National Express to retain Essex Thameside franchise

[bengley]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...onal-Express-to-retain-c2c-rail-services.html

National Express to retain c2c rail services

UK transport group expected to be confirmed as the winner of a Government competition to run train services between London and south Essex

National Express will keep hold of its only remaining rail frachise in the UK when it is confirmed on Friday as the winner of a bidding competition to run Essex Thameside, or c2c, services between London and south Essex.

The Department for Transport (DfT) is expected to confirm National Express as the preferred bidder for a long-term contract to run the commuter services, over FirstGroup, MTR of Hong Kong and Abellio, the British arm of the Dutch state railway.

The Essex Thameside contract, which will run until at least September 2029, will be the third rail franchise awarded this year following a two-year hiatus in the wake of the West Coast Main Line scandal in 2012, which cost the taxpayer £55m.

While the franchise award will be good news for National Express, which could have been booted off Britain’s railways if it had failed to retain the services, it’ll mark the third time FirstGroup has lost out...

Not sure how the telegraph know so early but it appears that this is true. I believe NX are going to ditch the c2c branding if they do keep it.

 

[ushawk]

Unconfirmed it seems - but makes sense to keep NX as they do a pretty good job with C2C.

 

[Dennis]

I believe NX are going to ditch the c2c branding if they do keep it.

Probably rename it 'two' :roll:

 

[CdBrux]

Probably rename it 'two' :roll:

or 2cc?

 

[Qwerty133]

Renaming it National Express Essex County, or NXEC for short

 

[Kite159]

Is it just me who thinks the Essex Thameside franchise should be merged with the Greater Anglia franchise?

Must be one of the smallest franchises (bar Merseyrail).

Probably save a little bit of money in the long-run as it's one less franchise to worry about. Or are the people in Essex worried that their 'new' 357s might be replaced with 319s/321s

 

[Carlisle]

Well I agree they have done a good job with c2c but considering their recent East Coast debacle I would have liked to see them ditched altogether ,surprising what money,influence and big business can do to the right peoples memories when it matters
,

 

[Manchester77]

Nothing on the DfT site about it yet

 

[londiscape]

Probably rename it 'two' :roll:

Can just imagine Fenchurch St during the rush hour: 'Platform 3 for the 08.20 'two' service to Shoeburyness'

Passengers: 'great, got another couple of minutes before it leav... OI YOU B....ARD I WANTED THAT TRAIN!'

Heard similar at Colchester during the 'one' days - although with no apparent negative consequences on that occasion, it's not too hard to see scope for confusion!

 

[GatwickDepress]

They've done a pretty good job on c2c, though it's so self-contained and linear, mucking it up would be quite an accomplished feat.

As only an occasional passenger, I'd say the majority of stations are well-kept, staff are nice, trains are generally quite clean. Can't fault them on much.

 

[tsr]

Can just imagine Fenchurch St during the rush hour: 'Platform 3 for the 08.20 'two' service to Shoeburyness'

Passengers: 'great, got another couple of minutes before it leav... OI YOU B....ARD I WANTED THAT TRAIN!'

Heard similar at Colchester during the 'one' days - although with no apparent negative consequences on that occasion, it's not too hard to see scope for confusion!

2T22 1022 two service to Shoeburyness cancelled - depot problem (loss of power of 6 road at East Ham).

See what I did? I'll get my coat. [Actually, could be 7. Depends on base change.]

 

[Simon11]

Interesting how the Telegraph got hold of it (I've known for a while), but Dft will be announcing it on Friday.

 

[Carlisle]

Interesting how the Telegraph got hold of it (I've known for a while), but Dft will be announcing it on Friday.

Could you possibly also tip us off on this weekends lottery and World Cup results ,thanks in advance

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

17 new trains. Cue more hand-wringing in the north...
Link to DfT announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...-set-for-host-of-benefits-under-new-rail-deal

Edit: And now the NX version: http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/corporatenews.aspx?newsyear=2014&newsitem=1355
The new trains will be in service "from 2019".
The franchise will serve Stratford and Liverpool St at weekends.

From December 2015, a new timetable will add 20% more trains each weekday and 38% more capacity during each morning peak into Fenchurch Street.
• During the high peaks, all London-bound trains (morning) and trains leaving London (evening) will call at the key interchange stations of Barking, West Ham and Limehouse. These stations will also benefit from a 'metro service' running between Upminster and Fenchurch Street at 3 minute intervals during these high peaks, enhancing service levels and expanding capacity on the most heavily-used section of the line.
• Our current popular train fleet will be refurbished and upgraded through a significant investment programme.
• We will procure 68 brand new carriages, increasing capacity by over 4,500 extra seats a day to accommodate future growth in commuting. These will be introduced from 2019 onwards.
• Our new timetable will include plans to serve new London destinations, with a quarter of weekend trains calling at Stratford for access to Westfield shopping centre and on to Liverpool Street, offering new connections

 

[47802]

17 new trains. Cue more hand-wringing in the north...
Link to DfT announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...-set-for-host-of-benefits-under-new-rail-deal

Edit: And now the NX version: http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/corporatenews.aspx?newsyear=2014&newsitem=1355
The new trains will be in service "from 2019".
The franchise will serve Stratford and Liverpool St at weekends.

