On Sun, 24 Jun 2007, Mike the unimaginative wrote:

"Jack Taylor" wrote in
:

Another opportunity seems to have been missed by not continuing the
Corby trains on, via Manton Junction, to Melton Mowbray and Leicester

Absolutely! Why, oh, why terminate at Corby, why not run most / some /
all services on to Melton Mowbray? What have the people of Melton done
to deserve being ignored in this way?

Surely it can't be to do with paths - or is it more to do with platform
length at Melton (can't say I've ever been on the station there)?

Pies on the line.

tom

--
Once you notice that something doesn't seem to have all the necessary
parts to enable its functions, it is going to mildly bug you until you
figure it out. -- John Rowland

On 22 Jun, 17:45, "Graculus"
wrote:
"Chris Tolley" wrote in message

...

Paul Corfield wrote:

Over the life of the franchise, seven years and four months, the
DfT will receive a premium of £133m from Stagecoach Midland Rail
Limited.

and


Yup, alrady suffering that on SouthWest Trains, where 1 pound in every 5
goes to the government. Not Network Rail, or anywhere else related to the
railway, but straight into the exchequer as general taxation. There may not
be VAT on transport, but there's already a 25% (stealth) tax on my train
fares.

Actually, not. It goes to DfT, who recycle it back into the lines that
receive a subsidy. Actual net HMG/devolved government/PTAs
contribution to the British railway system exceeds GBP5 billion per
annum*

*At least it was last year, I haven't checked this year

Incidentally, can anyone point me at a breakdown of the subsidy/
premium profile of all TOCs please?

Thanks

Patrick

"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.
--
- Yokel -
oo oo
OOO OOO
OO 0 OO
) ( I ) (
) ( /\ ) (

"Yokel" now posts via a spam-trap account.
Replace my alias with stevejudd to reply.

"D1039" wrote in message
oups.com...
On 22 Jun, 17:45, "Graculus"
wrote:
"Chris Tolley" wrote in message

...

Paul Corfield wrote:

Over the life of the franchise, seven years and four months, the
DfT will receive a premium of £133m from Stagecoach Midland Rail
Limited.

and


Yup, alrady suffering that on SouthWest Trains, where 1 pound in every 5
goes to the government. Not Network Rail, or anywhere else related to the
railway, but straight into the exchequer as general taxation. There may
not
be VAT on transport, but there's already a 25% (stealth) tax on my train
fares.

Actually, not. It goes to DfT, who recycle it back into the lines that
receive a subsidy. Actual net HMG/devolved government/PTAs
contribution to the British railway system exceeds GBP5 billion per
annum*

*At least it was last year, I haven't checked this year

Incidentally, can anyone point me at a breakdown of the subsidy/
premium profile of all TOCs please?

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passe...ymentprofilesa

gives the previous few, I would imagine 'one' must be in DfT Rail
somewhere...

Paul

On 22 Jun, 11:06, John B wrote:
Did someone say "Bowker effect"?

He's also busy sorting out the climate (see press release below from
National Express group website), Presumably he's currently using the
area served by the top end of the Midland Main Line as a pilot test
for his latest interest.

"NX Group at No 10 Summit on Climate Change

26/06/2007


National Express Group Chief Executive, Richard Bowker, today met with
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and California's Governor, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, to accelerate transatlantic action on climate change
and to encourage global shift towards a low carbon economy.

Richard Bowker was part of a coalition of 19 business leaders at the
roundtable meeting at No 10 Downing Street which was aimed at creating
momentum in the battle to tackle climate change.

The event was attended by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, Secretary
of State for Environment as well as senior representatives from B&Q,
Barclays, BBC, BP, BSkyB, DuPont, Goldman Sachs, Google, Interface,
JPMorgan, Man Group, News International, O2, Royal & Sun Alliance,
Swiss Re, Tesco, Walkers and Warner Bros. The business leaders
present have already pledged to work with governments, civil society
and their customers to tackle climate change.

The group reported on progress achieved on their own emissions
reduction programmes, discussed challenges to developing an
international emissions trading scheme, and reviewed successes in
driving public engagement since the Long Beach summit in California
last July, also co-ordinated by The Climate Group.

They also discussed the growing UK public engagement campaign 'We're
in this Together' which has a planned US roll-out later this year.
This business-backed campaign - led by The Climate Group and unveiled
by Tony Blair and David Miliband earlier this year - offers both ideas
for behavioural change and practical solutions for UK consumers.

The campaign aims to help reduce average household emissions by around
a tonne over three years. Since April, the campaign has announced 12
separate solutions and has already saved 36,000 tonnes of CO2 (an
amount equivalent to taking 13,000 family cars off the road for a
year). 'We're in this Together' will also provide a practical and
official legacy to London's Live Earth concert on 7th July.

National Express coach operation is working with Live Earth to
encourage the use of public transport: information and case studies
have been included in the 90,000 ticket wallets sent out for the
event; and all those travelling to the venue by coach will receive a
Coach Card giving 30% discount on travel. The division has also
unveiled a new network of coach services from 43 towns and cities in
the UK direct to the gates of the new Wembley Stadium. Over 10,000
people have used National Express coach services for the first few
events at the national stadium, with a minimum of 5,000 people
expected to use the services to travel to the Live Earth event.

The Group also has its launch of its 'Carbon Club' set for late 2007:
this will give rewards to customers using its coach or rail services
based on the amount of carbon saved travelling by public transport
rather than car.

Commenting on the Group's involvement in the Climate Group, Richard
Bowker said: "As a leading international transport provider, National
Express Group has a responsibility to collaborate with other business
leaders to tackle climate change. We are proud to be playing our part
to raise the awareness of climate change and, more importantly, to
highlight how people can do their bit to make a difference. Moving
forward we will be highlighting the environmental credentials of
coach, bus and train travel thereby giving the travelling public a
practical way to reduce their carbon footprint."

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group, said: "The scale and
urgency of the climate change problem facing us calls for
unprecedented collaboration. UK and California leadership on this
issue has blazed a trail for others to follow. The companies here
today are already leading the way in reducing their own carbon
footprints and are now turning their attention towards making it
easier, cheaper and more appealing for consumers to play their part in
the solution. We hope the 'We're in this Together' campaign will
receive further public support following the Live Earth concerts and
capture the aspirations of many in this country and beyond who want
practical help in knowing how to play their part in tackling climate
change."

- Ends -


Notes to Editors:

National Express Group serves around one billion passengers a year
worldwide on its bus, train, light rail and express coach and airport
operations. We have leading positions in each of our markets - the
United Kingdom, North America and Spain."