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XC Direct Award

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NEDdrv

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It appears the DFT have used the additional year option in the current XC direct award, so it will run till Oct 2020
 
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whhistle

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I'm surprised the DfT don't ask XC to improve the levels of service.
I know they'll be terms with the contract but in real world situations, we won't see any changes over the next year.
If XC say no, just run it under DOR?
 

Kettledrum

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It does make you wonder what's the point of the whole franchise system. XC passengers are crying out for improved capacity and services, but this just looks like a reward for giving passengers a dreadful travelling experience and encouraging more of the same.
 

Mitchell Hurd

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Well October 2020 is ample time to bring in more capacity - it's almost impossible for XC to carry on running short trains on busy routes til at least then. Surely we're not waiting potentially 2 more years?

If that's the case then I can kind of forecast a damaged network where people are trying to get on trains but can't!
 

221129

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I'm surprised the DfT don't ask XC to improve the levels of service.
I know they'll be terms with the contract but in real world situations, we won't see any changes over the next year.
If XC say no, just run it under DOR?
If only life was as simple as that. The DfT arent interested in passengers.
 

221129

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It does make you wonder what's the point of the whole franchise system. XC passengers are crying out for improved capacity and services, but this just looks like a reward for giving passengers a dreadful travelling experience and encouraging more of the same.
They didn't have a lot of other choice. XC looked at extending the voyagers but the DfT said no...
 

XC victim

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Surely if the XC direct award only runs until Oct 2020, then the dft should now be inviting bidders for the Franchise from Oct 2020 which is only 15 months away?
 

221129

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Surely if the XC direct award only runs until Oct 2020, then the dft should now be inviting bidders for the Franchise from Oct 2020 which is only 15 months away?
They arent going to re run that shambles of a tender this soon. There will be another direct award.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Surely if the XC direct award only runs until Oct 2020, then the dft should now be inviting bidders for the Franchise from Oct 2020 which is only 15 months away?

New franchising is on hold until the Williams Review has reported, and the DfT has made its decisions on the future organisation of the railway.
So no action until year-end at best.
SE and WCP franchises will/may be awarded before then, as they were in progress when the freeze came in.
WCP might give some pointers to what happens at XC (ie the future of VT's Voyagers).
 

Robertj21a

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Well October 2020 is ample time to bring in more capacity - it's almost impossible for XC to carry on running short trains on busy routes til at least then. Surely we're not waiting potentially 2 more years?

If that's the case then I can kind of forecast a damaged network where people are trying to get on trains but can't!

Is 15 months 'ample time' to get more stock ?. Where from ?
 

Kettledrum

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I don't know the detail of the "negotiations", but in my experience you need to negotiate with more than one supplier to get the best deal.

XC might have said we could extend the voyagers for a really high price because there was no incentive for them to be competitive.
A more hungry supplier, without the benefits of incumbency might have quoted a more competitive price, or even come up with an alternative such as running extra electric units that are currently in storage on the Manchester to Birmingham portion of XC route to alleviate over-crowding.

We may never know.
 

221129

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I don't know the detail of the "negotiations", but in my experience you need to negotiate with more than one supplier to get the best deal.

XC might have said we could extend the voyagers for a really high price because there was no incentive for them to be competitive.
A more hungry supplier, without the benefits of incumbency might have quoted a more competitive price, or even come up with an alternative such as running extra electric units that are currently in storage on the Manchester to Birmingham portion of XC route to alleviate over-crowding.

We may never know.
Full electric units are no good. There was only one option for lengthening the voyagers which was bombardier.. obviously.
 

Iskra

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Everyone keeps saying this but they are not PRM compliant. You are looking at around 12-15 months lead time & thats if the decision was made now.

We know that. Post 14 mentioned derogation. It could be done...
 

dk1

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PRM compliance is a bit of a red herring..
If we just ignore it & carry on, what happens? I often wonder that. Why can't we just keep the trains in traffic (they have been perfectly acceptable until now) & pay any fines that may or may not come our way. That will be a damn sight cheaper than new or upgraded trains until such time as they are introduced.
 

swt_passenger

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They didn't have a lot of other choice. XC looked at extending the voyagers but the DfT said no...

Full electric units are no good. There was only one option for lengthening the voyagers which was bombardier.. obviously.

And that ship has well & truly sailed.
I don’t believe “XC” the TOC ever had any firm role in the Voyager extension proposal. IIRC Bombardier made the proposal directly to DfT, and it was never a part of a bid by a franchisee. Didn’t it all happen around the time Bombardier was throwing a tantrum about losing a major contract to Siemens?
 

3141

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Worth also remembering that XC is part of Arriva, Arriva is up for sale, and potential purchasers may not be interested in taking on a long extension.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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Are there any improvements at all from this direct award? The last few on other TOCs have seen improved delay compensation - a change to Delay Repay 15 would be welcome, as CrossCountry services often pick up delays throughout their journeys, meaning annoying delays that are often currently uncompensated.
 

pt_mad

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I'm surprised the DfT don't ask XC to improve the levels of service.
I know they'll be terms with the contract but in real world situations, we won't see any changes over the next year.
If XC say no, just run it under DOR?
Is there any doubt the DFT could bring improvements if they wanted to? They oversee everything. They could request XC to begin a tender for additional stock, just as the DFT I believe requested East Midlands Trains to start a tendering process for fitting retention tanks and other basic PRM mods to the HST fleet regardless that they were the outgoing TOC.
Stock could be hired in if the situation was deemed necessary surely? Just as it's been hired in for ScotRail Fife Circle' and the recent Norwich Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft Anglia service.

It does make you wonder what's the point of the whole franchise system. XC passengers are crying out for improved capacity and services, but this just looks like a reward for giving passengers a dreadful travelling experience and encouraging more of the same.
And according to posters in the East Midlands Railway thread, the off lease WMR 170s are bound for EMR and not XC.
 

Mathew S

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If we just ignore it & carry on, what happens? I often wonder that. Why can't we just keep the trains in traffic (they have been perfectly acceptable until now) & pay any fines that may or may not come our way. That will be a damn sight cheaper than new or upgraded trains until such time as they are introduced.
Unless the discrimination against people with disabilities can be justified as being 'necessary' - which is a really high threshold to meet and basically means there is no other alternative at all - the court the TOC gets taken to by disability rights groups rules that using the non-compliant trains is unlawful.
 
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