03.12.15
London Midland franchise extended to 2017 – devolution on the horizon
The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed London Midland’s franchise will be extended from April 2016, when the current contract ends, to October 2017, matched with £13m of funding.
The funding will be used to improve the operator’s services between London, the West Midlands and the north west, with extra seats, free wi-fi, better ticketing, more services and tougher targets.
On passenger experience, London Midland will be expected to roll out free wi-fi on long-distance services between London Euston, Birmingham, Crewe and Liverpool by the time the next fully-competed franchise starts.
It will also buy new and upgraded ticket machines at selected stations with ‘click and collect’ capabilities, as well as build on the existing Swift smartcard scheme to introduce more seamless ticketing together with Smart Cities Partnership.
Part of the funding will be used to install CCTV on cross-city Birmingham services to improve security on-board, while staff will be handed tablets to improve the information given to passengers.
Extra drivers, conductors, on-board staff and apprentices will also be recruited across trains and business departments to ensure all these improvements can be delivered – especially under the tougher targets of passenger satisfaction and punctuality the government is enforcing.
According to rail minister Claire Perry, the operator will be contracted to achieve a 2% improvement in overall customer satisfaction before the end of the franchise.
London Midland’s managing director, Patrick Verwer, said: “Winning this contract is a great endorsement by the DfT of how London Midland is focused on improving our passengers’ journeys.
“This new franchise offers some very exciting opportunities and will bring benefits touching every element of our passengers’ journey. It will enable us to continue delivering improvements for our customers and, as before, we remain committed to listening to our passengers and working with our stakeholders, communities and local elected representatives to make further improvements in the months ahead.”
The extra services to be introduced across the network include two more evening services every week day from London to the Trent Valley, which should provide another 2,300 seats from Euston weekly.
It will also operate earlier services to central Birmingham on Sunday mornings from surrounding towns, including Rugby and Lichfield, as well as new Sunday services from Longbridge, Dorridge and Whitlocks End on the same day.
And an extra daily return service on the Abbey line between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey is expected to provide customers with an extra 3,400 weekly seats.
West Midlands rail devolution
Although the direct award franchise to 2017 was expected, Govia’s London Midland network could see radical changes in the coming years as a result of a budding organisation, West Midlands Rail (WMR).
Last month, RTM reported that the group’s formal establishment seemed to be underway after its members revealed the body entered into a partnership agreement with the DfT.
The organisation, which calls for further devolution of passenger services in the region, is working in association with Centro and the government to develop a proposal to split the franchise in order to increase local influence over rail services.
The authorities in it – 14 metropolitan, shire and unitary bodies – expect that the existing London Midland franchise will be cut into two business units early in the new franchise term. One of these halves would be for the West Midlands local rail network, while the other will cater for longer-distance services operated predominantly on the West Coast Main Line.
Full devolution of the region’s network is expected by 2024. Since it would be let by the government, DfT would retain financial and contractual risk, but manage the franchise jointly with WMR.
Most recently, in last week’s Spending Review, the government confirmed that the next West Midlands franchisee will be required to work with WMR to prepare for this full devolution to the region.
WMR and the DfT will jointly launch a public consultation this month.