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As half expected the relationship between SWT and its train builder has ended in tears
You will recall that the January column mused on the strange case of the non-appearing Class 458s and concluded that I fully expected a stroppy call from SWT saying that the Class 458s are naff and that I am a tool of the Anglo French conspiracy. Well, the call never came, but when I gave a paper to the Stagecoach Annual Integrated Transport Conference in January, SWT Managing Director Andrew Haines made it clear that the silence was due solely to the fact that no one in SWT had my phone number.
Then he made up for the omission, making it clear that SWT was seriously dissatisfied with a ‘complacent' Anglo-French conspiracy which had repeatedly failed to make available promised trains to increase the number in service, despite SWT's willingness to relax the 10,000 fault free miles requirement. As for the Health & Safety Executive not being asked to approve the modified end vestibule, the final modification had not been completed until earlier that month. Although, SWT no longer needed to use the gangway in service.
There were rumblings about quality and I when suggested that Gatwick Express seemed to be coming on, I was cautioned about taking the miles per casualty figures being put out by Porterbrook and Alstom at face value.
So, as soon as I got back to the office I banged off an e-mail to Alstom offering a bet that Stagecoach would choose Siemens as preferred supplier in the franchise replacement proposals for SWT. And The Railway Children charity is now £5 better off, because thanks to some astute financial support from Angel Trains, Siemens is now preferred supplier of 700 Desiro vehicles plus an option on a further 500 – a firm order to be placed immediately Stagecoach is announced preferred bidder for the SWT replacement franchise.
Much more to come on this late breaking story next month, but for the meantime here are some thoughts. First, you have to be really, really, hacked off with a train supplier with a 12 car DC safety case to prefer an alternative supplier, even one as competent as Siemens, who has yet to dip a toe into the DC minefield. Second, is it clever to do just what the Strategic Rail Authority was trying to avoid, and make Mk 1 stock replacement a bargaining card in franchise renewal – particularly when Stagecoach intends to run the existing profitable franchise to the full seven years if the replacement franchise goes elsewhere? Third, can Alstom survive this rebuff in its home market? And finally, the 30 Junipers were a condition of Stagecoach being allowed to buy the Porterbrook ROSCO. If the trains are not going to be in fleet service in the foreseeable future, shouldn't the SRA ask where the passenger benefit has got to, since Porterbrook has now been sold on at a profit. That benefit would cost about £15million a year in leasing charges.