Scotrail88
Member
- Joined
- 21 Jul 2014
- Messages
- 319
With the award due in the next few weeks, has there been any leaks giving any indication of who's in the running.
With the award due in the next few weeks, has there been any leaks giving any indication of who's in the running.
Lots of the staff think it's First, none of them are happy about that
Neither do they want Virgin, Eurostar bid seems popular with EC colleagues to me.
I was told the reason most staff were NOT looking forward to Virgin/Stagecoach was the proposed staffing cuts they were proposing, Eurostar/Keolis seem quite popular as to First I couldn't comment but if not for DfT cocking it up First would currently be operating the WCML which they won.
Stagecoach 90%/Virgin 10% formed InterCity railways as their business name, First Group formed East Coast Trains and Eurostar/Keolis formed Eurostar/Keolis.... :\.
Another great day for the railways A successful public body returning a premium to the government sold off cheap to meet a dogmatic need to help decent Tory chaps make more money. Pip Pip, pass the port old bean
Theoretically my preference is the Virgin/Stagecoach bid, but I don't want to see the EC 91s in Virgin Red, and Stagecoach's livery on busses looks tacky enough.. the ideal would be that they create a new corporate branding for Intercity Railways. Preferably something either inspired by the IC Swallow livery or something smart and traditional rather than attempting to be super-modern like First.
If the Eurostar bid wins, it'll be a crying shame to have our main London - Edinburgh route essentially operated by the french.
If the Eurostar bid wins, it'll be a crying shame to have our main London - Edinburgh route essentially operated by the french.
Another great day for the railways A successful public body returning a premium to the government sold off cheap to meet a dogmatic need to help decent Tory chaps make more money. Pip Pip, pass the port old bean :cry:
"InterCity Eastern" or something could be nice, they could even bring back a retro livery on the IC225 sets!
That'll be how First wins then. The DfT franchising process is now basically someone choosing the bid with the best name...
Stick a tenner on First. I have previously predicted the outcome of the Sleeper and the Scotrail franchises so it must be First!
Seriously though, the word is, First group are throwing all their eggs into the East Coast basket, and going all out to win it. Some have also said they have sacrificed Scotrail and the sleeper so they had no conflict of interest with running Anglo Scottish routes. I wouldn't worry too much about the TUPE over to them either, I have never had a problem working for First and have found them a very decent employer. Several of my colleagues have also indicated if they were to keep a maintenance operation in Inverness, they would try to stay with First.
It wouldn't surprise me that First really want to win East Coast. In the past Sea Containers went all out to win their second franchise, and so did National Express a few years later. It did not work out well for either of them. First appear to have gone all out to win West Coast, and there is a fairly widespread view that if the DfT had not messed up, and First had got the franchise, they would now be facing problems.
If First don't win, I don't think we should read into that anything other than that another bid was better - not "knives are out" or anything like that. Companies can do well for a time, and then they do less well. There was a short period when National Express had eight franchises; now they have one. Before First got Greater Western and FCC they had only two franchises, and if they don't get EC they'll have two again.
I doubt that they had to worry much about conflict of interest if they had managed to keep Scotrail. It costs so much to mount a franchise bid that no company is likely to spend all that money and effort but not really try to win. Knowingly letting Scotrail and the Sleeper get away in order to focus on East Coast, which you can't be sure of winning unless you put in such a huge bid that you won't be able to make it work, is something no business in its right mind would do.
First will win it because the cretins at DafT want to make it up to them after ballsing up the West Coast franchise.
First will win it because the cretins at DafT want to make it up to them after ballsing up the West Coast franchise.
The idea of Worst Group destroying the best intercity railway operator in the country sends shivers down my spine. The only positive from Worst getting it is that Souter won't. But that's a tiny positive, given just how spectacularly amazingly appalling Worst have been with their other franchises. Great Western is dire, Trans Pennine is even worse, and the less said about Crapital Connect the better.
At least I have the alternative of Grand Central for my trips to Bradford and North Tyneside.
First will win it because the cretins at DafT want to make it up to them after ballsing up the West Coast franchise.
The idea of Worst Group destroying the best intercity railway operator in the country sends shivers down my spine. The only positive from Worst getting it is that Souter won't. But that's a tiny positive, given just how spectacularly amazingly appalling Worst have been with their other franchises. Great Western is dire, Trans Pennine is even worse, and the less said about Crapital Connect the better.
At least I have the alternative of Grand Central for my trips to Bradford and North Tyneside.