West Coast Partnership Delayed

KashmireHawker · 2 Jul 2019

I haven't seen anything official from the DfT, but Labour have responded to a delay to the announcement of the winner for the West Coast Partnership franchise.

Andy McDonald, the Shadow Transport Secretary has said:

https://labour.org.uk/press/transpo...cdonald-responds-west-coast-partnership-news/

“The Transport Secretary has presided over a shambolic state of affairs.

“South Eastern is delayed. Now the West Coast HS2 contract is delayed. Yet a rail contract was awarded in East Midlands while a government review is underway. At the same time, multiple transport companies are suing the government over its approach to rail contracts.

“This is only a foretaste of the catastrophic and expensive legacy Chris Grayling has left across our transport system which will scar the country for decades to come.”

RailUK Forums

pdeaves · 2 Jul 2019

I also cannot see any announcement. However, in this page (https://www.gov.uk/government/speec...-and-west-coast-partnership-franchise-updates) Mr Grayling states "We are due to award the West Coast Partnership in June." Clearly as we are now in July the franchise award must be delayed.

800002 · 2 Jul 2019

pdeaves said:
I also cannot see any announcement. However, in this page (https://www.gov.uk/government/speec...-and-west-coast-partnership-franchise-updates) Mr Grayling states "We are due to award the West Coast Partnership in June." Clearly as we are now in July the franchise award must be delayed.

Indeed it does say 'June' but I fail to spot a year.... :-/ could have been June 2030 for all he cares (cared).

LNW-GW Joint · 2 Jul 2019

There was the shortest and blandest of DfT announcements yesterday, as I posted here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/wcml-intercity-franchise.181406/page-13 .
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-franchise-schedule

The Secretary of State has commissioned Keith Williams to undertake a root and branch review of the railway, including franchising.
Currently contracted franchises and franchise competitions will continue.
Other live rail projects are outside the scope of the review.
View information on each passenger rail franchise for bidders, passengers and stakeholders.

Something about the process must have prompted this statement.
The last detailed schedule was issued 2 years ago.

krus_aragon · 8 Jul 2019

LNW-GW Joint said:
There was the shortest and blandest of DfT announcements yesterday, as I posted here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/wcml-intercity-franchise.181406/page-13 .
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-franchise-schedule

Something about the process must have prompted this statement.
The last detailed schedule was issued 2 years ago.

It's a brilliant example of a statement that manages to say nothing at all.
The last we heard on the Williams review was that the report would be "published in a government white paper in autumn 2019", and that "Reform will begin in 2020".

The current VT contract extension runs to March 2020.

Mollman · 8 Jul 2019

Times article suggests announcement due soon (I'm not a subscriber but you can see the important bit):
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/spanish-on-fast-track-to-the-west-coast-line-89kgskkk3

Named after a bird, it flies through the Spanish countryside at about 190mph and is the pride of the state-owned Renfe company. Now the AVE train, or at least the knowhow behind it, could be coming to Britain.

Renfe, which operates on 2,000 miles of high-speed network, the second largest in the world after China, has joined a bid led by the Hong Kong-based MTR for the West Coast Partnership franchise in the UK. The Department for Transport is expected to announce soon the winning bid to operate inter-city services between London, northwestern England and Glasgow. It will be involved, too, in the preparation of HS2, which is due to be launched in 2026.

The MTR submission also involves Guangshen Railway Co in China, with…

Bletchleyite · 8 Jul 2019

That's pulling the suggestion back to it being MTR, which is my preferred out of the three. Interesting.

Aictos · 8 Jul 2019

Rather have First run it with Italian Railways!

LNW-GW Joint · 8 Jul 2019

As it's a toss-up between First/Trenitalia and MTR/Guangshen/RENFE, does anybody in the media actually have a clue which is the DfT preferred bidder?
The MTR one won't be an easy sell with all the political aggro in Hong Kong and with Chinese trade generally.
Spain still has not allowed any competition on its railway. Italy is only a little better.
I'm not sure the public has cottoned on yet to the fact that MTR will run/is running Crossrail for TfL.
And if it's First we don't know how their Board views future franchises, given the financial risks involved.

Involving RENFE doesn't deliver AVE. DfT/HS2 Ltd are choosing the trains.
RENFE has a kaleidoscope of high speed trains branded AVE, but many of them are derivatives of the familiar TGV or ICE originals.
Talgo and CAF have a share of the market, but even they work with Siemens, Alstom and Bombardier in their high speed product lines.
It does at least give them a lot of experience of introducing a multiplicity of high speed train types.

