Railtalk
Franchising is bust. That is the opinion of Keith Williams, the former British Airways boss currently conducting a review into the railways, which he articulated when he delivered this year’s George Bradshaw lecture on 26 February: ‘Franchising can’t continue as it is today… I’ve been talking to investors, train operators and passengers, and in talking to all of them what has become clear is that what served the industry very well 20 or 25 years ago is not the way forward’.
This view prompted a plaintive question from the audience asking just where that left bidders for the current live franchise competitions, for South Eastern and the Midland and West Coast main lines. They may well ask. All three have pressing problems over and above a bust franchising model. South Eastern has seemingly insurmountable problems associated with transferring the risk of pensions commitments. West Coast Partnership has no certainty over the commissioning date for HS2 Phase 1, let alone Phase 2a to Crewe. Whoever is in charge of East Midlands Trains faces a rolling stock crisis at midnight plus 1 on 1 January 2020.
POOR PERFORMANCE
Plainly, there is much that has gone wrong recently. Last summer’s problems on the…
