular first class carriage, by default you'll be seated in coach M and so if you book on a different site or the VTEC seat map isn't working you can't get a seat closer to the kitchen (ideal if you want to be sure you'll get your first choice).

 

[All Line Rover]

They did the same on West Coast a few years ago I believe, with no difference to demand for first class as far as I’m aware.

It won't make any difference to "demand" if they're calculating it as revenue generated per seat, as withdrawal of the first class quiet coach occured at the same time as Coach G was converted to standard class on the 9 car Pendolinos.

I don't believe VTWC would have withdrawn the first class quiet coach if the DfT had agreed to lengthen all Pendolinos to 11 cars, but Virgin's reluctance not to invest under the direct awards (other than "investments" forced on them by the DfT) is betrayed by their reluctance to consider any alternatives, such as partitioning Coach H. The small area underneath the pantograph would have been ideal as a partitioned quiet area (the pantograph isn't loud).