New National Rail Contract for GWR - starting 26th June 2022

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Mark Hopwood's mailing list

You may have seen reports in the media this morning that FirstGroup and the Department for Transport have agreed a new National Rail Contract (NRC) for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) starting from the 26 June 2022.
 
You can read more about it and our plans in our media release https://news.gwr.com/news/national-rail-contract-awarded-to-great-western-railway 
 
We remain committed to working in partnership with the communities we serve, and the team and I are really grateful for all the help and support you have given us.
 
We will be in touch again shortly to update you on the planned RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) industrial action, and as always if we can be of help we want to hear from you.
 
Best wishes and thank you again for your support.

[Mark A]

Wishing that article could have flagged a jump in ridership when the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) were replaced, now looking for a graph for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 2015 - 2019 passenger figures. Has there been a 'Sparks effect'?

Mark

[grahame]

Has there been a 'Sparks effect'?

Really hard to tell - the first electric train ran to Cardiff on 7th January 2020 and just over two months later we were in lockdown.  The scientist in me was taught to make one change at a time if you want to record the effect before you make the next change.  Sadly, no-one told the virus it should wait until 2021 so that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) could see the effect of the electric trains first.

[ray951]

Wishing that article could have flagged a jump in ridership when the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) were replaced, now looking for a graph for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 2015 - 2019 passenger figures. Has there been a 'Sparks effect'?

Mark

I think it would be difficult to measure a sparks effect with a bi-mode train, because it also runs on diesel, and doesn't the sparks effect also rely on faster and more frequent services and that hasn't really happened.

And because electrification was never completed then I think it is true to say that some services have got worse, for example those wanting to travel from:
West of Reading to Oxford have to change at Didcot.
Bedywn to Reading passengers have to change at Newbury
No through services to Paddington from the Thames Valley branches.
Didcot to Oxford has shorter trains and less services

Let's hope we get some sensible people in dft/Government (delete as appropriate) who authorise a rolling progamme of electrification starting with the completion of the GWR electrifiction project.

[ray951]

This is a quote from Modern Railways annoucement of the contract:

"A review of the company’s diesel fleet is promised, while a ‘fleet strategy plan’ is intended to cut the costs of running a mixed fleet and replace diesel-only trains with what the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) calls ‘greener trains’, possibly including battery-only units."

As this is the DfT I would assume that 'greener trains' doesn't mean putting more wires up or laying more third rail.

[Mark A]

Thanks for this, a good reminder to me of how comparatively recently the IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) came in to service. It feels a lot longer...

Mark

[ChrisB]

And this was the release to the Stock Exchange this morning, with some pertinent figures

[GBM]

Not a 5 or 7 year 'lease/contract' then, seemingly just a short extension.
What ever happened to the giving out of long leases to assist operators in long term planning?

[grahame]

And this was the release to the Stock Exchange this morning, with some pertinent figures

Thanks, Chris - here it is in plain text in case anyone wants to quote bits of it.

FirstGroup plc (‘FirstGroup’ or ‘the Group’) is pleased to announce the agreement of a National Rail Contract
(‘NRC’) with the Department for Transport (‘DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)’) for its Great Western Railway (‘GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)’) train operating
company. The new NRC will commence on 26 June 2022, when GWR’s current contractual agreement ends.

e The NRC for GWR has a core three-year term to 21 June 2025 with an option for the DfT to extend
by up to three further years to June 2028

e FirstGroup bears no revenue risk and very limited cost risk under an annual budget agreed with the
DfT; there is also no significant contingent capital risk

e Annual fee consists of a fixed management fee plus a performance-based fee.

The NRC is a management contract under which the DfT retains all revenue risk and substantially all cost risk.
GWR will earn a fixed management fee of £6.9m per annum to deliver the contract, and there is the opportunity
to earn an additional performance-based fee of up to £17.8m per annum. The punctuality and other operational
targets required to achieve the maximum level of performance fee are designed to incentivise the highest level
of performance for customers. The Group’s contingent capital for the GWR NRC is £13m.

[stuving]

Not a 5 or 7 year 'lease/contract' then, seemingly just a short extension.
What ever happened to the giving out of long leases to assist operators in long term planning?

It was for real franchises that a longer period would have made sense, but we never had those. These NRC things are just to fill the gap before GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) can taker over with a standard type of contract for all TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company).

[Worcester_Passenger]

This is a quote from Modern Railways annoucement of the contract:

"A review of the company’s diesel fleet is promised, while a ‘fleet strategy plan’ is intended to cut the costs of running a mixed fleet and replace diesel-only trains with what the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) calls ‘greener trains’, possibly including battery-only units."

As this is the DfT I would assume that 'greener trains' doesn't mean putting more wires up or laying more third rail.

'Greener trains' means trains that are painted in a brighter shade of green.

[Electric train]

Not a 5 or 7 year 'lease/contract' then, seemingly just a short extension.
What ever happened to the giving out of long leases to assist operators in long term planning?

This short extension makes sense, DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) will be handing over the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) contract / franchising to GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) within the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) contract extension.

DfT, NR^» (Network Rail - home page), ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) and the TOCs are all part of the working group developing GBR; I doubt we will see a franchise bidding and award again like we used to

[ChrisB]

Can we stop calling it a contract 'extension' please? It's a completely different, new *management*contract.

[paul7575]

This is a quote from Modern Railways annoucement of the contract:

"A review of the company’s diesel fleet is promised, while a ‘fleet strategy plan’ is intended to cut the costs of running a mixed fleet and replace diesel-only trains with what the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) calls ‘greener trains’, possibly including battery-only units."

As this is the DfT I would assume that 'greener trains' doesn't mean putting more wires up or laying more third rail.

“Battery only trains” will probably be how they spin the trial on the Greenford shuttle.  One in service and one spare = “trains”…. 

[Richard Fairhurst]

From the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) press release:

Since taking over the Great Western franchise in 2015, GWR has seen satisfaction levels among customers climb from 81% to 91%

Yes, things have got much better since 2015 when the lovely people at FirstGroup took over from those rapscallions at, er, FirstGroup.

(But more services to Gloucester is good! And I suspect "a comprehensive review of its diesel fleet" is code for "a one-way HST^▸ (High Speed Train) excursion to Booths" but time will tell...)