Agenda item

Presentation by David Young, working on behalf of East Midlands Councils.

David Young, of SCP Transport, working on behalf of East Midlands Councils, delivered a presentation and highlighted the following points:

(a)  East Midlands Councils have pooled resources to engage David Young as a consultant to liaise with the Department for Transport (DfT) regarding tender specifications, tender scoring and what aspects to recommend as ‘buy-in’ enhancements for the East Midlands Rail Franchise;

(b)  by engaging David Young, the East Midlands Councils were ensuring a co-ordinated approach by which the specific needs of the East Midlands Communities and regional stakeholders can be directly input into the tendering process. Unlike Rail for the North, there is no intention to take over the tendering process from Central Government;

(c)  forward planning is being taken into consideration to ensure that the new franchise can meet potential passenger growth. This will be achieved through train lengthening or if trains cannot be made longer due to restrictions on platform length, then frequency of services will need to be increased;

(d)  growth figures are based on a shared intelligence of projections which consider increased areas of housing and commercial developments with newly created jobs. It is also recognised that if access to stations, stations and the environment around stations are improved, this will assist growth. The priority will initially be on improving accessibility of stations and then reviewing station quality. There are existing issues, such as at the Newark Crossings where a line bottleneck appears, but it is hoped that this could be addressed with a fly-over. The limitations of the tracks between Leicester and Coventry also stifle growth so needs to be addressed;

(e)  consideration of the different services and branding of linked lines (including HS2) and local services has to take place to ensure full co-ordination. This also includes service timings and connectivity to ensure efficient and effective  passenger movement when switching between different services;

(f)  economic growth is the driver so speed is important, but this has to be balanced with connections which need to be carefully considered. For example, whilst an airport may request a station and a high speed train stop, the use of the airport at different times of day needs to be understood along with the profile of passengers and if they are travelling for business or pleasure. If airport passengers are not travelling for business, there may be less of an importance placed on promoting a high speed service. The broader impact of ‘extra stops’ has to be taken into consideration;

(g)  connectivity and integration between local and other regional lines is also important and mutually beneficial;

(h)  to date there are 3 potential bidders for East Midlands Rail Franchise. This includes  Stagecoach, a joint bid from FirstGroup and Trenitalia, and Arriva; 

(i)  to enable David Young to work with the DfT, he has had to sign a confidentiality agreement, so is unable to disclose DfT information, but is in a position to ensure that the what EMCs require is included within the tender, and challenge and influence aspects of the proposed tender document;

(j)  stakeholder consultation was expected to start last November for 12 weeks, but has been delayed and may be cut down to 8 weeks.

(k)  David Young and Andrew Pritchard will hold a consultation workshop for EMC members on 21 March to shape and form the consultation response as it’s important that there is a clearly aligned approach to ensure the best results as consensus will provide a stronger case;

(l)  initially  it was intended that the new contract would go live on 22 July 2018, but November 2018 is now the more likely implementation date;

(m)  the length of the new contract is likely to be 7-9 years to enable 2 franchise periods prior to the introduction of HS2;

(n)  Transport for the North is very much involved in both the Trans-Pennine and East Midlands franchises  in a way EMC has not been able;

(o)  there are a whole host of issues regarding potential new rolling stock as there is unlikely to be electrification of the Midland Mainline line in the near future which affects the commissioning of much needed new rolling stock. A proportion of the existing rolling stock is reasonable, including the 222 class trains which parallel the performance of electric trains and provide the required braking and acceleration rates to provide a timely service, but the older HST stock is not suitable to continue using throughout the next contract session. It is possible that technology will progress to a point where hydrogen trains will be the preferred future option, but currently it is predicted that bi-mode stock may be the interim solution. Once electrification is available on the mainline, bi-mode stock can continue to be used whilst other rolling stock can be moved to other lines, as long as classic compatibility is maintained. Whichever mode, high quality, low operating cost rolling stock is required.

AGREED to thank David Young for his interesting and informative presentation.