West Midlands Rail (an attempt at Rail Devolution)

[the trainbasher]

Found this whilst looking at what the DMBC cabinet will be discussing I came across this - West Midlands Rail

http://bit.ly/1jSZgpI (link to Dudley MBC website)

Apparently it's an attempt to do a Rail North by having the following councils in partnership:

• Birmingham City Council
• Coventry City Council
• Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Herefordshire County Council
• Northamptonshire County Council
• Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
• Shropshire County Council
• Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
• Staffordshire County Council
• Telford and Wrekin Unitary District Council
• Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
• Warwickshire County Council
• Wolverhampton City Council
• Worcestershire County Council

It is proposed that a separate body will be set up known as 'West Midlands Rail' which is likely to be a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a company limited by guarantee. This company will operate by having a contract board made up of constituent authority elected members and delivery body. Strategic direction will be provided by a Leader's Rail Group sitting outside of the SPV.

West Midlands Rail Ltd. would be incorporated as a company limited by guarantee whose aims and objectives would be to contract with a train operating company to provide rail services covering the West Midlands contract area.

[D10]

Personally I would prefer this.

Surely a Rail Franchise responsible to locally elected bodies is better than one put in place by Whitehall Bureaucrats. Looks like the London Midland Franchise with the exception of services south of Northampton and north of Stafford.

But I guess it depends how much cash London are willing to give them to operate this...

[Bob]

Would it still be a private firm actually operating the trains?

[Roy]

This has been on the table for a couple of years now.  It would mean that Centro would be responsible for specifying the terms of the local franchise rather than DafT.  This already happens on Merseyside where Merseyrail is operated by Serco-Abellio under a franchise awarded by Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive rather than DafT.

The original franchise in the West Midlands (Central Trains) had Centro as a joint signatory of the franchise, which meant that Centro had some say in what happened under the franchise.  The London Midland franchise was awarded directly by DafT with Centro excluded as a joint-signatory, which meant that Centro had no influence when LM did something that Centro strongly opposed - for instance, the closure of ticket offices, reduced services on Christmas Eve etc. 

A change in the regulations gave all PTE's the option of taking over franchising arrangements for their area when the current franchise expired.  The new franchise that Centro would specify is not the whole of LM, but the part that currently operates under the London Midland City banner.

[Bob]

Directly operated would still be the best option. ....

[the trainbasher]

Reading on the Dudley MBC website it looks like that Dudley have agreed with West Midlands Rail "in principle"

[Bob]

If there was a national referendum now  asking if the railways should be nationalised or privatised I wonder what the result would be

[The Real 4778]

Would it still be a private firm actually operating the trains?

As opposed to what?

The only public firms able to compete, so-called, are foreign-owned.

[the trainbasher]

Would it still be a private firm actually operating the trains?

As opposed to what?

The only public firms able to compete, so-called, are foreign-owned.

State run, albeit run by our European neighbours.

Only British owned transport groups, apparently, in the UK in rail are first, go ahead, nx and stagecoach.

[Bob]

There is a state run British rail firm. Directly operated railways that have successfully run the east coast main line fpr years! The vile tories want it back in the private sector before the general election purely on ideological grounds :-(. And ed miliband doesn't have the balls to commit to public ownership

[Bob]

Why cant centro operate the midlands franchise themselves?

[Cheese]

Why cant centro operate the midlands franchise themselves?

Do you really think all the other West Midlands authorities who have a stake in West Midlands Rail (in particular Shrops, Staffs, Warks, Worcs) would want their services to be dictated wholly and then run by Centro? I very much doubt it.

[andy]

Why cant centro operate the midlands franchise themselves?

Hand an actual operation to the mouldy suits who brought us the Pointless tram extension, the Secret travel passes, the edge of town bus 'interchanges', the bus shelter that doesn't shelter, the real time info boards with wrong time info, the Quality Partnerships with only one operator, the Gold Corridors that still don't exist, the Bus Rapid Transit scheme 10 years after everyone else and at twice the price, etc etc etc etc....

[Bob]

At least itd be in public ownership. That doesn't always equal bad

[Roy]

West Midlands Rail now has a website at http://www.westmidlandsrail.com/