Rail franchises operators & contracts

Northern owner Deutsche Bahn wants compensation from Network Rail over extensive delays and disruption

07.01.19: Deutsche Bahn has demanded Network Rail pay compensation for the extensive delays in electrifying its under fire Northern rail franchise. First reported in the Telegraph, the parent company of Arriva Rail North, who run the struggling opera...

Stagecoach took £35m from rail franchise before abandoning East Coast Main Line

07.01.19: Transport giant Stagecoach took out £35m from the East Midlands Trains franchise before it abandoned the London-to-Edinburgh East Coast Main Line (ECML) less than a year later, it has been revealed. The massive dividend represents a &...

Northern under fire over £31m government subsidy ‘secret payments’

04.01.19: The RMT union has criticised “secret extra payments” funded by taxpayers given to Northern Rail after it was found that the government paid the train operator a total of £31m more than previously announced since the franchise b...

Final intercity train sees GWR deliver 10,000 more seats

03.01.19: More than 10,000 more train seats have now been made available on the Great Western Railway (GWR) network after the train operator delivered the remainder of the new fleet of Class 800 intercity trains yesterday. Before Christmas GWR took t...

National competition regulators write to oppose Siemens-Alstom merger

21.12.18: The UK’s competition watchdog has written to the EU Commission with the backing of several European regulators in a bid to halt the Siemens-Alstom merger unless the two companies make much bigger concessions. The Competition and Marke...

Greater Anglia to ditch First Class travel from 2020

19.12.18: Greater Anglia is to scrap First Class travel on most of its services from January 2020 in order to create more room for Standard Class passengers. The train operator will also be bringing in new and longer trains from the end of next year...

Northern calls for formal ACAS inquiry over bitter RMT dispute

19.12.18: Northern Rail has formally written to ACAS seeking an independent inquiry into its ongoing dispute with the RMT, with the union calling the move a “nothing more than a publicity stunt.” The train operator says it wants an inquir...

Rival operators to run on same rail routes in bid to drive up competition

18.12.18: Passengers will have the choice of choosing which train operators they travel with under new plans to allow rival TOCs to operate on the same routes to drive up competition. The new competitive system will be introduced to the rail network...

Siemens and Alstom offer to sell high-speed train technology to address EU antitrust concerns

18.12.18: Engineering giants Siemens and Alstom have offered to sell their high-speed train technology as part of a concession package to address EU antitrust objections over the proposed merger. The German and French train companies submitted their...

Infrastructure giant Amey to be sold to private equity firm in new year

14.12.18:  Infrastructure giant Amey is expected to be sold to a private equity firm in the new year, according to reports. The Financial Times believes that Amey’s Spanish parent company, Ferrovial, is in talks with PAI Partners and Greyb...

Siemens and Alstom submit concessions to EU to secure merger deal

13.12.18: Engineering giants Siemens and Alstom have submitted concessions to the European Commission in a bid to quell raised concerns that the merger between the two would negatively impact competition in the industry. The announcement by the two c...

Five new platforms for Waterloo station as old Eurostar terminal reopens

11.12.18: The former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo station has been reopened for the first time in 12 years, bringing five new platforms to the Britain’s busiest railway station. Platforms 20 to 22 at Waterloo have been opened to the public, an...

May timetable crisis: GTR hit with government profit sanctions and told to spend £15m on improvements

04.12.18: Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has been told that it must contribute £15m towards service improvements for passengers as the government announced that the TOC will be hit with sanctions, capping its profits for the remainder of its franchi...

Grayling ‘should resign’ over ‘appalling’ timetable chaos as MPs call for fare freeze

04.12.18: MPs have demanded a freeze in rail fares and called for the transport secretary to resign over the “chaotic roll-out” of the new railway timetables introduced in May, which hit nearly half of all passenger services up and down the co...

After almost a year of strikes, DfT commits to keeping second person on-board Northern trains

29.11.18: The DfT and Transport for the North (TfN) have committed to keep a second person on-board Northern trains in a momentous decision that could bring an end to strike action and settle the long-running dispute between the TOC and the RMT union. ...