Thursday 17 June 2010

Greater Anglia Franchise Replacement Cancelled

Theresa Villiers, Minister of State for Transport this morning issued a written statement on the future of rail franchising which will have a dramatic effect on the future of the Greater Anglia franchise currently run by National Express East Anglia (NXEA).

"The Department for Transport will shortly begin a consultation exercise on the future of rail franchising policy. This consultation will provide industry partners with the opportunity to comment on the Government’s approach to rail franchising and whether bidders for longer franchises would be able to offer investment in improvements to trains and services. It will also allow the industry to set out its proposals for improving the efficiency and value for money of rail franchises, for both taxpayers and fare payers. I will set out further details to the House in due course.

To enable the next Greater Anglia and Essex Thameside franchises - which are currently in the process of being re-let - to fully reflect the changes resulting from this review of policy the competitions for these franchises, which were started in January 2010, are to be cancelled.

It is currently expected that a new competition for the Greater Anglia franchise will be advertised by the end of the year, after the consultation responses have been considered, with the Essex Thameside franchise following in Autumn 2011....
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The effect of this announcement appears to be that NXEA will retain the franchise beyond the current planned end date of 31st March 2011.

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