East Midlands franchise won by Abellio

Abellio have won the franchise.

From Gov.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...s-for-passengers-on-new-east-midlands-railway

 

That's quite a nice little portfolio Abellio are building across the UK.

 

Entire inter-city fleet being replaced, but no word on the local side as of yet. Looking like refurbished units, as they’d be touting a 100% new fleet.

 

No mention of whether or not the Liverpool to Nottingham service has been remapped to another operator?

Also less bombastic than previous announcements like Greater Anglia. No whole fleet renewal I imagine nor any mention of specific good news for UK based manufacturers. I guess we'll just have to wait for the details but I do hope they've done better than giving the Sprinters a good polish!

 

I guess we'll have to see what the fares are like to see whether passengers will be squeezed until the pips squeak.

 

Would be nice if Abellio ordered some more of their new Anglia fleet for the East Midlands, although that might be wishful thinking!

 

Does that mean they're putting Hydrogen trains on the MML. If so I may be switching to LNER for a few years whilst the inevitable problems manifest themselves. Also, how many years will it take to develop this technology?

 

The Abellio press release specifically mentions:

It doesn't tie the new bi-modes to the intercity fleet, but it's all so general so we'll need to wait 2 weeks or so for the formal contract signature before more details emerge.

 

Alternatively they could be used on the Leicester to Nottingham locals *shrug*

 

I wonder if these promises will be kept? (my boldening):

• replacing the existing intercity fleet with more reliable and comfortable trains
• delivering more seats on modern, spacious trains

Since most recently introduced fleets have been fitted with very hard seats with less legroom than their predecessors.

 

Abellio's own press release says this about the local fleet:

... so I wouldn't be surprised if that included cascaded Class 170s or similar on the local side. I doubt they'd say that about a refurbished 15x fleet.

 

I note the government release states "Abellio announced to run East Midlands Railway franchise from August 2019." I was under the impression that DfT had taken an option to extend the current contract until March 2020 (from August 2019). What happened to that?

 

As has been stated countless times the legroom on the class 800s and soon to be 801s is more than the fleets they have replaced.

 

Far less in-depth info given in this announcement than previously.

This is going to be fun. I'm disappointed they didn't try to play it a little safe with the fleet here. Forgetting the inevitable problems, Hydrogen trains must be rather expensive too.

 

agreed! may i also suggest we don't need any fanboyism about the owning companies! There is nothing in this announcement we didn't already know apart from the name of the winner!

any hydrogen trial will be on a minor route. You are simply not going to try emergent technology on the line into London!

that will happen regardless of owning company!

 

I can see a follow on order for the 196s Abellio have ordered for West Mids.

 

I can't. It says refurbished local trains and bimode Intercity mainline.

 

No, it was always August.
I was confused too as I always thought the timeline was announce in March/April and 6 months of changeover (including the pause for any challenges to be brought).


Interesting that Stagecoach now doesn't have any franchises. Especially as I've seen this:

Separately, a senior DfT official has verbally informed Stagecoach that its bid for the East Midlands franchise, and its bids for the South Eastern and West Coast Partnership contracts, have been disqualified. Stagecoach has been told that its bids were determined as non-compliant principally in respect of pensions risks.

 

Any hints or sources saying this is the case or is it just baseless speculation? New stock has been mentioned for InterCity but not Corby or the local routes.

 

Unless that minor route is the Ivanhoe to Leicester, I think they're planning London.

Edit: Maybe you were joking in disbelief. I'm not sure

 

Your rudeness is astounding sometimes!
Sorry, I didn't know we wern't allowed to have an opinion.

Depending on how you read the press release on the Abellio website, that you quoted yourself... I can't see them using Sprinters until 2027. Maybe you can.

 

why do you think that?

 

They could use Corby - if it doesn't work, stick the pantograph up. Battery tech was first tried (in recent years) on a modified EMU on an electrified branch line.

 

I believe they have been disqualified from all current franchise bids!

In a way it's a shame that we are losing the penultimate UK-owned rail parent company, meaning that apart from FirstGroup all franchises now indirectly support overseas rail operations.

Something that I'd be wondering is whether Abellio were able to put in a better bid because they now run WMT, and thus are expecting to achieve a certain level of synergies from reduced duplication in the Midlands (e.g. of staff maintaining stations like Wilnecote and Burton-upon-Trent).

I would also have thought that there would be some kind of clause in the franchise agreement to ensure that there isn't an abuse of market power resulting from the fact that passengers from as far afield as Hereford and Sheffield will now have the same parent company flogging tickets to London, and in particular for places like Burton-upon-Trent or Derby where the option is, broadly speaking, now going to be Abellio (WMT) or Abellio (EMR)! I wonder if a similar sort of clause was inserted when FirstGroup got SWR?

 

Quote on my post #24 is from the DfT. Trailing on the MML makes it sound like London is the plan. Though it is up to interpretation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speec...-and-west-coast-partnership-franchise-updates

That would be more sensible than all the way to Sheffield. One can hope.

 

You are as entitled to your opinion as anyone else is to ask why you have those opinions. On a matter like this there is usually lots of speculation so it can be difficult to separate rumour from fact, hence why I asked for a source or similar. I can't see them keeping 153s or 156s to 2027 either, as I said upthread, but that was purely speculation based on the Abellio press release.