Overground Expansion

September seems another big expansion of the London Overground (LO) as it takes over stations on route to Croydon ahead of next years running of services on the East London Railway (ELR). The following stations will be taken over on the 20th September;

• New Cross Gate
• Brockley
• Honor Oak Park
• Forest Hill
• Sydenham
• Crystal Palace
• Penge West
• Anerley
• Norwood Junction
• West Croydon

This will lead to a re branding of the stations ahead of the East London Rail services expected to start serving these stations in Spring next year. It remains to be seen if the first services using Oyster at these stations will be Southern's or London Overground's.

This comes along with the news that Imperial Wharf station is to open of the 27th of this month. The new station which has been in the planning stage for years is the second completely new station opened since TfL took control of the Overground network and also the second new station on the West London Line.

377/5 update

Slowly and surely the 377/5 are being delivered by Bombarider. Current First Capital Connect have now 12th units meaning we are now half way through the delivery programme and the current final unit, the 23rd is due mid november. 377506 made its passenger debut today, working along side 10 other Electrostars. So far the units have come into service as such

377501 - 24th March
377504 - 28th March
377502 - 30th April
377507 - 11th May
377508 - 18th May
377505 - 29th May
377509 - 27th July
377510 - 30th July
377511 - 5th August
377512 - 18th August
377513 - 1st September
377506 - 2nd September

377506 on the return leg of its first jounery in passenger service.

377504 showing off the livery of the 377/5's thats now been applied to 377501/502/504/505/507/508/510/511

Currently units 377516 and 377520 are still on comissioning test and both due at FCC's Cauldwell depot by the first week of October. No moves from Bombardiers Derby workshop where the 377/5 are being built to Southern's Selhurst depot are booked at the moment meaning there will be a gap after 377520 is delivered, but units 377503/514/515/517/518/519/521/522/523 are still due to leave Derby. The quickest a 377/5 was comissioned was three weeks with unit 377505. During the testing, normally done at night, the units have been to many distant places that they won't visit for a few more years including Tonbridge, Milton Keynes and Littlehampton.

Blackfriars Update - 2nd September 2009

Just a quick update with some pictures of Blackfriars. Over the bank holiday wekend the passenger bridge linking platforms 4 and 5 was lifted into place. as you can see from the following pictures, work has progressed rather well.

Not in the pictures is the new front entrance to the station which is completed. It will open along side the new station control room in around two weeks time.

Blackfriars - Platform 5 Changes

This weekend saw major changes being implemented on the northbound platform 5 at Blackfriars this weekend. As part of the on going works the platform is being extended to the south. This was necessary because of the closure of the link bridge over the District/Circle Line below to the main exit. This now means the main way onto the platform is from the newer St Paul's Walk. The subway between platform 5 and 4 is still open for the movement but will be closing soon once the new link bridge is complete (currently due for a months time).


This is the link bridge not long after closing for the last time. This bridge actually spans the District and Circle Line below, now encased.


This is the signal waiting to be assembled


This massive block is lifted onto the platform onto some concrete to hold it steady.


Note the the route indicator is currently unattached. This was added to the signal once I'd left. The route indicator is needed because of the points just south of City Thameslink allowing trains in either direction to change tracks.


This is the platform extnesion on the south end of the platform 5.

New Central Line platform at Stratford Update

Here's some new images of the new platform 4a at Stratford for the Central Line. The platform is being build as part of the upgrade of Stratford station to handle the Olympic crowds and the extra traffic as the station is now one of the biggest interchanges outside Zone 1 in London.



The Jubilee Line building is in the background here looking towards Canary Wharf.



In the background here is the supports for the new bridge over the railway into Stratford City development and the Olympic Park.



You can see in this image the new station extension building in the background to this shot.

Seems the first 378 in passenger service will be tomorrow with the following services booked to be 378 trips;

0650 Clapham Junction – Stratford
0809 Stratford – Richmond
0922 Richmond – Stratford
1037 Stratford – Richmond
1157 Richmond – Stratford
1307 Stratford – Richmond
1427 Richmond – Stratford
1537 Stratford – Richmond
1736 Richmond – Willesden Junction
1827 Willesden Junction – Richmond

This follows on from last weeks debut of the first of new Victoria Line trains (09TS). The usual terms apply as it may change last minute but hopefully the first 378 run for us passengers will happen and give the Overground's clearest sign of improvement yet.

