No U-turn on rail franchise says minister despite row
Transport secretary Justine Greening today confirmed the contract for the West Coast mainline would go to FirstGroup – with a deal expected to be signed tomorrow.
Her decision to ignore calls to put the process on hold came as rival firm Virgin said it would have brought back a direct link between Shropshire and London a year earlier than FirstGroup.
FirstGroup announced plans to introduce a direct rail link between Shropshire and London from 2016.
But officials at Virgin said they would have brought back a single service to the capital by the end of 2014, with three trains running every day from 2016.
More than 150,000 people have signed a petition calling for a U-turn on the decision.
The £5.5 billion deal can be signed after midnight, when a 14-day ‘cooling off’ period expires.
Mrs Greening today insisted the new contract represented ‘a good deal for taxpayers’.
She said: “We do plan to push on with signing the contract with FirstGroup. Although I have a huge amount of respect for Virgin and the work they have done on the line, I suspect that, had they won the bid, they would have been perfectly happy with the process.”
Glynn McDonald, for Virgin Trains, said: “We were going to introduce services between London and Shropshire in two phases. From December 2014, there would have been one service in each direction per day, going to Shrewsbury and calling at Telford.
“Then from 2016, when we had new trains delivered, there would have been another two trains in each direction. You would end up with three services in 2016.”
FirstGroup plan to introduce the service from 2016, running five trains a day.
Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski today blasted Virgin as he defended the decision to award the contract to FirstGroup.
He claimed that Virgin’s problems included overcrowding, lateness, things not working properly, rude staff and ‘expensive tickets’.
Comments for: "No U-turn on rail franchise says minister despite row"
Bill
Whatever the outcome as to the operator, the end result in 2016/17 and beyond will be 'use it or lose it'.
One point missed so far is that in BR days (many years ago) the services from London to Shrewsbury ran on much further, thus considerably increasing the patronage. Aberystwyth, Pwhelli, Chester, Birkenhead etc being among the ultimate destinations.
Despite the emergence of Telford, this service will be pretty much running into a 'dead end' and if the headcount of passengers to/from Shropshire travelling south beyond the West Midlands isn't there the service won't last.
That is unless the local authorities and the business groups make a contribution rather than just noise. The operators are commercial organisations; they will react to cash but not to 'hot air'.
What will be more interesting is if the new operator looks to extend beyond Shrewsbury, and not just to Wrexham. They are entitled to operate to Chester and along the North Wales coast.
That could lead Arriva to raise the bar by looking at a mid-Wales to London service again. This might also attract tourism funding support from a Welsh government keen to garner support in the areas remote from Cardiff.
As Arriva now holds the Cross-Country franchise, might we in the future see other services running through Shrewsbury e.g. from the South Coast via Bristol/Reading then either Worcester/Birmingham or Newport/Hereford to mid and north Wales? Or Scotland to south Wales?
Getting a trial service to London should not be seen as a final achievement - it should be seen as the first step in a bigger campaign to widen the long-distance public transport availability in and to the area with the consequent economic and social benefits.