Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

On Jul 6, 12:44 pm, "Jack Taylor" wrote:

Could it simply be down to a bit of over-zealous fault reporting?

No, the reliability figures are based on miles per casualty, a
casualty being defined as a fault which causes a delay of five or more
minutes. Air-con faults do not normally result in a train being
delayed. Faults with engines, doors, couplers, TPWS, etc do, and when
a train sits down on the line with one of those, there's no question
of under-reporting it.

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

On Jul 6, 11:58 am, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"chunky munky" wrote in message

ups.com...





On Jul 6, 11:36 am, Steve Broadbent wrote:
In article . com,

wrote:
There are suggestions going round that whilst Chiltern is doing very
well on punctuality etc. there are many problems to do with other "key
performance indicators" linked to retaining the franchise that need
very urgent attention. (suggested as one reason behind the change of
MD recently announced) - so whilst it may seem to be doing very well
it could be that there are issues that need to be resolved elsewhere
in the company that we aren't aware of.

Tony

and this weeks Transit magazine shows chiltern's latest financial
figures, indicating that the previous year's decent profit has been
turned into a reasonable loss....

SB

I spy a bank or venture capitalist firm lurking about...!

What isn't clear is if Henderson is selling Laing Rail, which is Chilterns
parent, or just Chiltern.

If they are selling Laing Rail division, is there any reason why GoVia, the
second placed for the London Rail concession, couldn't buy it? I thought
they were in with a shout for the Ovewrground, if only because there will be
a lot of interaction between the ELL/WLL and other GoVia/Southern routes.
Same applies to services through Snow Hill now as well of course with West
Midlands...

Paul

Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Their is a link between Laing Rail & Renaissance Trains, that gave
rise to WSMR. It will be interesting to see what happens to WSMR
application as an open access operator as the sale of Chiltern
Railways progresses


Hobenius

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

W14_Fishbourne wrote:

No, the reliability figures are based on miles per casualty, a
casualty being defined as a fault which causes a delay of five or more
minutes. Air-con faults do not normally result in a train being
delayed. Faults with engines, doors, couplers, TPWS, etc do, and when
a train sits down on the line with one of those, there's no question
of under-reporting it.

In that case I definitely don't believe that they have got *that*
dramatically worse. You couldn't travel up and down the line (almost
exclusively on 165s) as much as I do and not notice at least some
cancellations or have some problems en route. The only thing that I have
noticed is the more regular use of the 121 on the branch during the day,
periodically, which is generally cover for when depot-based refurbishment
work or mods are being undertaken on 165s.

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

In addition, at long last, the Virgin Trains service between
Birmingham New Street and London Euston has experienced a strong
revival. At least some of the passengers using this must have moved
back from Chiltern Railways' services between Snow Hill/Moor Street
and London Marylebone. Anyway, the result is that the Birmingham
traffic on Chiltern, which experienced explosive growth, only to be
cut short by the Gerrards Cross blockade, is now being hit by
competition from a much faster (although vastly more expensive) Virgin
Trains service, and is therefore growing much more slowly than
expected.


I can't say I've ever noticed much demand from Birmingham whenever
I've used it.

Warwick Parkway is a different story, in the peak it's Warwick that
fills the trains and I would guess Virgin's business from Coventry has
been hit hard.

The Parkway station is so much easier to drive to than the congested
city centre.

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

"The Good Doctor" wrote

Evergreen 2 was carried out by John Laing Group on a Design, Build,
Finance and Transfer basis. John Laing Group funded the project and
took full commercial risk. However the assets became the property of
Network Rail, because that is the way the franchise system works,
Chiltern Railways being effectively prevented from owning such
assets.

AIUI Chiltern do own a couple of infrastructure assets, including Warwick
Parway station and the 'new' platform at Princes Risborough.

Peter

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:39:28 -0700, chunky munky
wrote:

Chiltern Railways- "Not As Good As We Think We Are"
--- But they are better than some of the rest!

I'd rather have Silverlink (County), who are getting to rather
impressive standards of punctuality and reliability[1], not to mention
lack of overcrowding. Just proves it *can* be done.

[1] I don't remember the last time I saw "Cancelled" on the board at
MKC.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

On 6 Jul, 18:04, "Peter Masson" wrote:
"The Good Doctor" wrote

Evergreen 2 was carried out by John Laing Group on a Design, Build,
Finance and Transfer basis. John Laing Group funded the project and
took full commercial risk. However the assets became the property of
Network Rail, because that is the way the franchise system works,
Chiltern Railways being effectively prevented from owning such
assets.