First Capital Connect is still getting a slow trickle of new 377/5 units from Bombardier with its 7th unit, 377509, coming into service on Monday 27th July. The 8th unit, 377510, is due at Bedford tomorrow (29th July) in exchanged from Southern's 377206, One of five 377/2's that FCC are still borrowing. 377511 is nearly completed commissioning runs and will be delivered on Tuesday (4th August). The 11th unit will be 377506 and is expected to get to Selhurst on Friday (31st July). Once this unit comes into passenger service of Southern's borrowed 377/2 will have been returned and FCC can then look forward to lengthening service and delivering on the original promises of KO0.

New Victoria Line Trains in Passenger Service at Last

As announced yesterday, the new 09TS (Tube Stock) trains for London Underground's Victoria Line made their first appearance late last night. The unit began its career on a 23:55 service from Seven Sisters to Brixton. This is likely to be a semi regular thing with three paths from next weeks timetable change so if your catching one of the last Victoria Line trains home keep an eye out for the unit.

Currently London Underground only have two of the 09TS units but only one (train 2) is equipped for passenger service. The first unit, train 1, is still half fitted with testing equipment. No further deliveries of 09TS are expected for the moment but a slow ramping up at Bombardier's Derby works is expected as the new fleet replaces the original Victoria Line trains dating from the 60's

The Victoria Line Upgrade or VLU is designed to give the Line its first real boost since it opened in stages from September 1968 to March 1969 with the Victoria to Brixton section opening in July 1971. The VLU will provide an 19% increase in capacity and 16% reduction in traveling times. This is achieve in part by faster running and extra space on the new fleet taking advantage of the slightly larger tunnels on the Victoria Line than other Tube lines. In peak currently LU runs 27tph (Trains Per Hour) on the Line and this will increase to 33tph once the upgrade is complete. A new signaling system is also being installed with the current one removed once all the current 67TS trains are withdrawn from service.

The VLU is supposed to be finished in early 2012 but all the overruns (including the fact the first new 09TS train is 8 months late going into passenger service) it is now the target to complete the upgrade just before the Olympics so the Line can handle the increase in traffic.

Click here for images of the first passenger run from Bowroaduk.

Bombardier Debuts This Week?

After months and months of delays it looks like two new Bombardier trains will be coming into service this week.

As previous posted, the delayed 378 introduction is some seven months late. After last weeks official press launch and the selling of commissioned units to the new ROSCO, they can at last be put into service.

Also of note is the first 09 Tube Stock (09TS)for the Victoria Line has been penciled in for a passenger run as early as today (Tuesday) in the off peak hours. These Bombardier trains, based on the Electrostar platform, are even more late than the 378s. The first one in passenger service was due in November, some 8 months late.

Hopefully at least one of these two will come into service and finally help deliver TfL promise of better transport. Both fleets are designed to tackle overcrowding on their respective lines by having more space, running quicker and in the case of the 378, be longer to accommodate growth.

National Express is striped of East Coast

Today National Express announced that they stop providing financial support to there lost making East Coast arm triggering the Government to remove the franchise from their control and for the year, run as a publicly owned company. This follows on from my previous story here.

National Express also runs two other franchises in NX East Anglia & c2c. East Anglia runs all the services out of Liverpool Street and c2c is an successful operation from Fenchurch Street to South Essex. Both are heavy commuter routes into London in the peak

More worrying signs that the DfT were prepared to strip National Express of all its franchises as in the words of Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis “The Government believes it may have grounds to terminate these franchises, and we are exploring all options in the light of the Group’s statement this morning.”

In the statement he also added “A company which had defaulted in the way National Express now intends would not have pre-qualifed for any previous franchises let by the Department. I note that the parent groups of previous franchise failures are no longer in the UK rail business. It is simply unacceptable to reap the benefits of contracts when times are good, only to walk away from them when times become more challenging. “

On their website tonight is a paragraph in the trading statement not updated for todays events but clearly showing that National Express has walked away from East Coast but not the rail industry, “In the event that the Secretary of State for Transport ('Secretary of State') reassumes control of the franchise, National Express would work with the DfT to ensure an orderly handover and ensure that passengers, services and employees are unaffected. The Group does not expect that such circumstances would result in cross default of the Group's other rail franchises.”

If the DfT decides to try and strip National Express of all its franchises, then there will be a fight. In the case of c2c, it may be better to leave the franchise as it is and allow it to develop an improve an already good service. As for East Anglia, NX have recently order 30 class 379 Electrostars and 17 class 321 EMU to increase train length and cope with passenger demand.