Mathew S · 8 Jul 2019

LNW-GW Joint said:
As it's a toss-up between First/Trenitalia and MTR/Guangshen/RENFE, does anybody in the media actually have a clue which is the DfT preferred bidder?

There's plenty of rumour and speculation amongst those of us who are unfortunate enough to have to cover DfT & rail things. Nothing anyone can report though, as far as I know.

arfortune · 8 Jul 2019

Mathew S said:
There's plenty of rumour and speculation amongst those of us who are unfortunate enough to have to cover DfT & rail things. Nothing anyone can report though, as far as I know.

Mathew is right - nothing to report here. The Times article is just regurgitating old news that RENFE had joined the consortium.

WatcherZero · 9 Jul 2019

LNW-GW Joint said:
As it's a toss-up between First/Trenitalia and MTR/Guangshen/RENFE, does anybody in the media actually have a clue which is the DfT preferred bidder?
The MTR one won't be an easy sell with all the political aggro in Hong Kong and with Chinese trade generally.
Spain still has not allowed any competition on its railway. Italy is only a little better.

Spain apparently has just hosted an event for prospective 2020 franchising bidders. Their in the middle of a "2018-2020 Transport Internationalisation Plan" the objective of which seems to be to get Spanish operators in as many foreign pies as possible to strengthen them before liberalisation of their domestic market.

BR67 · 9 Jul 2019

WatcherZero said:
Spain apparently has just hosted an event for prospective 2020 franchising bidders. Their in the middle of a "2018-2020 Transport Internationalisation Plan" the objective of which seems to be to get Spanish operators in as many foreign pies as possible to strengthen them before liberalisation of their domestic market.

Yes, but Spain has been considering open access rail operations for five years. Nothing has (yet) happened.

https://www.railwaygazette.com/news...sh-passenger-market-competition-approved.html

Development Minister Ana Pastor announced on June 13 [2014] that the cabinet had given its approval for bids to be invited to operate commercial long-distance passenger services in competition with state operator RENFE.

JaJaWa · 9 Jul 2019

BBC published then deleted an article saying MTR/CR had won it a couple of weeks ago.

CICERO55 · 10 Jul 2019

I got a reply from the department of transport today saying they will award the franchise in summer 2019 which is a bit vague, so hopefully by the end of august, but i wont be surprised if they dont.

Jorge Da Silva · 10 Jul 2019

CICERO55 said:
I got a reply from the department of transport today saying they will award the franchise in summer 2019 which is a bit vague, so hopefully by the end of august, but i wont be surprised if they dont.

They said June in April 2019, its now July 2019. Now its Summer 2019 (I predict around late July/Mid August). They said for Southeastern something even vaguer, 2019.

LNW-GW Joint · 10 Jul 2019

If they wait long enough, parliament will be on holiday and they will get very little scrutiny.
July (before parliament rises) has in the past been a peak time for important spending announcements, as departments clear their desks for the recess.
Not this year.

StaffsWCML · 11 Jul 2019

Just Scrap it. Its going to end up ruining a perfectly good well run franchise with incompetency. Why mess?

Every single recent franchise award has been an absolute disaster. Just stop.

Agree to refund the bidders 'costs' and have done with it.

All we are going to end up with is the idiots at First or some jokers who have no idea how to run trains on a Victorian Rail System.

exesoundtech · 11 Jul 2019

StaffsWCML said:
Just Scrap it. Its going to end up ruining a perfectly good well run franchise with incompetency. Why mess?

Every single recent franchise award has been an absolute disaster. Just stop.

Agree to refund the bidders 'costs' and have done with it.

All we are going to end up with is the idiots at First or some jokers who have no idea how to run trains on a Victorian Rail System.

Of course, that would imply leaving it with Stagecoach/Virgin. The EMT award despite Williams Review being in progress would suggest an attitude at DfT of “Stagecoach get contracts/direct awards over my dead body!”

ainsworth74 · 11 Jul 2019

In the absence of any firm news on this franchise (and thanks to those posting updates) this thread is again locked to avoid rampant off-topic and wild speculation. If anyone does wish to speculate or talk about what they think should happen please use the Speculative Ideas sub-forum to do so.

Once there is some more news regarding what's actually happening please feel free to start a new thread to discuss that news.

Thanks,
ainsworth74

West Coast Partnership Delayed

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