Darling announces cut in rail franchises
The Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has announced that the national rail network’s 25 existing franchises will be slimmed down to 19 in the coming months in a bid to “streamline” operations.
The news came in a written statement to MPs on Tuesday, where he told MPs that the focus of the rail white paper will be on getting trains running on time.
Though this year’s Labour Party conference passed a resolution calling for rail renationalisation, the Government has given no indication that it will bring the railways back under state control.
The new franchises will be aligned “as far as possible” with Network Rail regions and routes to “encourage joint working between track and train to deliver an improved service to customers,” Mr Darling said.
First Great Western, First Great Western Link (Thames) and Wessex services are to be subsumed under the new Greater Western franchise, when current arrangements expire.
Elsewhere, Thameslink is to be brought under the Greater Northern franchise.
When the Central franchise expires in 2006, it will disappear and its services distributed into the Silverlink, Chiltern, Virgin Cross Country, Midland Mainline and Northern franchises.
Mr Darling told MPs that re-jigging the franchise map will improve efficiency and ensure that “savings through economies of scale are maximised.”
In addition, Network Rail will take over responsibility for drawing up “route utilisation strategies” to ensure efficient use of the network, something which until now has been done by the Strategic Rail Authority.
Train operators and passenger groups have welcomed the decision as providing clarity, but there were dissenting voices. Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said the franchises should be brought back into the public sector.
“This does nothing to bring about a joined-up railway. Instead of having 25 franchises taking money out of the railways, we will have 19 and there will still be millions of taxpayers’ money poured into shareholders’ pockets.”
