Worst Franchise?

[Transilien]

Now that franchising is basically in the history books, what was the worst franchise to ever exist?

 

[rf_ioliver]

Well there are many criteria that you could apply, but Arriva franchise in Wales was pretty terrible given how the contract was designed and written. Explicitly "no growth, no investment" which makes you wonder whether it was explicitly designed for managed decline.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Silverlink. There can’t even really be much dispute. They are objectively* the worst.

(*subjectively)

It’s a fight for second-worst between First Capital Connect, Northern Spirit/Arriva Trains Northern, and Serco Northern.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Any nominations for Connex South-Eastern and its next door neighbour Connex South-Central?

 

[Magdalia]

It’s a fight for second-worst between First Capital Connect

This is very wrong. I have been travelling between Cambridge and Kings Cross for more than half a century, and the First Capital Connect era was the best of the lot. Cambridge and Fen Line travellers would give a lot to have FCC back now.

 

[KevinTurvey]

Many of the early franchises were a bit ropey, at first. GNER and SWR seemed to get it about right, although as just mentioned above Connex used to come in for a great deal of criticism. I thought Northern (pre Arriva 2017 and post FNW/ATN was actually vastly better in between. Even Virgin struggled at first with reliability and punctuality.

 

[StephenHunter]

Any nominations for Connex South-Eastern and its next door neighbour Connex South-Central?

Southeastern too; it got its franchise yanked for basically criminal acts.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Any nominations for Connex South-Eastern and its next door neighbour Connex South-Central?

I’d completely blanked them from my memory.

Cambridge and Fen Line travellers would give a lot to have FCC back now.

The Thameslink side was absolutely awful, as were the GN inners.

 

[D1537]

I actually suffered from a bit of PTSD at the Wensleydale Railway at the weekend on viewing their newly-painted Northern Spirit Pacer.

But they weren't quite the worst; Silverlink are the one that has caused me the most pain and suffering while they existed.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

GNER, National Express and Virgin all failed on the East Coast through hubris. GNER in particular benefitted from the recent BR investment, but made little investment of its own and its parent company went under.

South West Trains had a ropey start - the busmen knew better and sacked drivers - but it did recover and became a good franchise.

 

[bramling]

Silverlink. There can’t even really be much dispute. They are objectively* the worst.

A little unfair IMO. The county operation was pretty decent, if somewhat “plain vanilla”. The metro services always struck me as trying to make the best of what was available. When TFL took over they had access to a lot more money.

It was unfortunate that the metro routes passed through what were at the time some very troubled parts of London, but Silverlink’s operation was no different to many other London franchises.

They might win the award for most garish branding though.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 42 minutes ago ==

This is very wrong. I have been travelling between Cambridge and Kings Cross for more than half a century, and the First Capital Connect era was the best of the lot. Cambridge and Fen Line travellers would give a lot to have FCC back now.

Wouldn’t disagree with that, however they were very unpopular on the Thameslink side.

 

[StephenHunter]

I have memories of riding on a slam door on Silverlink to Barking with most of my family because there wasn't space for us and our new computer in the car.