St Albans tram conversion

[YorkshireBear]

Can answer a couple, Light rail is still rail and the same rules and planning constraints apply, it takes a year to close a stop and you have to apply to the Minister for Transport for an order allowing the construction of a new line.

The council is the ultimate franchise awarder, if the franchisee walks away it can appoint a new one as happened in Sheffield.

The scheme would be a going concern with a grant from the Dft, if the franchisee walked away yes the council would have to run it. In essence rather than a build and operate contract for the council this is more like a concession to design build and operate like a bus franchise with the council having minimal influence on day to day behavior but able to removed for violating conditions of its award e.g. min service frequency, quality, financial performance targets.

sorry what happened in sheffield ( was very young at the start of it )

 

[WatcherZero]

Was a council owned company that was set up to run it but it went belly up due to not meeting initial passenger projections so the council sold the system that had cost £240m in a 20 year concession to Stagecoach for only £1.15m. With only £1.15m to repay over 20 years Stagecoach could set low fares and naturally users exploded, allowing them to rake in the profits.

 

[yorksrob]

Was a council owned company that was set up to run it but it went belly up due to not meeting initial passenger projections so the council sold the system that had cost £240m in a 20 year concession to Stagecoach for only £1.15m. With only £1.15m to repay over 20 years Stagecoach could set low fares and naturally users exploded, allowing them to rake in the profits.

If anyone can find the answer as to why the Council could not run it's own £240m asset and charge low fares and yet could afford to give it away to a private operator for £1.15m over twenty years, they will probably have the answer as to why the country is bankrupt and going down the pan.

 

[WatcherZero]

They did, council owned company running it initially. It failed with large debts so to keep it operational they auctioned it off.

 

[yorksrob]

They did, council owned company running it initially. It failed with large debts so to keep it operational they auctioned it off.

One can't help wondering why the said council owned company didn't take a punt on lowering prices. Afterall, you don't need a business degree to know that if something isn't selling initially you try lowering the price. Unless there was something preventing it from doing so.

 

[WatcherZero]

Passengers/Passenger km/revenue
1995/96 5m, 37.1m, £4.8m (Company gets into financial difficulty after first year)
1996/97 7.8m, 54.6m, £5.9m (+50% users, +50% km, +20% revenue must have lowered fares)
(Sold to Stagecoach 1997 after company collapsed with debts)
1997/98 9.2m, 64.4m, £7.3m
1998/99 10.4m, 72.5m, £7.2m
99/00 10.9m, 76m, £7.9m

Then gradually up to 13m passengers, 91m km, £10m a year by 2006
Then by 2010 15m passengers, 103m km, £15m a year

According to a 2005 Dft paper the reason it failed was because between the route being decided and the system being finished several high density housing estates along the route had been demolished as well as bus wars.

 

[yorksrob]

Undermined by the bus wars amongst other things then. So much for an integrated transport policy. And the taxpayer, which invested all the money, gets a fraction of the profits.