Train company will retry for franchise (From Braintree and Witham Times)
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Train company will retry for franchise
9:00pm Thursday 12th January 2012 in North Essex By James Cox
NATIONAL Express East Anglia has vowed to win back the train line serving Colchester.
The firm did not even make the shortlist when the Greater Anglia franchise it had run for seven years was up for grabs.
Abellio will run the service from February.
Geraint Hughes, partnership manager at National Express, said the company will re-apply for the 15-year franchise when it becomes available again in 24 months.
Mr Hughes said: “We have delivered an improved package in terms of capacity.
“We introduced capacity injections in December 2010 and December 2011 to get more people into Liverpool Street.
“We have restructured the timetable and did a lot of research on overcrowding.
“Colchester was key in our consultations. We look forward to a continued relationship in the future.”
Mr Hughes also said he hoped the recently trialled Sunday service into Colchester town centre would become permanent.
He also noted a 14 per cent increase in passenger numbers at Hythe station since improvements were completed there.
Cameron Jones, director of public affairs at Abellio, talked about the limitations of its recently secured two-year contract. Mr Jones said the Dutch firm, which runs London buses and European trains, is unable to change timetables or add services, so would instead concentrate on customer service and staff training.
He said: “We plan to be here for the next 17 to 18 years.
“So to make changes in 2013 we want to hear about your issues now.”
Mr Jones promised a deep clean of the entire fleet of trains, Blackberry phones for all station staff, additional training and more information kiosks.
Abellio is planning an increase in the number of ticket officers who can sell tickets to customers already aboard trains.
Comments(9)
Feisty CBC
says...
12:05am Fri 13 Jan 12
Boris
says...
12:12am Fri 13 Jan 12
co4 wrote:What would you do then, if you were only given a 2½ year contract? You wouldn't make any investment either.
So the new operator can change precisely nothing? Looks good for the next 2 years then. Also, how on earth is giving the station staff a Blackberry going to improve things?
Train travel in our part of the world is light years away from the rest of the country, particularly on the Norwich - London service. Decrepit rolling stock, bought on the cheap from other operators who no longer wanted it. Travel GNER, Virgin, Great Western etc...then you will see what train travel should be like.
.
The report fails to mention that both these gentlemen gave their presentations to a council meeting on Tuesday. I was there. They appeared very buddy-buddy with each other, which suggests that Abellio and NXEA already have a close business relationship, as if one was about to take over the other.
Lawford Lass
says...
10:01am Fri 13 Jan 12
pinkteapot
says...
11:53am Fri 13 Jan 12
Arthur Fonzarelli
says...
1:37pm Fri 13 Jan 12
Since then they have demonstrated that shareholders are far more important than the paying customer. In times of disruption, not always of their own making the decision to terminate short and cancel services has left thousands of passengers stranded without connections. These decisions are based on protecting performance figures rather than maintaining a reasonable level of service for the passenger.
They even complained when the July inflation figure in 2010 meant that they could not raise fares in January 2011 yet previously had spent millions in rebranding themselves from 'One' back to National Express.
Abelio may not be able to make any wholesale changes but if they atleast appear to care about the passengers then National Express or 'One' will become a thankful distant memory.
Gideon Smythe
says...
2:04pm Fri 13 Jan 12
I've already written to Abellio listing some of the things that NXEA were poor at and fixing the statistics was one of them.
I don't whether this will mean improvements, but at least they know that we're paying attention.
Scoot
says...
3:39pm Fri 13 Jan 12
Boris
says...
10:02pm Fri 13 Jan 12
co4 says...
9:25pm Thu 12 Jan 12
Train travel in our part of the world is light years away from the rest of the country, particularly on the Norwich - London service. Decrepit rolling stock, bought on the cheap from other operators who no longer wanted it. Travel GNER, Virgin, Great Western etc...then you will see what train travel should be like.