On 22 Jun, 08:18, Paul Corfield wrote:
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fu...eID=293825&New...

The Department for Transport has today announced that Stagecoach Midland
Rail Limited (a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group plc) has been awarded the
contract to run the new East Midlands franchise from 11th November 2007.
[snip]

There's a slightly different release (the Stock Market statement) on
the DfT website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/
franchises/emfranchise also giving the franchise subsidy/premia
details - which are GNER-esque in their ambition, IMNSHO.

The release says....

---start quote---
Stock Market statement
For immediate release: 07.00 22 June 2007

More services and extra capacity for the Midlands

The Department for Transport today announced that Stagecoach Midland
Rail Limited (a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group plc) has been awarded
the contract to run the East Midlands franchise.

The new franchise will begin on 11th November 2007and end on April 1st
2015. However the DfT has the right to terminate the franchise after
six years if the operator is failing to meet agreed performance
targets.

The franchise will deliver increased capacity, better performance and
the introduction of smartcard technology by 2010.

The East Midlands franchise brings together current Midland Mainline
services from London St Pancras and the eastern section of Central
Trains. It will receive a subsidy in the early years of the franchise
and pay a premium in the later years. Over the seven year and four
month life of the franchise a premium of £133m (NPV) will be paid to
the Department.

Benefits to passengers include:

* An extra hourly Kettering - London service, with agreement to
extend this to a new station at Corby
* A new direct daily service between Lincoln and London
* Two trains an hour between London and the new East Midlands
Parkway station from 2008
* A 9% increase in peak capacity into and out of London St
Pancras, plus more carriages on the busiest trains between Liverpool
and Nottingham.
* More than £5m of improvements at stations and more than £20m on
enhancing rolling stock;
* Provision of at least 1250 new car parking spaces and 400 more
bicycle spaces;
* Forecast 90.4% punctuality and reliability by the end of the
franchise

The Government will continue to limit annual rises of regulated fares
in line with national policy, which is currently RPI+1%.

As with all franchises, unregulated fares will be the responsibility
of the operator. In the East Midlands, Stagecoach Midland Rail Limited
is expected to increase unregulated fares by an average of RPI+3.4%
per annum.

Passengers will benefit from new arrangements to be compensated for
delays and poor performance.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. The premium profile for the East Midlands franchise is:
Mar-08 35,651,000*
Mar-09 64,291,000
Mar-10 36,461,000
Mar-11 424,000
Mar-12 (43,842,000)
Mar-13 (77,355,000)
Mar-14 (98,315,000)
Mar-15 (154,978,000)

(Nominal, part years indicated with asterisks, premium numbers in
brackets)

2. The parties invited to submit bids for the East Midlands franchise
were Arriva Trains East Midlands Limited (Arriva plc); First East
Midlands Limited (First Group plc); NXE Trains Limited (National
Express Group plc); Stagecoach Midland Rail Limited (Stagecoach Group
plc).

3. The new passenger refund system, Delay/Repay, will compensate
season ticket holders for delays to journeys they have actually taken,
not on the basis of overall performance. This is the same compensation
system as currently operates for single, return and weekly ticket
holders. Refunds will be on the basis of the proportional daily cost
of season tickets, with a 50% single refund for delays of 30-59
minutes, 100% single refund for delays of 60-119 minutes, and 100%
return refund for delays of 120 minutes+. This system will be rolled
out nationally during the term of each new franchise.

4. More details are available on the Department for Transport website
at www.dft.gov.uk
---end quote---

(I've reformatted the subsidy/premia table to make it easier to read,
and added the "thousands" which are not shown in the table on the
original release)

R.