Return to Archive -by date - by topic - 2000 Archive.
Hi there, ‘Bonkers' Orr-Watt back again with an update on the franchise replacement bidding.
Thanks for all the e-mails asking where I had got to. Pressure of work I'm afraid. I've just set up yet another company called Roddy Orr-Watt Spin – ROWS for short. We specialise in ‘in yer face' PR rather than the usual emollient approach. Our first client is Railtrack and you may have noticed the resulting robust approach to regulation.
Meanwhile the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced the shortlists for InterCity East Coast, Chiltern and Network South Central (NSC).
In the case of the East Coast there was a shortlist to start with only Sea Containers and Virgin pre-qualifying to bid for what ought to be a really attractive franchise. Even the first time round there were four in the shortlist.
Roger received some heavy flak for getting excited about the Virgin High Speed Line proposal, the view being that quality of on board service was more important when it comes to franchise replacement than building new railways. He has been suitably reprimanded, but takes encouragement from Sir Alastair's view that ‘more of the same is not enough'.
There was huge excitement over the NSC shortlist, where incumbent Connex was lined up against Stagecoach (SWT) and GoVia (Thameslink). Someone started the rumour that Connex had missed the cut and it spread like wildfire.
Huge disappointment followed, not to mention some profits for Rail Index my spread betting firm, when it turned out that Stagecoach had missed the cut and it was Connex versus GoVia. Since French Railways took over Via GTI's one third interest in GoVia we'll soon be talking about the Reseau Sud Central (RSC).
According to my city chums, Stagecoach had been looking for the sort of returns it got from SWT and was considered too pricey. As the company also highlighted falling subsidies at SWT (yes SWT, the fattest franchise of all) in a profit warning I don't think they'll be a major force this time around either.
Anyway it is clear that with such a paucity of credible bidders the SSRA realises it is on a hiding to nothing with commuters on South Central since it warned that it will be looking for ‘evidence' that the operators ‘are committed to a radicial improvement in service quality and, in particular, ‘early achievement of higher performance standards'. Proposals will have to be ‘far more ambitious' than the ideas outlined so far'.
Let's hope Mike Grant has deep pockets because quality costs.
On Chiltern there were no caveats. Dear old Arriva, who seem to think that rescuing MTL and covering the losses of Merseyrail and Northern Financial Black Hole will earn them the SSRA's undying gratitude, were dropped, leaving Big Ade Shooter's M40 Trains head to Go-Ahead.
Chiltern and South Central are the big tests of Mike Grant's credibility. He has said that track records of incumbent operators will be a factor in letting replacement franchises. Well, compared with Go-Ahead's plain vanilla performance at Thames Trains, Chiltern is a Knickerbocker Glory with extra fruit and a measure of Cointreau when it comes to performance, investment, customer satisfaction and safety.
Roger, being an old cynic, would say that the Treasury will insist on the cheapest bid. Me? I am sure that Mike Grant adheres to the philosophy that for the customer quality endures long after the price is forgotten.
Must go, John Prescott has asked ROWS to handle his PR at the Rail summit in May.