Rail Franchising - The Future

[First Class]

RE: Rail Franchising - The Future

(03/10/2012 16:20)wirralbus Wrote:  Rail franchising is so full of micro management from the DfT these days , they are told you have to have this , and you have to stop there this many times a day , its not a calk walk for the franchise holders these days .

Without the Virgin marketing team where would West Coast be now ?

The same place really.

Passenger growth is booming everywhere, (hence Open Access appearing).

Business customers couldn't care less what advertising says. They are a captive audience who have to travel regardless. Virgin took advantage of this audience and charge some sickening Anytime fares in order to fund the other "cheaper" fares.

Some are keen to use PPM facts. Virgin is ranked bottom, (worst) - for the second year running, and didn't do too well the year before that either! Nothing above 88.7% in the last 3 years. 82.1% and 86% most recently. London Midland, who broadly operate the same routes, also outperformed them, so you can't really consider problems outside of Virgin's control, otherwise it would have affected London Midland, too.

East Coast have managed 93.3%, 86.6% and 87.5% despite having older rolling stock and running on older infrastructure that didn't have billions spent on it AND having a lot of weather related problems. I have to say, DOR are doing a good job performance wise!

Even looking towards passenger satisfaction levels from Passenger Focus, Virgin get an 89% rating, with East Coast on 87%, so they are extremely similar, despite what VT's marketing team claim to has done. One big difference though. Virgin are costing us and the government MUCH more. Is it worth it for 2%? Surely, with the billions of investment into Virgin/WCML, we should be disgusted that there is only a 2% difference between Intercity WCML and ECML?