Back the Bid for GNER

[Julian G]

Back the Bid for GNER
Back the Bid for GNER

GNER has become one of the UK's most successful Train Operating Companies with over 10 years of service to its passengers. Travelling from as far as Inverness & Aberdeen down to London the operator has committed itself to refurbish its entire fleet of trains, provide Wi-Fi access, deliver an award winning on-board catering service and runs over 90% of trains on time.

In 2005 GNER launched a 'Back our Bid' campaign to help it win the franchise for a further 10 years. It was successful with its bid of £1.3 billion over the course of the franchise.

GNER's parent company, Sea Containers Group, have now run into financial difficulty and numerous events have forced GNER into difficult circumstances. 

In an unlawful act the ORR recently approved an application for a new open-access operator to run services along the GNER route - extracting revenue from GNER at York station and potentially throwing the franchising process into disarray allowing open-access operators the right to run on the same route as a government appointed operator and not have to pay the same access charges.

Rising energy costs have hit GNER hard with the overall rise expected to be upto 100% by the end of next year since it won the franchise in 2005. 

July 7th Terror Attacks on London has effected passenger numbers with an increase of 3.3%, much less than the 9.9% expected. Because part of the attack took place at Kings Cross station passengers have shown some reluctance to travel by rail and subsequently GNER have lost revenue.  
All of these factors have contributed to the crisis now facing the company. GNER & its parent now believe it can no longer meet the £1.3 billion payments because of these factors and talks have turned to service cuts, job losses and fare increases, the company sale and giving up the franchise completely unless it can have the franchise payments reduced to help it cover costs. 

The Department for Transport have said re-negotiating franchises is out of the question, however re-negotiating the franchise payments will benefit the government as it could stand to lose £600 million or more if the franchise is handed back and re-tendered.

GNER launched a massive campaign to help it win the franchise. Back our bid. Millions of passengers, employees & celebrities backed GNER and TrainCrew.co.uk is calling on those to back that bid again and we want to rally your support to convince the DfT to reduce franchise payments and preserve the great railway heritage and outstanding customer service GNER provides. 

Sea Containers say the situation has to be resolved before October 14th 2006 or it will be the end for GNER as we know it.

TrainCrew.co.uk is launching a petition which will be delivered to the Department for Transport and hopefully convince them to reduce the premium. 

If you do not want to lose GNER then sign our petition and Back the Bid!

Please note, you will be asked for your Name, Email, and Address details. Only your name and Town/City will be viewable online - you will be sent an E-mail to confirm your entry. The printed version delivered to the DfT will contain your name & address as whole proof you intentionally signed the petition.

The petition will be available to sign until the 30th September before being delivered to the DfT. Show your support and publish news of our petition anywhere you can. If your from a magazine or newspaper show your support - Publicise this campaign. We want the DfT to listen to what the passengers of GNER want. Back the Bid!

 

[Guinness]

So you can read it better....

GNER has become one of the UK's most successful Train Operating Companies with over 10 years of service to its passengers. Travelling from as far as Inverness & Aberdeen down to London the operator has committed itself to refurbish its entire fleet of trains, provide Wi-Fi access, deliver an award winning on-board catering service and runs over 90% of trains on time.

In 2005 GNER launched a 'Back our Bid' campaign to help it win the franchise for a further 10 years. It was successful with its bid of £1.3 billion over the course of the franchise.

GNER's parent company, Sea Containers Group, have now run into financial difficulty and numerous events have forced GNER into difficult circumstances.

In an unlawful act the ORR recently approved an application for a new open-access operator to run services along the GNER route - extracting revenue from GNER at York station and potentially throwing the franchising process into disarray allowing open-access operators the right to run on the same route as a government appointed operator and not have to pay the same access charges.

Rising energy costs have hit GNER hard with the overall rise expected to be upto 100% by the end of next year since it won the franchise in 2005.

July 7th Terror Attacks on London has effected passenger numbers with an increase of 3.3%, much less than the 9.9% expected. Because part of the attack took place at Kings Cross station passengers have shown some reluctance to travel by rail and subsequently GNER have lost revenue.
All of these factors have contributed to the crisis now facing the company. GNER & its parent now believe it can no longer meet the £1.3 billion payments because of these factors and talks have turned to service cuts, job losses and fare increases, the company sale and giving up the franchise completely unless it can have the franchise payments reduced to help it cover costs.

The Department for Transport have said re-negotiating franchises is out of the question, however re-negotiating the franchise payments will benefit the government as it could stand to lose £600 million or more if the franchise is handed back and re-tendered.

GNER launched a massive campaign to help it win the franchise. Back our bid. Millions of passengers, employees & celebrities backed GNER and TrainCrew.co.uk is calling on those to back that bid again and we want to rally your support to convince the DfT to reduce franchise payments and preserve the great railway heritage and outstanding customer service GNER provides.

Sea Containers say the situation has to be resolved before October 14th 2006 or it will be the end for GNER as we know it.

TrainCrew.co.uk is launching a petition which will be delivered to the Department for Transport and hopefully convince them to reduce the premium.

