100MBPS Top broadband speed at Virgin-managed stations. 12MBPS Top broadband speed on Virgin trains.
50 per cent Increase in East Coast seat capacity by 2020.
200mph Top speed of Eurostar’s new e320 trains.
Two Number of open- access operators currently running scheduled trains.
Civil Aviation Authority figures Virgin now claims a market share of over 20 per cent on this rail route – more than double what it had in 2008. Virgin is also increasing market share on Birmingham-Scotland routes, where the number of passengers grew by a third last year after a major increase in capacity. Gary Iddon, Virgin Trains’ general manager for Anglo-Scottish services, says: “These figures are a fantastic endorsement of the work we’ve done on the route. We’ve done a lot of work with partner organ- isations to promote rail travel, and the additional capacity means that we have far more low-priced fares to offer passengers.” More business travellers would switch
to rail on longer routes such as these if they had faster and more reliable wifi, which East Coast is promising. West Coast is already upgrading wifi and the strength of the mobile phone signal, including 4G capability. By this summer all trains on the West Coast route will have wifi upgraded from 3MBPS to 12MBPS (8MBPS on diesel trains used to North Wales and on some Birmingham-Scotland services), while super-fast broadband with speeds of
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Recent developments have cast doubt on whether the government is interested in competition at all
between 80MBPS and 100MBPS is being installed at all 17 stations managed by Virgin – meaning seamless connectivity throughout the journey.
FRANCHISE EXCLUSIVITY The GTMC has renewed its appeal for more competition on Britain’s rail network. There is very little competition at present, because the franchise system effectively gives exclusivity to one operator, and where there is, it is usually only where two or more franchises overlap. Examples
include York-Aberdeen (East Coast and Cross Country, plus First Trans Pennine Express from York-Newcastle); Preston- Glasgow/Edinburgh (Virgin and First Trans Pennine Express); and Brighton-London (Southern and Thameslink). Although a few ‘open access’ non-
franchised operations also exist, recent developments have cast doubt on whether the government is interested in competition at all. A proposed new operation called Great North Western Railway (GNWR) has been refused permission by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) to start services from London to Blackpool by 2017, and to Huddersfield and Leeds by 2018. Mean- while, existing open-access operator Grand Central will soon face more competition from East Coast.
The ORR turned down GNWR because
it would not generate enough new revenue to justify allowing it to compete with the West Coast franchise. “We are naturally disappointed, especially as we reached agreement with Network Rail in May last year that there was sufficient capacity to operate these trains on the West Coast main line and across the Pennines,” says
BBT MARCH/APRIL 2015 89
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128