NEWS
Franchising ‘not fundamentally fl awed’ – Brown review says no to major change
The franchising system is “not broken”, the second major review of the DfT’s rail franchising programme suggested, but does need simplifying.
Richard Brown’s review found “no credible case” for major structural change, and called for the process to be restarted as soon as possible. Brown highlighted improvements in punctuality, customer satisfaction and passenger numbers as evidence that the process was not fundamentally fl awed, and simply in need of strengthening through a number of recommendations.
The review was launched in October, following the cancellation of the West Coast Main Line award to FirstGroup after serious errors emerged.
Brown wanted the DfT to simplify the bidding and evaluation process for each franchise and proposes plans for more English franchises to be devolved to relevant authorities.
The Transport Select Committee, also investigating the franchise debacle, said it was caused by “irresponsible decisions”.
Its new report calls for an explanation from the Government about why ministers and senior offi cials were misled about how subordinated loan facilities were calculated and a comprehensive breakdown of costs arising from the cancellation of the competition.
The committee also suggests the Government should complete a full email capture to get
to the bottom of responsibility
for
the “serious errors” identifi ed in the franchise award.
Committee chair Louise Ellman MP said: “Embarking on an ambitious – perhaps unachievable – reform of franchising, in haste, on the UK’s most complex piece of railway, was an irresponsible decision for which ministers were ultimately responsible. This was compounded by major failures by civil servants, some of whom misled ministers.”
But a DfT spokesman said: “The examination of emails from key offi cials found no evidence that this was anything other than simple human error. We are putting in place measures that will prevent this embarrassing episode from happening again.”
- More from Richard Brown on p45 DfT sets out future for franchises
cancelled and negotiations for a two-year extension with First Great Western are taking place while longer term proposals will be set out in the spring. This has angered the other bidders, who will not receive compensation for the money spent so far – National Express, for example, said it had spent £10m already.
The Government has outlined how franchises ‘paused’ during the controversy of the West Coast contract will be handled, following Brown’s fi ndings.
The Great Western competition has been
The Essex Thameside franchise competition is to be resumed with a revised invitation to tender for a 15-year contract issued to bidders over the summer while negotiations for an interim contract with c2c of up to two years take place.
The competitions for Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern will be resumed with the
LU begins testing ATC signalling
Testing for the new signalling system to be installed on London Underground’s Sub Surface Lines has commenced.
LU and Bombardier are installing the new Cityfl o 650 system to run more trains and increase capacity. The contract is worth around £354m.
They are carrying out initial testing until mid- 2013 and formal testing will start with the fi rst S Stock train fi tted with automatic train
4 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 13
control (ATC). The test track will eventually be reconfi gured to replicate the operational environment of London Underground.
The upgrade will deliver a new signalling system for 310km of track and 113 SSR stations, equipment installation for 191 S Stock trains, 86 Piccadilly line trains, 49 engineering trains and six heritage trains; one integrated service control centre and back-up facility; seven signalling equipment rooms; and 36 major track layout changes.
DfT working towards awarding a seven-year contract. The current franchise operated by First Capital Connect has a 28-week extension that the department aims to exercise.
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “We have had to take some tough decisions regarding franchising, and while they may provide a challenge in the short term, I believe the lessons we have learnt will help deliver a more robust system in the future benefi tting fare payers and taxpayers alike.”
In the spring a further statement will be made on franchising policy, based on the Brown review’s recommendations and the Transport Select Committee’s Rail 2020 report.
The system will be live by 2018. Full details at
www.railtechnologymagazine.com
© Stefan Wermuth /PA Wire
© Philip Toscano/PA Wire
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