Return to Archive -by date - by topic.
DfT is going to pay consultants to handle the ROSCOs
Back in the days of yore, before we had really thought about replacing IC125 and talked about HST2, Angel Trains, in conjunction with First Great Western had developed the specification for a flexible successor and received responses from the manufacturers. And all for free.
This was before DfT Rail decided that trains were too important to be left to the private sector and told bidders for franchises using IC125 to exclude replacement from their bids. Instead, consultants Mott MacDonald are leading the development of the project, at a cost of millions, and now DfT Rail has issued an OJEU notice seeking a financial adviser for the Inter-City Express Programme (IEP).
This appointment will handle both finance and procurement, from the issue of an OJEU through to financial close. DfT Rail says that the contract will run from April this year to, variously, January or spring 2009, the actual duration depending on the procurement strategy adopted.
DfT Rail is looking for expertise on finance, including leasing and Public Private Partnership structures, tax and accounting matters, EU Procurement procedures and the UK rail sector. The successful adviser will evaluate expression of interest, prepare invitations to tender, evaluate bids, negotiate with the bidders and close the contract. This is, of course, what the ROSCOs were set up to do and have done with some success since 1996.
How the trains will be acquired remains unclear. Will the trains be acquired through a ROSCO, as with the Hitachi CTRL domestic Stock? Will manufacturers bid and DfT Rail arrange the finance separately? Who will manage procurement of the hardware and all the paperwork involved in acceptance. And, above all, who will take the risk if production or the product goes pear shaped?
Meanwhile it is instructive to compare the timescale for IC125 replacement with the birth of the train being replaced. The proposal for the pre-series High Speed Diesel Train (HSDT) went to the BR Board in February 1969. Development approval followed in May 1970 and in August funding to build the six-car train was authorised. In June 1972 the HSDT rolled out.
Design of the production trains was completed by April 1974, the first power car was completed at Crewe in October 1975 and the first set started running on the Western Region in August 1976. The world's first diesel powered passenger service with the second faster timings in the world after Shinkansen, began on 6 October that year.
I make that just six years from authorisation to delivery of a world beater.
Acronyms anonymousA big personal disappointment was British Rail's refusal to privatise the Acronym Development Office ( ADO ) at Derby . I had the business plan, the financial backers, but the Government imposed a veto, afraid of what the ADO could do in the hands of a known trouble maker. So the Office was disbanded and privatisation has been characterised by anonymous abbreviations. To try and improve matters I had a word with the former head of the ADO about an acronym to replace the unmemorable IEP. He suggested New Environmental Vehicle for Express Rail. And talking of abbreviations, if First win Inter-City East Coast, giving us First East Coast, we will all be able to go around doing our Father Jack impressions |