Franchise pre-qualifiers

[tbtc]

I think it is because DB/Arriva already run Chiltern and Cross Country that they did not pre-qualify for West Coast

Yet Virgin used to run both XC and West Coast (when XC used to run on the WCML through Preston/Carlisle)?

Similarly Prism ran Valley Lines and Wales & West, Connex ran South Central and South Eastern, National Express ran both Midland Mainline and Central Trains... whilst we enthusiasts like to say that one operator wouldn't be allowed adjoining franchises we don't really know the rules (or whether there even are any)

 

[First class]

Nedrail (Albellio) has Northern and Merseyrail too, and got shortlisted for IWC so I don't think it's at all about how many franchises you have, (maybe how you manage them though!).

 

[monkey]

I think many people have no idea how the bid process works. It's a SEALED bid - therefore once the final bids are in front of the DfT for consideration, they have no idea whose bid they are looking at when they peruse each one.

Whoever makes the most appreciable bid wins.

It won't be given to Virgin "because they're a safe pair of hands", nor to First for their "good employee relations" etc.

Because the DfT have no idea who's submitted the successful bid until they then unveil the name at the top of the bid.

^^this sound a lot more plausible. I don't think the dft sit in a room going "ooh, well I like abellio cos it be nice to see ns logo on a british train, how post modern would that be eh?".

DfT as government organisation are are answereable to both government and to the people bidding, and it also be a conflict of interest if the incumbent were to be prejudiced becasue of uneasy relations over the previous 15 years...

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I hope Virgin win the West Coast franchise, saying that does that mean if Virgin win the franchise again will Stagecoach still be a 49% shareholder like the current franchise?

I also hope Stagecoach wins the East Anglia franchise too. Thats if SWT is anything to go by...

 

[swt_passenger]

I hope Virgin win the West Coast franchise, saying that does that mean if Virgin win the franchise again will Stagecoach still be a 49% shareholder like the current franchise?

Posting elsewhere suggest DfT slipped up and they should have put 'Virgin Rail Group' - which is the legal name of the Virgin/Stagecoach joint venture company.

DfT apparently published 'Virgin Group Holdings Limited' accidentally.

 

[Mr Spock]

Except of course that Steven Byers didn't force BP, HSBC or Tesco into administration and replace it with a Quango responsible to no-one, i.e. Network Rail. Younger readers may wish to catch up with the following report from 2002.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...-attack-Byers-over-handling-of-Railtrack.html

My Byers later described himself as "a taxi" who would do whatever anyone paid him to.

Of course Railtrack was far from perfect, but this whole episode stank.

The only thing that stank was the way Railtrack took the p*** when the government gave them a chunk of money to help with their funding and they promptly paid nearly half of it (over £400m if I remember correctly) in dividends to its shareholders.

As for the report it appears that the main complaint is that there was not a body ready to take over the role of Railtrack rather than it should not have benn put into administration.

 

[bnm]

.....I don't think it's at all about how many franchises you have, (maybe how you manage them though!).

Indeed. Look at National Express, shortly to be down to one franchise after failing to pre-qualify for Greater Anglia. I think National Express Group must hold the record for losing the most franchises!

Stick to coaches, I say.