Rail franchises operators & contracts

London Midland launches new Motion entertainment service on trains

24.04.17: London Midland has today launched a service that provides customers with an entertainment package featuring films, TV programmes, games and magazines, plus wi-fi on its trains Using the service, called Motion, customers can for the first-ti...

Passenger revenue stabilises on GTR services despite a year’s worth of strikes

20.04.17: Passenger growth has slowed on Southeastern rail services, whilst passenger revenue growth on strike-ridden GTR has now stabilised, the third quarter trading statement from Go-Ahead has today announced. The statement from the company, who a...

Southeastern passengers demand better services from new franchise

06.04.17: Passengers on the South Eastern franchise have called for a better deal from operators as they demanded more punctual, reliable services with enough room to sit and stand, research conducted by Transport Focus (TF) has revealed. With the cu...

First MTR joint venture awarded South Western franchise

27.03.17: First MTR South Western Trains Limited (First MTR) has been awarded the new South Western franchise by the government, which will see the introduction of 750 new train carriages to the network by 2020. Pending the successful completion of a...

New routes, trains and alliance working mooted for South Eastern

14.03.17: New routes, high-capacity Metro-style trains, integrating train and track operators through an alliance and even getting rid of First Class seating on the busiest routes are all ideas that have been put forward today in the DfT’s South Eas...

Growth Track 360: The story so far

09.03.17: Chair of the North Wales & Mersey Dee Cross-Border Rail Task Force, Councillor Samantha Dixon, gives RTM an update on the key milestones achieved so far by the Growth Track 360 campaign. Transportation is the lifeblood of our regional e...

Three bidders shortlisted for 2019 East Midlands franchise

01.03.17: The DfT has today announced a shortlist of three operators who will compete for the East Midlands franchise. The companies who are in the running for the franchise’s contract are Arriva Rail East Midlands, a wholly owned subsidiary of...

GTR ‘challenges’ blamed for parent company’s whopping 35% profit dip

28.02.17: The transport company behind Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has revealed a whopping 35% drop in rail operating profit in its half-year profit, as it also apologised for “months of severe disruption and inconvenience” that have come a...

Rail industry made and spent £18.4bn in 2015-16, ORR reveals

24.02.17: ORR has this week published its UK rail industry financial information 2015-16, which has revealed the expenditure and income sources of the whole rail industry for the past year. The publication was started in 2010-11 and aims to increase...

Trenitalia completes £72m deal to acquire c2c

13.02.17: The Italian passenger rail company Trenitalia, a part of FS Italiane Group, has completed the acquisition of London and Essex train operator c2c from National Express Group. Reports Josh Mines. While a provisional arrangement was reached fo...

Industry sets out 12 key rail priorities to ‘strengthen case for funding’

09.02.17: Rail industry experts have come together to launch the Capability Delivery Plan (CPD), which highlights the current challenges facing the railway in the digital age and outlines 12 whole-system priority areas that need to be improved in the comi...

Greater Anglia to lobby government for investment in 10-point upgrade plea

08.02.17: Greater Anglia has laid out 10 key rail infrastructure priorities that need to be made within the next decade in order for the planned benefits of its own franchise commitments to be “fully realised”. In a statement, the operato...

RMT accuses Aslef of ‘shocking betrayal’ in Southern deal

06.02.17: The RMT has lashed out at the truce agreed last week between fellow rail union Aslef and Southern rail in the pair’s long-running dispute over driver-only operated (DOO) trains, calling it a “shocking betrayal” of workers and p...

MPs float longer-term deals as solution to broken franchising model

06.02.17: MPs have raised serious concerns about the UK’s current rail franchising model, arguing that it is unsustainable in the long term without lasting changes. A report by the Transport Select Committee into rail franchising, one of an ong...

Southern commuters launch legal challenge against DfT

01.02.17: Commuters on the Southern rail service have successfully launched their legal challenge against the DfT over the government’s handling of the Southern rail crisis. Lawyers acting on behalf of the Association of British Commuters (ABC)...