Rail franchise mistake could hold up metro
THE debacle over rail franchises could lead to the Bristol Metro and reopening of the line to Portsihead being delayed.
Transport minister Patrick McLoughlin admitted yesterday that the Government was wholly to blame for the mistake which led to the multi-million West Coast Mainline rail franchise being cancelled.
Mr McLoughlin added that bidding on all other franchises has been halted while inquiries into the Whitehall error were completed.
The company which will run Bristol's railways from next year will have to operate the Bristol Metro service as well as services between London and the West Country.
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The bidding process will be delayed until at least December but the halt is likely to stretch into next year.
First is competing against Arriva, National Express and Stagecoach for the multi-million contract.
As reported in the Post, the government has announced £200 million of grants to pay for the Bristol Metro and has made it clear the winner of the Great Western franchise will have to operate the services.
The new franchise, which is due to start next year will include:
â The Bristol Metro service
â New stations at Portishead and Pill.
â A potential station at Ashton Gate
â Extra services to Severn Beach
â Trains between Temple Meads and Portishead.
It is still unclear when the bidding process will start but yesterday's surprise announcement has thrown the process into chaos.
Mr McLoughlin pulled the plug saying "unacceptable mistakes" were made by the Department for Transport (DfT) in the way it managed the franchise bids from FirstGroup, Virgin and two other companies. Describing the bidding process as "flawed" and "insane", Sir Richard Branson, the boss of Virgin Trains, had launched a legal challenge to the FirstGroup decision.
Having intended to contest the challenge, Mr McLoughlin is now dropping his opposition, cancelling the West Coast franchise competition and ordering two independent inquiries into what went wrong with the West Coast process.
Mr McLoughlin admitted he was "very angry" about what had happened. He went on: "The original model didn't take into account inflation and also some elements of the passenger number increases over a number of years. I want to make it absolutely clear that neither FirstGroup nor Virgin did anything wrong. The fault of this lies wholly and squarely with the DfT. Both of those two companies acted properly on the advice that they were getting from the Department."
Mr McLoughlin has put on "pause" the bidding process for three other rail franchises. He said: "I want to make sure what lessons need to be learnt from what went wrong with this have not been repeated in those particular franchises."
He said it would cost £40 million to reimburse the costs of the companies who bid for the West Coast line.
Comments
by Brizz_Tony
Saturday, October 06 2012, 1:18PM
“Markmaggs9391,
Low bridge won't happen - there's a high bridge already, and even then, some of the tall ships we all enjoyed seeing on the Avon have to wait for the tide to fall a bit to get under. We're stuck with another delay unless something positive happens for once, but at least the government can unfairly blame it on the civil service.”
by markmaggs9391
Friday, October 05 2012, 8:22PM
“There were talks a good few years ago of a low level bridge between Portbury and Avonmouth, for local traffic, this could shift some traffic or at least off the Avonmouth Bridge. More buses an hour in the short term might be the only solution if the rail link is further delayed.”
by Brizz_Tony
Thursday, October 04 2012, 8:31PM
“Tim_M,
You're right, Network Rail is responsible for the infrastructure project side of this. DfT (or DafT as I'm sure they will be known now) will need to ensure there is sufficient rolling stock. But it is the train operating companies who will ultimately run the services. Without a franchise in place, NR will probably not start work, even though the railway will be an undoubted success when it reopens. The government will be reluctant to restart projects until the franchising fiasco is sorted out, and that will take a lot of government energy for now.
The next step in the work to reopen the Portishead line will be to remove the vegetation along the last 3 miles, so that proper engineering planning can take place. That can only be done outside of nesting seasons, so if it hasn't started by March, it won't start before October 2013. Meanwhile, more houses will be built, and traffic will get ever worse along the A369. It's all very frustrating, when it all looked a done deal, but that's government for you.”
by PortisheadAH1
Thursday, October 04 2012, 6:18PM
“Let's not kid ourselves that the delay to the Portishead line will be just down to this debacle. No deal has ever been sealed and a Portishead station is still as far away as it has always been. A Portbury station though is and always has been more realistic. Sorry rail buffs.”
by katachua
Thursday, October 04 2012, 12:52PM
“The delay might even be worth it (and bear in mind that I'm a strong advocate of this project) if it sorts out the shambles that is the current bidding structure.”
by Tim_M
Thursday, October 04 2012, 12:01PM
“Isn't Network Rail responsible for implement most of the really important bits? (capital spending / infrastructure)”