First West Coast

[M113 YKC]

RE: First West Coast

(24/08/2012 14:27)507009 Wrote:  The petition now has well over 100,000 signatures in favour of reconsideration, which should prompt a debate in Parliament.

Didn't the government choose a foreign company over a British company for new trains for London? (Sorry if that isn't true - I'm not massive on the train industry.)

[mbonwick]

RE: First West Coast
Yes - but that was because Siemens were genuinely better and the process was fairly transparent.
The same cannot be said for rail franchising, especially when Virgin's bid was rated more "deliverable" than Firsts.

[wirralbus]

RE: First West Coast
To see if they where deliverable we would have to have seen both packages and because of PLC commercial confidentiality we will never get to see the nitty gritty .

The only franchise to fail because of revenue streams not being correct was National Express as Sea Containers GNER only failed because the parent company went into bankruptcy in America and the franchise defaulted .

[mbonwick]

RE: First West Coast
We'll never know the full details, that is true. But surely the experts at DfT know what they're on about.

Sadly you're wrong about GNER - Sea Containers went into administration partly because GNER was haemorrhaging money.

[wirralbus]

RE: First West Coast
Extracted from Wikipedia about GNER :

On 27 November 2006 the Department for Transport announced that it would withdraw the franchise from GNER, largely on the basis of Sea Containers' financial difficulties and its uncertain future. However, the company was allowed to continue running the ECML franchise on a fixed management contract basis for up to 24 months, until a new operator was found.

[mbonwick]

RE: First West Coast
If you'd read what I posted, you'd find that I never denied it was SeaContainers that went into administration.

I merely said that GNER contributed to that as East Coast was haemorrhaging money out of the franchise. It just so happened that the administrators were called in before they had to walk away.

[kuyoyo]

RE: First West Coast
The saga continues - Labour calling for delay in the signing of the deal as petition reaches 133,000 signatures

[First Class]

RE: First West Coast
DfT not interested in petition.

Contract cooling off period expires at 23:59 tonight. Contract officially issued tomorrow morning.

Some of the comments I've read on Facebook etc make me cringe, people somehow think 2-car old DMUs will now take over, and Virgin should refuse to sell them THEIR trains!

I wonder how many of the 100,000+ people actually understand the franchise process. Abuse of process works both ways.

[wirralbus]

RE: First West Coast
Lets just see whether First's business plan will actually work before making hasty decisions .

First has an awful lot to lose if it makes a mess of this franchise.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: First West Coast
We will pass 150,000 signatures imminently. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but this is now the fifth most signed e-petition of all time.

I'm sure a large proportion of those who have signed have at least some idea of the franchise process. A selection of ignorant posts on Facebook from people who may well not have signed ultimately proves nothing.