378 Spotted

Just a small update, an 378 unit reached Watford Junction in daylight hours and the units ramp up again in driver training following the recent problems with the Electrostar fleets.

Hopefully in the autum this will be a much more common sight.

Thanks to my friend Steve at Watford for the shot.

FCC release statement over the recent 377/5 issue

First Capital Connect (FCC) have released a statement concerning the withdrawal of its new 377/5 Electrostars. It seems that during routine inspect of 377502 in the early hours of Friday morning an issue was discovered with the units power transmission system. This axle end earth return brushes and the bearing which return current to the running rails were found to be faulty. After discovering this unit 377505 was inspect (this was the latest Electrostar to have been delivered) and finding this to have the same fault FCC took the precaution of withdrawing all six Electrostars from service.

FCC found out about this problem early enough for it not to have presented any safety issue but did leave it short of units which it found frustrating to say the least. Bombardier has been busy working on the problem and is now carrying out the remedial work to the currently delivered units. All future 377/5 to be delivered (the 8th unit is due next) will have a modified bearing to solve this problem from returning.

The 377/5 have been a sore point between FCC and Bombardier for months now and in the past this has split out in the public when the former MD of FCC publicly attacked Bombardier for its failure leaving FCC short of trains which lead to a massive inter TOC, DfT, NR and freight alliance to allow stock moves and trained staff to operate different services using different trains. Thankfully this is now winding down with 3 377/2 returned to Southern from FCC and the 4th due shortly. All 3 375 Southern borrowed from Southeastern have returned and the 350/1 from London Midland are returning shortly. FCC did announce that the Electrostar will return at the daily rate of 2 per day starting today. However so far 3 377/5 have returned to duty, the three units being 377504, 377507 and 377508.

Return of the Electrostars & NR PAYG Oyster

No sooner had I put up my last post about the current state of the Electrostars and a major issue crops up with the 377/5 for FCC. As of Thursday evening all six units were withdrawn from service due to safety concerns. After a week of no information, FCC, on its regular web chat with interested parties the actually reason for the withdrawal

We stood down the 6 377/5 units last Friday due to a problem with the earth return brushes which was found on unit 377 502 on routine maintenance. We then examined 377 505 and found a similar problem. We therefore stopped the fleet for examination and rectification. There are 14 sets of return brushes on class 377/5 and not more than 30% have been found defective on any unit. However we do not want these to deteriorate further and the situation to go unchecked so the manufacturer, Bombardier, have been working on a solution. This solution has started to be introduced today and we expect to have trains back in service at the rate of two per day.

This was added to a different question -

As a precaution, we have had to stand down from service all 6 of our new and recently-delivered Class 377/5 Electrostars after discovering an issue with the power transmission system during a routine inspection. This relates to earth return brushes at the axle ends.

We welcome the manufacturer's commitment to fix the fault and will return the trains to service as soon as possible - hopefully starting Thursday and completing Monday.

And on the case of the doors at St Pancras International -

We are aware of the problems, which are caused by technical comms issues with the beacon at St Pancras and the receiver on the trains. We are running more test trains to understand why the problem continues to occur, and Network Rails engineers have been supported by our engineers to understand what is causing the interference to the signal between track and train.

It is the removal of the interference (which we are working to establish what is causing it) which will solve the problems.

Frustratingly the interference did not manifest when FCC/NR/Southern were testing last year!

On the case of PAYG Oyster on national Rail, FCC stated that currently implementation is likely to be late 2009 or even early 2010. There is still on going discussion with TfL and the DfT on resolving it and introducing it on all FCC services.

Electrostar Update

FCC's 7th Electrostar, unit 377509, sits in the cleaning sheds at Selhurst Depot on the 2nd June 2009 shortly after delivery.


With the recent problems of Bombardier I thought it would prove useful to update the current status of the Electrostars for both FCC (377/5) and London Overground (378).

377/5

The original plan was for most of the 377/5 dual voltage units to be ready for the Thameslink Programme (TLP) Key Output Zero (KO0), as we know this didn't happen and the massive timetable change went ahead and only on the second day did the first passenger run of a 377/5 happen on the 24th March 2009. So far six units have been delivered with the 7th, 377509 currently at Selhurst on commissioning runs. 377510 was reported on the test track at Bombardier's Derby center last week.

