For Thameslink/Great Northern:
http://www.railwaysonline.co.uk/news/news.asp?story=269

So it is because they also run Gatwick Express, which the SRA decided
should not be a seperate franchise?

Tony

Tfh of Hednesford wrote:

> So it is because they also run Gatwick Express, which the SRA decided
> should not be a seperate franchise?


Basically, I *think* they are worried about Nat Express operating the
majority of London - Gatwick Apt services.

It wont stop them, they did this after they'd won Greater Anglia and 
found no probs

What those in charge should be more concerned with is how the franchise 
will be run if they win.

Take One Railway for example, two highly regarded train companies have 
become clones of Central Trains.

In article <42f274ea$0$3476$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net>,
   Darren  wrote:

> It wont stop them, they did this after they'd won Greater Anglia and 
> found no probs

> What those in charge should be more concerned with is how the franchise 
> will be run if they win.

> Take One Railway for example, two highly regarded train companies have 
> become clones of Central Trains.



And Wessex trains is rapidly degenerating into a disaster area with
breakdowns and short trains all over the place. One might have expected
NEG to make a special effort in the run up to their Greater Western bid,
but not a bit of it. I can only conclude tht they have effectively thrown
the towel in already.

David

> And Wessex trains is rapidly degenerating into a disaster area with
> breakdowns and short trains all over the place. One might have expected
> NEG to make a special effort in the run up to their Greater Western bid,
> but not a bit of it. I can only conclude tht they have effectively thrown
> the towel in already.


Although a few months ago, I wrote a letter complimenting WT about
their general service, I have travelled on, and had a look at the mess
that they have made of Anglia/Great Eastern, and the things that First
have done, see 43004/009, entertainment at seat, possible Mk3 refb, I
hope they win.

The Sra site says about TL/GN "The pre-qualified bidders are: National
Express Group PLC, First Group plc, Stagecoach Group, MTR / John Laing
plc and Danish Railways (DSB) / English, Welsh and Scottish Railways
(EWS)." - are all of those still in the running, or have some been
dropped?

> And Wessex trains is rapidly degenerating into a disaster area with
> breakdowns and short trains all over the place. One might have expected
> NEG to make a special effort in the run up to their Greater Western bid,
> but not a bit of it. I can only conclude tht they have effectively thrown
> the towel in already.
> 
> David


I mostly travel on the Brigton/Portsmouth to Bristol line and this line has
never had adequate rolling stock going right back to BR days.
When the sprinters were introduced with their increased frequency there was
immediate overcrowding. Wessex have at least increased some 158s to 3 cars
but even that is inadequate on many services.

The bottom line I suspect is that for political reasons the line has never
been adequately funded. I think that given that constraint Wessex do a
fairly good job.

I think the line should be removed from the Greater Western Franchise along
with Reading- Gatwick.

Paul

In article ,
   Paul Hutchinson  wrote:


> > And Wessex trains is rapidly degenerating into a disaster area with
> > breakdowns and short trains all over the place. One might have expected
> > NEG to make a special effort in the run up to their Greater Western bid,
> > but not a bit of it. I can only conclude tht they have effectively thrown
> > the towel in already.
> > 
> > David

> I mostly travel on the Brigton/Portsmouth to Bristol line and this line
> has never had adequate rolling stock going right back to BR days. When
> the sprinters were introduced with their increased frequency there was
> immediate overcrowding. Wessex have at least increased some 158s to 3
> cars but even that is inadequate on many services.

> The bottom line I suspect is that for political reasons the line has
> never been adequately funded. I think that given that constraint Wessex
> do a fairly good job.

> I think the line should be removed from the Greater Western Franchise
> along with Reading- Gatwick.



I suspect that fast Reading-Gatwick paths might eventually go to Virgin
XC, now that it looks as though plans to scrap XC have been abandoned.
However the Bristol-Portsmouth/Brighton is a core Wessex route which will
run from Cardiff in the new franchise, so is most unlikely to be moved
out. It is more likely to be cut short at Portsmouth IMHO. Also I think
the future of SWT Salisbury-Bristol services is still very insecure as is
the SWT service west of Exeter, and these could both go to GtrW in due
course, maybe when the SWT franchise is rebid next year. I fear some quite
large changes and service reductions may also be in the pipeline under the
new DfT regime. The general aim is apparently to reduce the number of
interleaved services run by different operators on congested routes (eg
Cardiff Westbury) to improve timekeeping/reliability,  much in the way
that is already happening at the London terminals. I hope I am not being
too pessimistic about this. At least the survival of Virgin XC goes
against this trend.

David

In message , at 15:36:36 on Fri, 
5 Aug 2005, gwr4090  remarked:


>now that it looks as though plans to scrap XC have been abandoned.


Interesting. The last I heard (admittedly months ago) it was being 
broken up and spread around. What's your source for the news?
-- 
Roland Perry

".>

> Although a few months ago, I wrote a letter complimenting WT about
> their general service, I have travelled on, and had a look at the mess
> that they have made of Anglia/Great Eastern, and the things that First
> have done, see 43004/009, entertainment at seat, possible Mk3 refb, I
> hope they win.
>
> .You would not say that if you used TPX. we are back to train crew

shortages again.
and we havn't seen them starting training on 185s yet!!!!
    I understand First scotrail is no great shakes either

On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 17:19:41 +0200, "william smith"
 wrote:


> .You would not say that if you used TPX. we are back to train crew
>shortages again.
>and we havn't seen them starting training on 185s yet!!!!
>    I understand First scotrail is no great shakes either


I don't know about FSR, but TPX is a franchise that should never have
existed, and indeed is opposite to the SRA's usual strategy of
franchise enlargement.

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

"gwr4090"  wrote in message
news:4d95851761usenet@no-spam.drandles.net...

> In article <42f274ea$0$3476$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net>,
>    Darren  wrote:
> > It wont stop them, they did this after they'd won Greater Anglia and
> > found no probs
>
> > What those in charge should be more concerned with is how the franchise
> > will be run if they win.
>
> > Take One Railway for example, two highly regarded train companies have
> > become clones of Central Trains.
>

Which is why both the long distance and commuter services operated by 'one'
are in the top few spaces of the performance tables then?
(whereas CT is at the bottom). In what way have the become clones?

TM

Tony Miles wrote:

> In what way have the become clones?



Standards of trains/stations compared with previous TOCs, overcrowding, 
short forming, poor reliability and availability of local lines DMUs, 
and general state of IC and local stock are amongst the worst. Staff 
morale/industrial relations isn't too good either.

"Darren"  wrote in message
news:42f63ec9$0$14661$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...

> Tony Miles wrote:
> > In what way have the become clones?
>
>
> Standards of trains/stations compared with previous TOCs, overcrowding,
> short forming, poor reliability and availability of local lines DMUs,
> and general state of IC and local stock are amongst the worst. Staff
> morale/industrial relations isn't too good either.


Some points may be of interest there, but with the IC rolling stock about to
be torched how much should they spend on it, reliability according to all
the statistics is okay / good and I haven't heard of any short forming other
than that ordered/brokered by the SRA and much of that is already due to go
(I've seen dates for rolling stock shuffles etc.).

Standards of stations should be part of the franchise agreement etc. - it
may well be that the SRA looked for less money to be spent on stations this
time round, in which case any of the winners would have delivered the same.
The recent stuff in the press about TOCs spending less on stations, and the
outcries that followed, completely missed the point that franchise
agreements agree how much will be spent on stations etc. and what we've got
across the network is what the SRA wanted and NOT what the various bidders
would have liked to do.

TM