If Go-Ahead win it, will they be allowed to carry out the FCC/Southern/part of Southeastern merger earlier? Given that they'd have control of it all at that point
If not them, RailUK![]()
Abellio - Yes no, still undecided as i find Northern a pretty poor franchise(i know it's a no growth franchise but what would have happend if it was someone like First who'd got that?) We'll see how GAGA Beds in first.
First - Ok, so its the current and rather taunted First Capital Connect, would any other operater fair any better in running a very heavily used service through the heart of a building site? And at least First managed to seccure extra rolling stock in the form of the (planned) Electrostars from Southern, and the 13 Extra Class 321s for Kings Cross Express services...We Shall See...
Go Ahead maybe...But i wasnt that impressed with Thameslink before, and whilst their performance on Southern hasnt been too bad, London Midland and SouthEastern spring to mind - especially SouthEasterns ability to handle a large franchise...
Abellio - Yes no, still undecided as i find Northern a pretty poor franchise(i know it's a no growth franchise but what would have happend if it was someone like First who'd got that?) We'll see how GAGA Beds in first.
Stagecoach - Longshot, would they be any better than First?
And MTR - Again, i think they're quite a longshot in this race, however they do have quite a considerable amount of Metro experiance, so id put them ahead of Govia on this one, despite not actually having much involvement in any franchises bar LOROL.
By the way, here is the actual bidders list:
Abellio Thameslink Limited (NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen)
First Thameslink Limited (FirstGroup plc)
Govia Thameslink Railway Limited (Go-Ahead Group plc and Keolis SA)
MTR Corporation (Thameslink) Limited (MTR Corporation Limited)
Stagecoach Thameslink Trains Limited (Stagecoach Group plc)
If not them, RailUK![]()
What do you mean by planned Electrostars? FCC been running the 377/5 now for just over three years.
The new 377/6 aren't ever coming over to FCC as they're dual voltage units.
Without seeing their actual bids it is of course rather harder to make a decision...
I think he meant that FCC did well to persuade the DfT to divert for Thameslink use the 23 x 377/5s that were 'planned for SN', ie ordered by SN. How much of that is down to FCC is questionable though. I detect that the DfT organised it all in a bit of a panic, knowing that the overall Thameslink rolling stock project was not keeping up with the line's capacity requirements.
Don't you mean they're not dual voltage units?
First - Ok, so its the current and rather taunted First Capital Connect, would any other operater fair any better in running a very heavily used service through the heart of a building site? And at least First managed to seccure extra rolling stock in the form of the (planned) Electrostars from Southern, and the 13 Extra Class 321s for Kings Cross Express services...We Shall See...
Go Ahead maybe...But i wasnt that impressed with Thameslink before, and whilst their performance on Southern hasnt been too bad, London Midland and SouthEastern spring to mind - especially SouthEasterns ability to handle a large franchise...
Abellio - Yes no, still undecided as i find Northern a pretty poor franchise(i know it's a no growth franchise but what would have happend if it was someone like First who'd got that?) We'll see how GAGA Beds in first.
Stagecoach - Longshot, would they be any better than First?
And MTR - Again, i think they're quite a longshot in this race, however they do have quite a considerable amount of Metro experiance, so id put them ahead of Govia on this one, despite not actually having much involvement in any franchises bar LOROL.
By the way, here is the actual bidders list:
Abellio Thameslink Limited (NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen)
First Thameslink Limited (FirstGroup plc)
Govia Thameslink Railway Limited (Go-Ahead Group plc and Keolis SA)
MTR Corporation (Thameslink) Limited (MTR Corporation Limited)
Stagecoach Thameslink Trains Limited (Stagecoach Group plc)