AIUI Chiltern do own a couple of infrastructure assets, including Warwick
Parway station and the 'new' platform at Princes Risborough.


Warwick Parkway is indeed owned by Chiltern Railways. However, it
predated the Evergreen project and hence played no part in Evergreen
1, nor Evergreen 2. It is doubtful whether a TOC-owned station could
ever be built on National Rail in future, given the substantial
changes in the nature of rail franchising since the Warwick Parkway
project was initiated.

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

On 6 Jul, 08:44, wrote:
On 6 Jul, 03:20, TheOneKEA wrote:

On Jul 5, 5:07 pm, Bob wrote:

Possible bidders would include Britain's top five bus and rail
operators, Stagecoach Group (SGC.L: Quote, Profile , Research), Go-
Ahead Group (GOG.L: Quote, Profile , Research), First Group (FGP.L:
Quote, Profile , Research), National Express (NEX.L: Quote, Profile ,
Research) and Arriva (ARI.L: Quote, Profile , Research), as well as
Germany's Deutsche Bahn [DBN.UL] and French bus and rail operator
Keolis, the source added.

Oh wonderful. If any of the usual suspects acquire it I can see
Chiltern getting sucked into a tiolet tank and turned into a shadow of
its clean, reliable, expansionist, common-sense self. Whoopee.

*has horrible mental images of Barbie swirls all over the 168/Xs*

There are suggestions going round that whilst Chiltern is doing very
well on punctuality etc. there are many problems to do with other "key
performance indicators" linked to retaining the franchise that need
very urgent attention. (suggested as one reason behind the change of
MD recently announced) - so whilst it may seem to be doing very well
it could be that there are issues that need to be resolved elsewhere
in the company that we aren't aware of.

Tony

Probably not to do with 'key performance indicators', but my last few
trips on Chiltern have been very disappointing train. A recent journey
to Birmingham was on what was perhaps the grottiest train I have ever
travelled on - the walls inside had ancient coffee stains, the carpets
looked like they hadn't been cleaned in months and the table was
sticky. Yuck.

Their staff are good, and Marylebone station is a credit to them (I
don't think it's a Network Rail one)... but I for one find Chiltern's
reputation better than the reality.

That said, I bet National Express will be keen to pick them up... or
First. Please don't let it be First!
Would a management buy out be viable (afterall that's what led to M40
Trains being created in the first place)

B.

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

"ONscotland" wrote in message
ups.com...

Probably not to do with 'key performance indicators', but my last few
trips on Chiltern have been very disappointing train. A recent journey
to Birmingham was on what was perhaps the grottiest train I have ever
travelled on - the walls inside had ancient coffee stains, the carpets
looked like they hadn't been cleaned in months and the table was
sticky. Yuck.

The other thing that would worry me if I were Chiltern is that, although
Virgin's service is more expensive, it's not always as expensive as people
think. I don't know if VT have increased their quotas of Value fares but I
was surprised to find that as late as Wednesday I was able to book a First
Advance ticket from New Street to Euston for Friday, at exactly the time I
wanted to travel, for £29.50. I could have got Standard for £10. I was
travelling on business so it was a no-brainer, but at that price I would
have been tempted even if it had been a leisure trip, bearing in mind that
the price includes coffee, soft drinks, a copy of the Times, some perfectly
good sandwiches, and no screaming kids.

It would still be a shame if Chiltern did go into decline. I for one was
sorry that they didn't take over the Snow Hill suburban services in the
recent WM shake-up.

Regards

Jonathan

Reuters announce Chiltern Railways for sale
 

Peter Masson wrote:
"The Good Doctor" wrote
Evergreen 2 was carried out by John Laing Group on a Design, Build,
Finance and Transfer basis. John Laing Group funded the project and
took full commercial risk. However the assets became the property of
Network Rail, because that is the way the franchise system works,
Chiltern Railways being effectively prevented from owning such
assets.

AIUI Chiltern do own a couple of infrastructure assets, including Warwick
Parway station and the 'new' platform at Princes Risborough.

So does that mean Chiltern could "take their ball home", if a situation
ever arose where they felt like doing so (perhaps a Connex-style early
termination)? "It's our platform, and you can't have it..."

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK