Rail Franchising in the UK inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“Rail Franchising in the UK The Public Accounts Committee will hold an evidence session looking at two of the UK’s 15 rail franchises. East Coast In November 2014, the East Coast railway franchise running from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh was awarded to Virgin Trains East Coast, a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin (10%). In June 2017 Stagecoach reported losses on the line, and entered talks with the Department of Transport. In November 2017, the Transport Secretary announced that the franchise would become a public-private railway and that the franchise would terminate in 2020 to enable this change. However, by February 2018 the end of the franchise had been brought forward to sometime within the year The Committee will ask witnesses from Virgin and Stagecoach whether the original bidding process was appropriately managed, whether there are particular problems with the East Coast franchise, and about the future of the line. Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern The largest of the Department for Transport’s 15 rail franchises, the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern Routes have been operated by Govia Thameslink since 2014. In 2016–17, passengers made 321 million journeys on the franchise. According to a recent National Audit Office (NAO) report, 7.7% of services on this franchise were cancelled or delayed by more than 30 minutes between July 2015 and March 2017. The average for the rest of the UK network was 2.8%. Of these cancellations, the NAO estimate that 60% were a result of crew shortages and industrial action. Govia Thameslink and the Department for Transport have agreed a £13.4 million settlement to improve service on the line. The Committee will take evidence from the Department for Transport, Network Rail and Govia Thameslink on the performance of the franchise, about the department’s approach to awarding franchises, and about the condition of the rail network in the South East.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
We are deeply concerned that the Department for Transport’s management of two of its most important franchises has been completely inadequate and could be indicative of wider weaknesses in its contract management capability. Passengers on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise have suffered an appalling level of delays and cancellations since the franchise started in 2014. At one point, less than two thirds of trains arrived on time. This totally unacceptable state of affairs which caused misery for passengers was due to a catalogue of failures by the Department, Network Rail and the operator, Govia Thameslink. The Department was too ambitious about what could be achieved, and it overlooked the poor condition of the infrastructure of the rail network.
The Department was also ambivalent about the risk of industrial action and neglected to engage constructively with rail unions. The Department failed to see, or chose not to see, the perfect storm of an ambitious upgrade programme coupled with plans to increase driver controlled operation of trains. While there has been some improvement recently and there are signs that Network Rail and Govia Thameslink are now working together more effectively, we remain sceptical that this will address the serious and deep-rooted problems we have identified. On the East Coast franchise, the Department has failed to learn the lessons from previous failures of the franchise, and has again allowed the operator to promise more than it could deliver. The Department will have to put in place new arrangements for running train services. We are concerned that the Department could terminate its contract with VTEC yet still give the operator the opportunity to run the franchise again in the future. The issues we have found with the East Coast and TSGN, and the small pool of potential bidders in the market, highlight the broken model of franchising.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 7 February 2018 to 12 February 2019.
- Oral evidence 26 Feb 2018
- Report 27 Apr 2018
- Correspondence 2 letters
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 35th Report - Rail franchising in the UK ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 26 Feb 2018No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