Rail Franchising - The Future

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Rail Franchising - The Future

(04/10/2012 15:03)DVL418 Wrote:  They why does even the Prime Minister at the time of privatisation accept that the franchising model his Government introduced is 'perverse, inefficient and wasteful' - if that isn't a good indicator that something is broken - what is?

Merseyrail - other than the Isle of Wight the only vertically integrated franchise, and run by a nationalised railway organisation co-incidence?

*Snip*

Where does John Major "accept" this?

For a start, Merseyrail is not vertically integrated. Island Line (Isle of Wight) is the only vertically integrated section, and even this is not a standalone rail franchise any longer, merely a sub-brand of South West Trains.

We appear to be coming at this from different angles - I'm dealing with the quality and reliability of service from a passenger standpoint, which is, let us not forget, the reason why railways are operated. Southern is a Govia-owned franchise, nothing whatsoever to do with Connex, who were one of the poorest rail operators and lost both of their franchises early. There is absolutely no doubt Govia have turned this franchise around and making a mockery of the Connex South Central era.

"Dozens of journeys a day." What a malevolent piece of hyperbole. You make it sound like the same journeys are being cancelled each and every day, which is utter nonsense. "High turnover of staff" is not the same thing as "underpaid drivers". I think if the drivers were so disgruntled at their wages, a lot more journeys would be cancelled than what we have actually seen.

You haven't offered a reasonable alternative to the PPM or MAA in deducing which franchises are better performing than others, either.