The units have so far been in service as such

377501 – 24/03/09
377504 – 30/03/09
377502 – 29/04/09
377507 – 08/05/09
377508 – 18/05/09
377505 – 29/05/09

The current expected date for all 23 377/5 is now December 2009, some 7 months late.

378

The 378 fleet for London Overground has suffered worse. Originally it was hoped that the first would be in passenger service in December 2008. This was soon to be disappointed as the only 378 delivered in 2008 was 378001 which was only fitted out for test running. The first 378 ready for passenger service was 378005. This was followed by 378007 and the latest unit is 378015 which left Derby today (4th May). The latest updated estimate of a 378 in passenger service is 29th June. This is now some seven months late.

Units 378002/006/009/011/013/014/016 have all been seen completed externally at Derby.

Hopefully as the year progresses more Electrostars will delivered which will help relief overcrowding on FCC's Thameslink routes and provide the best proof of the upgrade to the London Overground is really happening and from next year provide lengthen trains and increased frequencies.

Southeastern to run HS services this month

Southeastern have officially announced they are to run a preview High Speed service. This follows on from the story I blogged about here.

The service will begin on the 29^th June and uses Ashford International, Ebbsfleet and St Pancras stations. Journey times are 37 minutes from Ashford to St Pancras and just 17 minutes from Ebbsfleet. The official timetable can be accessed here.

Pricing

Using the HS service from Ashford gets an extra £4.40 single (£26.60) and £8.10 return (£48.70). Weekly ticket cause an extra £18.90 at £113.40.

Ebbsfleet prices are £12.20 single, £24.30 return and £82.30 for a weekly ticket to St Pancras

Northbound Services

Ashford sees trains leave at 06:48, 07:13 calling at Ebbsfleet and a direct train to St Pancras at 07:48.

Ebbsfleet sees trains at 07:08, 07:33 then gets a clock face departures at 05 and 35 minutes past the hour until 11:05 when HS1 track inspection happens. The service restarts at 13:05 and continues to the final HS train north at 18:35.

Southbound Services

There are trains leaving St Pancras to Ebbsfleet again on a clock face timetable at 07 & 37 departures starting at 07:37. Services are suspended after the 11:07 until the 13:07. The last three trains leaving at 17:37, 18:37 and 19:26 all continue to Ashford International.

The Southeastern page on this story can be accessed here.

Shoreditch High Street - UPDATE

After weeks of waiting I finally got a reply from TfL over why all of a sudden Shoreditch High Street has been re-branded from a Zone 2 to Zone 1 stations. The following is what TfL told me;

“Thank you for your email.
Yes, I can confirm that the Secretary of State (Department for Transport) has set out a condition that Shoreditch be a Zone 1 station as part of the funding deal that’s been agreed.
As with most of these type of agreements, they are complicated and involved and I'm not in a position to provide further details of the reasoning behind the decision.”

So although the price of using the East London Railway will bring in extra money, the addition cost means that the full extension gets built and built quickly. Now its just a case of seeing if TfL can get the cash for the Surrey Canal Road station.

The original story can be found here.

378 Passenger debut set

A new date has been given out for the first of TfL Overground class 378 Electrostar to be I passenger service. The first unit is now planned to take its first paying passengers on the Monday 15th June, just over three weeks away. This is some six months later than originally planned. This is due to the lack of parts that have also affected the 378s cousins, the 377/5 for FCC. This is good news for the users of the Overground as the current class 313 are looking very worn in their Sliverlink livery.

So far Bombardier have delivered 378005 and 378007 with 378001 having gone back to Derby to be fitted out for customer use as it was only a shell used for line testing. This compares badly with the 377/5 as six have now made it out of Bombardier's works with five already in service.

Hopefully more units will soon follow and allow for the complete change of the Overground fleet from what it is today. The units will, however, be returning to Derby next year for carriage lengthening as all the trains will end up four cars compared to the initial delivery of three car units. So the fleet is still yet to be completely finished for awhile after passenger service.

Great Northern Timetable changes

After three years of planning First Capital Connect are introducing the biggest timetable change on its Great Northern (GN) route for 15 years. With the addition of five trains to the FCC GN fleet and regular 12 car trains, FCC will introduce an extra 5,000 seats during the peak period.

The work to introduced this timetable has progressed with both Network Rail and stakeholders being involved throughout. The improvements are know in FCC speak as 'Seats For You', although during the consultation period it was know as the Cambridge & Peterborough Capacity study. By gaining five class 321 from London Midland and using them on the Peterborough route, this in turn frees some class 365 Networkers to increase many 8 car trains to 12 cars on the Cambridge route. For example the 07:15 and 07:45 Cambridge to London Kings Cross are listed by the Government as some of the most crowded trains in the UK. The new service allows these trains to be increased from 8 to 12 cars.

