Franchise update

RMT news – Essential reading for today ’s transport worker THE government White Paper ‘The Future of Rail’ announced that the number of passenger franchises would be reduced to more closely mirror the organisation of Network Rail areas. However, recent developments in relation to train operating companies (TOCs) have done nothing to allay RMT fears that the organisation of train franchises remains little more than an incoherent muddle. Northern Rail In early September the SRA announced that the 17 October start date for the new Northern franchise would not be met due to a glitch in the final contract negotiations between the Authority and the preferred bidder; SERCO-Ned Railways. Despite a vigorous campaign by RMT to bring services under public ownership the SRA has announced that the new private owners will begin operating the new franchise from next month. Public money to be paid to the private sector to run Northern Rail services over the next 8.75 years is a staggering £2.4 billion. This confusion and delay is just the latest in a series. In March 2002 the SRA announced that six firms had pre-qualified as bidders for the Northern rail franchise. The SRA indicated that the franchise was expected to commence in mid-2003. By November 2002 the SRA had put back the start date of the franchise to “summer 2004". In April 2003 the SRA was predicting that the franchise was expected to start in “late summer 2004". Nearly a year ago the SRA announced two shortlisted bidders for the new franchise and put the planned start of operations back again; this time to autumn 2004. A written Parliamentary reply to RMT parliamentary group chair John McDonnell MP in June said that by that time the tendering process for Northern Rail had cost £2.6million with the final cost expected to be £3.9million. South Eastern Trains It is now a year since private sector operator Connex was stripped of the south eastern franchise. Since that time service performance figures have improved in every quarter. RMT’s campaign has included over 4,000 postcards being sent to Alistair Darling and 117 MPs signing up to an Early Day Motion calling for SET to be kept in the public sector. The RMT-led campaign has clearly won the argument for retaining SET under public ownership. Nevertheless, last month the SRA indicated that invitations to tender for the new Integrated Kent Franchise would be issued soon. This indicates that the SRA and government are not at all interested, as they constantly claim, in ‘what-works’ but purely in maintaining private ownership of passenger operations. Virgin Cross Country The SRA announced in August that it was ending negotiations with Virgin after the ‘best and final offer’ received from the company to run the franchise until 2012 had not passed the SRA value for money test. In addition, the SRA reserved its right to terminate the franchise and said that it would make clear its plans for Cross Country in the near future. If the SRA does decide to terminate the franchise they need to give Virgin 12 months notice. The future of Cross Country services is now uncertain, which is a matter of serious concern to RMT and the over 750 union members at the company. A key priority for RMT is to defend the job security, pension provision and the terms and conditions of the workforce. Reduced number of franchises Transport Secretary Alistair Darling last month announced the first tranche of changes to the franchising regime following the rail review. In 2006 the existing 25 TOCs would become 19. G First Great Western will merge with First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains G Greater Northern will merge with Thameslink G Central Trains routes will be split between the Silverlink, Chiltern, Midland Mainline, Northern and Virgin Cross Country franchises. The decision to invite tenders in the summer of 2005 for the new Greater Western franchise, the merged Thameslink and Greater Northern operations and to break up Central Trains ignores the decision taken at the last Labour Party conference to renationalise the railways. Instead of taking back into public hands the franchises as they expire, the government is pressing ahead with re-privatisation. Train franchise debacle continues 4 RMT has led the campaign to keep South Eastern Trains out of the hands of privateers