If you do not want to lose GNER then sign our petition and Back the Bid!

Please note, you will be asked for your Name, Email, and Address details. Only your name and Town/City will be viewable online - you will be sent an E-mail to confirm your entry. The printed version delivered to the DfT will contain your name & address as whole proof you intentionally signed the petition.

The petition will be available to sign until the 30th September before being delivered to the DfT. Show your support and publish news of our petition anywhere you can. If your from a magazine or newspaper show your support - Publicise this campaign. We want the DfT to listen to what the passengers of GNER want. Back the Bid!

 

[Coxster]

Julian: Why use CODE tags???

 

[bunnahabhain]

Its because

he

feels the need to show that

he

knows

how

to use the

tags!

 

[Nick W]

I hope GNER lose the bid.

How dare they waste passenger fares on suing when they have severe reliability problems to deal with. Extracting revenue from GNER my a**e. They should grow up and stop having a paddy if another company decides not to rip people off.

If they can't afford the £1.3bn bribe it bloody well serves them right.

Let this be a lesson to any ToC that wastes passenger fares and bribes.
Let this also be be a lesson to DfT for accepting daylight bribery.

 

[Guinness]

According to a very reliable source inside of GNER, things are getting bad. Lack of proper maintenance due to lack of funds and spare parts and with the looming possibility of Job Losses.

Enjoy GNER while you can.....

 

[Turbostar]

If that's the case with GNER, how they gonna afford this major refurbishment of their HST fleet? The coaches are to be refurbished, & the power cars are to be refurbished, & re-engined with new MTU units. I can see it grinding to a halt sooner rather than later, due to lack of funds.

Mart

 

[morgantyreman]

bye bye GNER

RIP

Who ever takes over if they do go bust better have HST's

 

[Turbostar]

There was an article in the latest edition of Today's Railways UK, about the HST2 project. Reading through it, a mention is made about GNER and their services from Aberdeen/Inverness to London Kings Cross, using HSTs all the way, when from Edinburgh onwards it's electric. And they were saying about what a waste basically using the HSTs for this route, & talked about some system, possibly using the 91s+Mk4 sets, with a 67 hauling them northwards from Edingburgh. I can see their point to a certain extent, as the 67s are more or less dormant now, with EWS just bunging them on any freight just to keep them running. You'll need to read the story in full to get the gist of what I'm getting at, but talk about a waste of resources with GNER, when the route is more or less 90% electric.

Mart

 

[yorkie]

I hope GNER lose the bid.

How dare they waste passenger fares on suing when they have severe reliability problems to deal with. Extracting revenue from GNER my a**e. They should grow up and stop having a paddy if another company decides not to rip people off.

The fact is that the DfT did tell them they'd have no competition. As it happens, the DfT had no right to tell them that. It's the ORR who makes such decisions. Hardly GNERs fault though, is it?

If they can't afford the £1.3bn bribe it bloody well serves them right.

It's not a "bribe", it's how the system works, again DfT to blame.

Let this be a lesson to any ToC that wastes passenger fares and bribes.
Let this also be be a lesson to DfT for accepting daylight bribery.

At the end of the day the DfT are responsible for this mess. You can blame the TOCs if you like, but what else can TOCs do other than refuse to operate the franchise? Which is what'll happen. No-one will actually pay that £1.3bn, and in any case that amount was dependent on various factors which are not going to happen (such as the Hambleton-Neville Hill electrification).
[EDIT]

There was an article in the latest edition of Today's Railways UK, about the HST2 project. Reading through it, a mention is made about GNER and their services from Aberdeen/Inverness to London Kings Cross, using HSTs all the way, when from Edinburgh onwards it's electric. And they were saying about what a waste basically using the HSTs for this route, & talked about some system, possibly using the 91s+Mk4 sets, with a 67 hauling them northwards from Edingburgh. I can see their point to a certain extent, as the 67s are more or less dormant now, with EWS just bunging them on any freight just to keep them running. You'll need to read the story in full to get the gist of what I'm getting at, but talk about a waste of resources with GNER, when the route is more or less 90% electric.

Mart

This won't happen for various reasons:

1. Class 67s are not really suitable for such loads, over such distances, in regular use.
2. Journey times would be extended due to poorer performance of Class 67s, and time to attach/detach locos
3. Extra staffing costs
4. There is not enough power on the ECML, so substations would need to be upgraded. Who would pay?
5. The 91+Mk4 set is utilised as much as possible now - you cannot get any higher utilisation (not without breaking the Rules of the Plan!), there just aren't enough sets around. To illustrate the point, there are several GNER services that are HST operated completely under the wires.

 

[devon_metro]

Are Angel Trains not funding the power car replacement. Or do GNER not hire their HSTs from Angel?

 

[yorkie]

Are ngle Trains not funding the power car replacement. Or do GNER not hire their HSTs from Angel?

You are correct, it is the ROSCOs who fund rolling stock (Angel are one example of a ROSCO). The TOCs pay leasing charges over time. I doubt this would affect it.

Who ever takes over if they do go bust better have HST's

It doesn't matter which company operates the franchise; HSTs will be used - there is no other option.