CONTENTS Introduction 5 1. Government 6 The McNulty Report 6 Rail Delivery Group 6 Scotland and Wales 7 Regulation 8 Passenger Transport Executives 10 Community Rail Partnerships 11 Rail Decentralisation 11 2. Main Line Railway Infrastructure 12 Network Rail 12 Organisation 12 Annual Report 12 Alliances 13 Network Rail Infrastructure Projects 13 Network Rail Consulting 13 Route Utilisation Strategies (RUSs) 13 Long Term Planning Process (LTPP) 14 Control Period 5 (2014-19) (CP5) 14 Enhancement Projects 15 Electrification 18 Network Rail Procurement 20 High-speed Lines 21 High Speed 1 21 High Speed 2 22 3. Main Line Train Operating Companies 25 The passenger franchise structure 25 Background 25 Franchised passenger operators: status as at October 2013 27 Open access passenger operators 31 Franchise-holding groups/train operating parent companies 33 Rail freight operators 35 4. Rolling Stock Procurement 38 Passenger vehicles 38 Freight traction and rolling stock 42
5. Rolling Stock Leasing Companies 44 6. Railways in Northern Ireland 46 Government 46 NI Railways 46 Organisation 46 Developments 47 7. Transport for London (TfL) 48 Organisation 48 London Underground 50 Organisation 50 LUL Nominee BCV Ltd/LUL Nominee SSL Ltd (Metronet Rail) 51 Tube Lines 52 Capital expenditure plans (LUL) 53 London Overground 53 Organisation 54 East London Line (ELL) Extension 55 Future aspirations 55 Docklands Light Railway 55 Organisation 56 Development plans 56 Crossrail 57 Recent contracts 58 Rolling stock 59 Operating concession 59 Crossrail 2 60 West Anglia suburban routes 60 8. Light Rail and Light Metros 61 Blackpool 61 Edinburgh Tram 62 Glasgow Subway 63 London Tramlink 63 Manchester Metrolink 64 Midland Metro (Birmingham/Wolverhampton) 65 Nottingham Express Transit (NET) 66
Sheffield: Stagecoach Supertram 66 Sheffield-Rotherham tram-train pilot project 67 Tyne & Wear Metro 67 9. The Railway Supply Industry 69 Rolling stock, rolling stock components and subsystems 69 Vehicle maintenance equipment and services/refurbishment 71 Revenue collection, access control, passenger information systems 72 and station equipment Track products 73 Track maintenance and renewals equipment and products 74 Track maintenance and renewals services 75 Signalling and communications systems 76 Traction power supply and electrification systems 77 Civil engineering and construction/infrastructure maintenance 78
3. Main Line Train Operating Companies The passenger franchise structure Background In October 2013 there were 19 franchised passenger train operating companies active in Great Britain. Franchise contracts are of varying length and most are awarded by the DfT. Exceptions to this are: Arriva Trains Wales this franchise is specified and monitored jointly by the DfT and the Welsh Assembly Government. London Overground in 2007 responsibility for sections of the national network now forming part of the London Overground system was transferred to Transport for London (Section 4). The business is let as a concession rather than a franchise. Merseyrail in 2003 responsibility for the franchise contract to run electrified suburban services in the Merseyside area passed to Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (Merseytravel). ScotRail Transport Scotland, an executive arm of the Scottish Government, is responsible for letting and monitoring the ScotRail franchise and for grants to support domestic services in Scotland. In 2013 a Transport Scotland tendering process was in progress for the newly created 15-year Caledonian Sleeper franchise. The structure of the franchise map now differs substantially from that put in place when BR privatisation was initiated in 1996. A significant restructuring occurred in 2007 in a DfT initiative to reduce the number of franchises and eliminate operating conflicts at certain London terminals. Further changes were heralded by proposals by the Coalition Government that took office in 2010 to let longer franchises of 10-15 years, compared to the previous period of typically seven years. Intended to attract increased private investment and to give bidders more scope for introducing their own initiatives, the proposals have been taken forward following consultation with the industry. Early indications of the result of this policy were given in a statement by the Secretary of State for Transport in August 2011: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/new-franchising-programme In October 2012 the DfT announced an independent review of the rail franchising programme by Richard Brown, chairman of Eurostar. This followed the department s decision to retender the competition for the new West Coast Main Line franchise which had been awarded to FirstGroup, a decision which then faced a judicial review at the request of losing bidder Virgin Trains before being found by the DfT to have significant technical flaws. A second independent review (the Sam Laidlaw Inquiry ) explored how those flaws arose. As well as delaying implementation of the new West Coast franchise, which had been due in December 2012, these reviews also led to a suspension of work to award other imminent franchise contracts. The Brown Review of the Rail Franchising Programme was published in January 2013 and found that while the government s franchise system was not broken, a strengthening of the DfT s capabilities to manage franchises was needed. Among recommendations was that
franchise terms should be determined by the circumstances and size of each individual franchise, but should not be less than five years. It also urged an early re-start of the franchise programme. The Brown Review can be accessed via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/49453/cm- 8526.pdf Following publication of the Brown Review, the Secretary of State accepted recommendations that tendering should restart for two franchises on which work had been halted during the review: Essex Thamesside (incumbent c2c); and the new combined Thameslink, Great Northern and Southern (First Capital Connect/Southern). He also agreed to halt work on the Great Western franchise (incumbent First Great Western) in view of planned electrification of key parts of that network and associated rolling stock implications. This has led to interim extensions to those franchise contracts and later in 2013 most other franchises were extended in a recast of the timetable. Details appear in tables that follow. Under proposals announced by the Scottish Government in 2012, a separate franchise for 15 years is to be created for the Caledonian Sleeper services linking the country with England. Three bidders have been shortlisted for the contract: Arriva; FirstGroup; and Serco. The result is due to be announced in August 2014, with the franchise taking effect in March 2015. The Government is committed to investing 50 million in improvements to the service. Some franchises attract subsidies which support unremunerative services, mostly in the regional sector, while others which generate surpluses make premium payments to the DfT. The levels of these subsidies/premiums form a key element of the bidding that takes place for franchise contracts. Some franchises serving major metropolitan areas other than London include services specified and receiving additional financial support from passenger transport executives (PTEs see Section 1). Many passenger franchises are run by private sector transport operators often with extensive bus interests, although there are notable exceptions, and as the market has matured, there has been increased participation by foreign companies, sometimes in joint-venture partnerships with UK-based firms. Since the commencement of privatisation in 1996-97, passenger rail usage rose continuously until 2009-10, when adverse economic conditions contributed to a 1.3% fall in passenger journeys by franchised operators to 1,258 million. The upward trend returned in 2010-11 and continued in 2012-13, when an increase of 2.8% to 1,501.7 million was recorded. Passengerkm rose by 2.5%. In the five years to 2012-13 the number of passenger journeys rose by 18.6%.