So as I don't think Electrostars are 2017 Crash Cab Compliant we can assume from that they wont be getting more 377/6 style updated 357's, and presumably it will be one of the new generation designs such as Aventra and Desiro City etc.

 

[dk1]

Saying I'm not a fan of NX is an understatement but have to say well done for retaining this one. Many say it's self contained & yes but still you're doing a cracking job here.

 

[Olaf]

I wonder how new they will have to be in order to qualify as being brand new?

 

[Stats]

Whoa! Compensation for just a 2 minute delay?

New automatic compensation for registered smartcard customers for any delay over 2 minutes without the need to complete claim forms.

 

[iphone76]

Whoa! Compensation for just a 2 minute delay?

I wonder whether the timetable will be padded accordingly to take this into account. If they introduced this on GA, I doubt I'd ever have to pay for my season ticket again.

It's also interesting that the NX release mentions that all trains in the high peak will stop at Barking, West Ham and Limehouse. I wonder if that is correct, or whether they mean all trains will stop at at least one of those stations.

 

[Simon11]

All the trains during the high peak will all stop at Barking, West Ham and Limehouse. Thus offering a similar style service to LO.

 

[222001]

C2Cs Right Time performance is 83.2%. That's the percentage of trains arriving within 59 seconds of their scheduled time - which is quite good (only London Overground and Arriva Trains Wales are higher), it's probably why they can afford to do it.
For comparison GAs Right Time performance is 69.6%.

 

[bengley]

I suspect we will be seeing this on the trains soon along with some grey stripes:

 

[swt_passenger]

I suspect we will be seeing this on the trains soon...

Why? As discussed when the ITT was issued 'Essex Thameside" is simply the DfT's official name for the route. There's no requirement for the franchisee to call it that, at all.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Which is a pity, as I actually quite like the name "Essex Thameside"!

 

[davetheguard]

Is it just me who thinks the Essex Thameside franchise should be merged with the Greater Anglia franchise?

Must be one of the smallest franchises (bar Merseyrail).

Probably save a little bit of money in the long-run as it's one less franchise to worry about. Or are the people in Essex worried that their 'new' 357s might be replaced with 319s/321s

I recently had cause to make a day trip to Southend which involved travelling out via Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria and back from Southend Central to Fenchurch Street, and so I had an opportunity to compare the two franchises, one after the other.

I know these things are subjective, but the journey on c2c did feel superior; the trains were clean, smart, and comfortable; the whole set up seemed well-run. In contrast, the Dusty Bins (321s) out of Liverpool Street seemed pretty tired and some of the stations weren't much better.

I don't know what this says (if anything) about the respective management teams, but I certainly feel that from what I saw from this small snapshot, National Express' retention of this franchise was well deserved. Good news!

 

[pemma]

17 new trains. Cue more hand-wringing in the north...
Link to DfT announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...-set-for-host-of-benefits-under-new-rail-deal

Wouldn't it be more sensible for them to take on the 317s and Govia Thameslink to take on the 321s and 322s currently with Northern and LM (and possibly an add-on to the order for 315 replacements.)

 

[bengley]

Why? As discussed when the ITT was issued 'Essex Thameside" is simply the DfT's official name for the route. There's no requirement for the franchisee to call it that, at all.

As someone who works on the route:

c2c have been debranding over the last few weeks, painting various bits of pink on stations into NX corporate colours.

Also, the company who currently runs c2c are called 'c2c Rail LTD'

The company who have won the franchise are called 'National Express Essex Thameside (NXET Trains) LTD'

I think this put together with the fact that they already painted the trains into NX colours a couple of years ago, the fact it is their only remaining franchise (with a fantastic name for itself) and the fact NX want to increase brand awareness (let's face it, it's a good route to put your name on!) is a pretty good sign.

 

[Stats]

As someone who works on the route:

c2c have been debranding over the last few weeks, painting various bits of pink on stations into NX corporate colours.

Also, the company who currently runs c2c are called 'c2c Rail LTD'

The company who have won the franchise are called 'National Express Essex Thameside (NXET Trains) LTD'

I think this put together with the fact that they already painted the trains into NX colours a couple of years ago, the fact it is their only remaining franchise (with a fantastic name for itself) and the fact NX want to increase brand awareness (let's face it, it's a good route to put your name on!) is a pretty good sign.

Together with the fact the domain nationalexpressessexthameside.co.uk was registered this morning.
http://www.nominet.org.uk/whois/lookup?query=nationalexpressessexthameside.co.uk

 

[swt_passenger]

I think this put together with the fact that they already painted the trains into NX colours a couple of years ago, the fact it is their only remaining franchise (with a fantastic name for itself) and the fact NX want to increase brand awareness (let's face it, it's a good route to put your name on!) is a pretty good sign.

Fair enough then, if there's real physical evidence I concur.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Well I hope this is their only win. Despite the Scotrail bid team being headed up by Mary Grant, they made a mess of it last time and I don't want them to be given another chance to do it! That said, with the Scottish Govs recent tendency to award unsuitable companies big contracts (Serco for sleeper and Northlink Ferries) I'm not holding out much hope. A good result on this one none the less.

With the 357s being by and large the oldest Electrostars and a promise of extensive refurbs, what do folk think we'll get?