Peterborough route also sees improvements with 06:54 and 07:14 departures from Peterborough callings at Huntingdon and St Neots in the morning peak with 12 car trains. An additional 12 car train runs north from Kings Cross at 17:40.

There are off peak improvements and the Sunday 14:56 Ely to Kings Cross doubles from 4 to 8 car service. There are various other additional off peak trains in the new timetable.

To achieve this Network Rail has increased platform lengths at Cambridge and Royston to allow 12 car trains to call there. Upgrading the power was also needed with £1.6m spent to allowed the lengthen and additional trains to run.

In a few years futher changes will be made as part of the Thameslink Programme with new 12 car trains and an entirely new fleet for both the Great Northern and Thameslink sides of FCC and with the running of trains from the GN side through the Thameslink Core.

Thameslink Update

Due to the slow but regular introduction now being seen by Thameslink customers of the class 377/5 Electrostars more changes to the timetable have been made. As it stands units 377501/502/504/507 have being delivered to FCC. Unit 377508 went into service this morning 13 days after being delivered for testing with 377505 on test at the moment.

A summary of some issues are below

• 17:06 Sutton to St Albans reduced to 4 cars
• 17:40 Sutton to St Albans increased to 8 cars
• 17:05 Sevenoaks to Bedford will run two minutes earlier and take up the 'Crowd Buster' path meaning it loses stops at West Hampstead, Elstree & Borehamwood, Radlett, Leagrave and Filtwick.
• 18:16 'Crowd Buster' will be reduced to four cars and take the 17:05 path meaning it picks all all the stations lost to the Sevenoaks service above. Once enough 377/5 have arrived the 'Crowd Buster' will start from Elephant & Castle.

First Crossrail station begins construction

Work has begun on the new station at Canary Wharf as part of Crossrail today. The new station is the first part of the project to be built and is expected to be among the first to open in 2017 with the Stratford branch following on a few months later. The huge new station is being built in the dock to the north of Canary Wharf, next to the West India Quay station of the DLR. The station will have a covered walkway to the Canary Wharf development. The retail development above the station will have 100,000 square foot of retail space with a park on the roof top of the building.

This is the official press release from Canary Wharf group

Construction of Crossrail begins as foundations laid for new Canary Wharf station

Mayor and Prime Minister joined by UK business leaders as Europe’s largest construction project gets underway

Crossrail, London’s first new major railway in a generation, reached a landmark moment today as the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown marked the start of construction of Crossrail at a breakfast briefing with UK business leaders.

The Mayor was then joined by Transport Minister Andrew Adonis, London’s Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy, Crossrail Chairman Douglas Oakervee and Canary Wharf Group Chief Executive George Iacobescu to launch the first of nearly three hundred 18.5 metre tall steel piles that will form the basis of the new station. The new station will be built in North Dock between Canary Wharf and North Quay and when complete will be one of the largest on the Crossrail network.

The renamed Canary Wharf station will be the first Crossrail station to be constructed, and includes plans for 100,000 square feet of retail space and a roof-top park. Crossrail services will begin operating from 2017 cutting journey times across London allowing travel from Canary Wharf to Liverpool Street in 7 minutes, Paddington in 17 minutes and Heathrow in 44 minutes.

The formal start of construction signals the intensification of work on Crossrail and follows the confirmation of major funding agreements with BAA, Canary Wharf Group and the Corporation of London, the appointments of the new Chief Executive and Chairman of Crossrail and the appointment of the main contractors who will oversee the overall project delivery including design, tunnelling and construction.

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown said: “Many people said it would never be built, but today we are celebrating a defining moment for London as Crossrail’s construction gets underway.

“Crossrail will not only mean faster journey times across the capital and beyond, it will also bring a massive economic boost to the city, creating thousands of jobs and adding at least £20 billion to our economy.

“Investment into important projects like Crossrail, the largest construction project in Europe, is vital to create and protect jobs as well as supporting businesses, so that we can grow our way out of recession and ensure a strong future for London and the country as a whole.”

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “The years of hesitation, irresolution and vacillation are over, the shovels have tasted earth and the construction of a railway that is crucial to the economic prosperity of this great city has begun.

