Rail Franchising - The Future

[DVL418]

RE: Rail Franchising - The Future

(04/10/2012 09:17)First Class Wrote:  

(03/10/2012 14:33)507009 Wrote:  

(03/10/2012 13:49)First Class Wrote:  Why exactly do we need First/Arriva/Stagecoach etc, when the government can do it itself. They are even doing quite a good job of East Coast! Better than NXEC!

I'm afraid not:

Wikipedia Wrote:The latest performance figures to be released by the Office of Rail Regulation rate East Coast's performance below that of its predecessor. Over the third quarter of the 2010/11 financial year East Coast achieved 81.7% PPM and a moving annual average of 83.3%.

You can't just measure the quality of a TOC by a PPM score, especially where the difference is 1.6%! Unless you can discount any weather related problems, problems outside of East Coast control etc, then PPM score is a pointless way of identifying quality of service. Do you judge the quality of a movie by the performance of one actor?

The bottom line is that a significant amount tax payer's money is NO LONGER needed to fund this franchise, (compared to NXEC), which can only be a good thing. Certainly worth the 1.6% drop in PPM!

Indeed, twice in the past 12 months when I've used the ECML delays have been due to the overhead wiring being down and cable theft - both of which are completely out of the train operators' control.