Great Western Coffee Shop

Apologies if someone else has posted this (http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.9178) already.  Interesting I think.

Seems to imply that it's the system which is at fault, not the actions of the ROSCOs. No wonder there hasn't been a government announcement lambasting the ROSCOs following publication.  They've gone all quiet all of a sudden.

Probably because the DFT has been specifying who can what rolling stock (particularly the MOLA rolling stock) in the Invitation to Tender for the franchises and leaving the TOC's to face the wrath when it all goes Pete Tong. Now the DFT have been found out.

As I read the documents to which it refers (and the full report comes tomorrow) it's saying that there is too little rolling stock leased by too few companies to TOCs with franchises too short to encourage them to invest in new rolling stock.  It is also suggested that the DfT (in England of course) is inadvertently stifling competition by telling everyone what they have to do.

It is certainly the case that ATW were refused permission to buy new trains when they tendered for the Welsh franchise.  They were told no new baked bean tins until 2018 when their franchise comes to an end.  Instead, the WAG subsidises the leasing of shagged out Pacers and Sprinters at silly cost.  Come 2013 all those Pacers will start breaking down with monotonous regularity and there'll be a catastrophic train shortage for FGW and ATW.

You read it here first...