Latest Rail News

Mikeyb   18/04/2013 at 17:30

I see that Go-Ahead has been shortlisted, together with it's French partner Colas Rail, and note that they are also involved with another French company Veolia in UK mainline franchises. I was therefore of the impression that, as a consequense of it's "Gallic" connections, Go-Ahead might have been successful in achieving the impossible - estabishing a foothold in the French public transport network. However, due to the ongoing intransigence of both SNCF and the Paris-based politicians, the chance of a UK company running trains or buses in France remains somewhat remote. Nevertheless, we can only hope that Brian Simpson MEP and his colleagues can rap a few nuckles and force some changes.

Swman   19/04/2013 at 12:18

Mikeyb, as can be seen by the emergence of another French based company RATP, in the British market via buses, the Manchester Metro and now a bid team for Crossrail, it is fair to say that the cross channel wind only blows one way.

Mikeyb   19/04/2013 at 16:53

Agreed. The Government allows any foreign company to apply to run UK franchises or freight operations because we "have to abide by" European competition rules. Other countries however - particularly France - prefer to bend EU rules in favour of their domestic operators and it seems to me that they are doing their level best to keep British operators out of the equation.