"Paul Scott" wrote in message
...
|
| "Paul Corfield" wrote in message
| ...
| On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:56:45 GMT, "Jack Taylor"
| wrote:
|
| Judging from the wording of the award announcement Stagecoach have
| merely provided an option for trains to Corby in compliance with what
| the DfT asked for. I imagine it is up to the DfT to decide if they wish
| to cough up the money for the option and that's probably connected with
| the dreaded HLOS and SOFA. Who knows what Stagecoach may have included
| as further enhancement of their base Corby bid? It may be that your
| suggestion is there for due consideration.
|
| There is some possibility that SWT have managed to persuade the DfT that
| other possible solutions exist. SWT still run to Bristol, and beyond
Exeter
| to Paignton and Plymouth; these services and the new format
| Salisbury/Southampton/Romsey loop are in addition to the original
| SouthWestern franchise specification.
|

We have done this before.

*All* the bidders for the SWT franchise were asked to submit a price for the
Bristol service. DfT originally wanted to drop it, but political pressure
from along the route forced them to leave it in. Stagecoach bid an
acceptable price for the service, and it is included as part of the
franchise contract between SWT and DfT.

The service beyond Exeter is probably only a temporary reprieve. Again, the
DfT want to drop this. Plans are afoot to re-double part of the Exeter
route to allow an hourly service between London Waterloo and Exeter,
possibly with two trains per hour between Honiton and Exeter. When this
happens, the SWT service west of Exeter may well go to provide the extra
resources needed to run the enhanced service east of Exeter.

The Salisbury / Southampton / Eastleigh / Romsey service came about by
negotiation between DfT, SWT and various "stakeholders" en route. The
original DfT plan was to run Eastleigh - Chandler's Ford - Romsey only, but
this produced storms of local protest on the grounds that the need to change
at Eastleigh for Southampton would effectively kill the demand for
Chandler's Ford. The FGW franchise is also involved, and from this December
FGW will withdraw most of their "stopping" services to Southampton Central
as SWT will instead provide the stopping service to Dean and Mottisfont &
Dunbridge. All this was in the Route Untilisation and the Franchise
Consultation documents which have been available on various websites.
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