“This amazing project will create and support thousands of jobs, relieve congestion and provide a high speed link between east and west of London. When the first of Crossrail’s chariots glide smoothly along its lines in 2017 it will change the face of transport in London and the South East forever.”

Crossrail is Europe’s largest infrastructure project and will employ some 14,000 people at its peak, providing a crucial boost to London and the UK’s economy. Another 7,000 jobs will be supported indirectly through project support services through items such as manufacturing equipment.

The vast majority of these jobs will be undertaken by people in London and the UK, particularly those living in boroughs along the Crossrail route which are some of the most deprived in the UK, and creating a lasting skills legacy for London. As a beginning, a Crossrail Tunnelling Academy will open in Newham in spring 2010 to train some 1,000 people up to 2015, providing the skills necessary for work in a variety of tunnelling roles.

Crossrail will run for 118km from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west through 21.5km of new twin bore tunnels through central London and on to Whitechapel, Canary Wharf, Woolwich, Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east. The new railway will bring 1.5 million people within 60 minutes’ commute of London’s major business districts with over 200 million passengers expected to use the railway in its first year of operation.

Canary Wharf Group Chief Executive George Iacobescu said: “Today London starts work on one of the great civil engineering projects in its history. Canary Wharf Group is proud to be playing its part, not just by helping to fund the project, but by taking on the responsibility of building the Canary Wharf Crossrail station as well. It’s true that times are hard right now but Canary Wharf still expects to see growth return long before Crossrail is completed. Today we have 93,000 people working here. In the future it is expected that this will more than double. So this project is not just about anticipating future transport demand it is also about London catching up with the demand which is already there.”

London’s Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy said: “Crossrail will deliver a huge capacity boost as part of a multi billion pound investment to improve and expand the capital’s transport network. When it is completed in 2017, the new railway will play a key role in relieving congestion on the Tube and extending access to key retail and business centres to passengers from all over London and across the South of England.

“Alongside Crossrail we remain strongly committed to upgrading the Underground, and other major projects that will deliver better services for our passengers between now and 2017, including the extension of the DLR network, the East and North London Lines and London Overground. All are vital for London’s economy.”

Crossrail Chairman Douglas Oakervee said: “The priority for Crossrail is to deliver this project on time and within budget. Following approval of the Crossrail Act last summer, the project has made significant progress with funding and governance agreements finalised and the appointment of the contractors for the key Programme Partner and Project Delivery Partner contracts. Today marks the beginning of the next stage.”

Beckton is getting three car services from 2011

An agreement for the Beckton branch of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to get three car services has been signed. Costing £18.2m the deal will see the following seven stations extended;

Royal Victoria
Custom House for Excel
Prince Regent
Beckton Park
Cyprus
Gallions Reach
Beckton

The money is coming form the following sources

£10.8m from the Olympic Delivery Authority
£2m from London Development Agency
£5.4m from the Housing and Communities Agency

The work will mean that by the Olympics, all the DLR services will be three car which will give the DLR trains the same capacity as a Circle Line train, give the network a huge boost to cope with the ever climbing passenger numbers. The first three car trains will be running on the Bank – Lewisham service from early next year.

National Express East Coast

After months of rumors do one of the rail franchises handing the keys back to one or more franchise, one has finally collapsed and has done a deal with the government. National Express East Coast franchise have has previous issues when GNER had to hand the franchise back due to its parent companies inability to guarantee premium payments. Two years ago National Express (NX) won the rights and begin running the services between London and Scotland along the East Coast, but the company has had negative press over its plans to cut jobs and services such as buffet cars in its trains due to struggling with its cost.

The deal for National Express to run the service as a management contract now means that NX can try to raise £400m to help stabilize the situation for its 3,100 staff and 17m annual passengers.

The full deal is yet to be settled with the agreement only at the outline stage but both commuters and staff will be worried about what the future is going to bring. It seems National Express's other franchises will be left alone which will come to relief of various groups. One of National Express's best franchise is c2c which has transformed the old LTS rail line and now is a by word for reliable and timely services.

This isn't the first time a franchisee has lost a franchise as Connex was stripped of its railway contracts which lead to the SRA (strategic Rail Authority) doing a management contact. With Southeastern this lead to improvements to the service before its was re let.

I leave you with the words of the DfT on the situation:

“All train-operating companies have regular meetings with the DfT and as a company we never talk about in public what we discuss in private,”

“As we have made clear on numerous occasions we do not renegotiate franchises.”

The original article is here

Rail deal sparks £400m cash call