Well, unless they all work as advertised straight out of the box
Waterfront’s recent Rolling Stock Procurement Forum 2016 combined speakers at the sharp end of rolling stock procurement policy (if that’s not an oxymoron), funding and legal issues. This was Waterfront’s first rolling stock event and was well attended with a range of delegates: it had me on the last page of my current notebook by the end.
Following the recent plethora of rolling stock orders, driven by replacement franchises, one of the speakers raised the question: ‘Have we reached “peak train”?’.
There was no conclusive answer from the floor, but I judged the feeling to be that so long as replacement franchise Invitations to Tender (ITTs) continue to include quality weightings which favour new rolling stock, and while new trains and the funding to pay for them are cheap, this bull market has some way to go.
In contrast to the rising graph of new trains on order, Network Rail’s Public Performance Measure (PPM) has been in decline since the first Reporting Period of Control Period 5 back in April 2014. For P1 2014-15 the PPM was 89.9% against a regulatory target of 91.9%. Today, 34 Periods later, it stands at 87.9%, while the Office of R…
