Barton-on-Humber - Cleethorpes
Benefits include:
- new route for East Midlands, transferred from Northern
- enhanced Sunday service providing Sunday services all-year round
- increased Community Rail Partnership funding
- refurbished, modern trains with:
- more reliable service
- improved comfort
- passenger information system displays
- free on-board Wi-Fi
- at-seat power sockets
- USB points
- air conditioning
- tables at all seats
- increased luggage space
Nottingham - Lincoln - Grimsby
Benefits include:
- new Nottingham - Grimsby service, with limited extension to Cleethorpes
- extended hours of operation providing two trains per hour between Nottingham and Newark Castle for more of the day
- Sunday service between Lincoln and Grimsby all-year round
- increased Community Rail Partnership funding
- refurbished, modern trains with:
- more reliable service
- improved comfort
- passenger information system displays
- free on-board Wi-Fi
- at-seat power sockets
- USB points
- air conditioning
- tables at all seats
- increased luggage space
http://maps.dft.gov.uk/east-midlands-rail-franchise/
The headline is clearly the year round Sunday service on both our line and Grimsby - Lincoln.
I expect we will see more information after the usual 10 day standstill period.
The Sunday service is excellent news, in exceedance of the minimum specification.
I note the Lincoln service will mostly be terminating at Grimsby, not Cleethorpes, which suggests for most of the day that Barton to Cleethorpes will run as a 'standalone' service. From a crewing perspective I see three potential options for the majority of services:
1. Continue using TPE crew
2. Abellio set up a crew depot in either Cleethorpes or Grimsby
3. Probably the least likely of the three, use crew from Lincoln changing at Grimsby to/from an en-route Barton to Cleethorpes service. This option would have been a lot easier if most/all Lincoln and Nottingham services ran through to Cleethorpes
A varient of option three would be to have Lincoln crews pasdipa or even taxiing Grimsby to Cleethorpes. I suspect Nottingham crews may well also end up working at least to Grimsby, not sure whether they already do.
From the Right Honourable Member for Epsom:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/east-midlands-south-eastern-and-west-coast-partnership-franchise-updates
Some questions in Parliament from Hansard:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-04-11/debates/97686E18-4BE6-4D7F-914B-96F43098DC84/EastMidlandsRailFranchise
Confirmation that Arriva were disqualified in addition to Stagecoach
https://www.railjournal.com/financial/dft-confirms-arriva-disqualification/
A brief piece on the franchise from the Transport Focus newsletter.
https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/news-events-media/news/transport-user-voice-may-2019-train-company/?utm_source=GM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Transport+User+Voice+-+May+2019&utm_term=Transport+User+Voice+-+May+2019&utm_content=34967&gator_td=MO9bMhcps9EKkaS47Ef6eUpiCuTMa9kHlXIz7vt3tHx6pept7NAKFiDJUmbsC35MgwrYFvY0Yaiq2BRuPQu16eiG9z2V7pkZrmFuMZ7RQgJQNvNTSCXxh4gxVuP134WJ3v2UFxcJVlTQK5eFb%2bENj%2bsppaHuBLlbxFmNKGowydd%2feaPfH1ia58Hdl%2fA24bjVtbf80NOhTACwXqYRF%2bFPb%2f4LZReTzK3IWddbs1KnGTAIwaXZQperYtetVGOlSSDv
I feel at this stage that it is important to point out that the contract hasn't actually been signed yet and we are still in the standstill period.
Standstill period to end 8th May..
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-05-07/debates/70FF91EF-640B-45C0-8655-951C7E146FF8/EastMidlandsRailFranchise
https://www.abellio.com/news/ps600-million-improvements-east-midlands-railway-abellio-confirmed
The legal battle between Arriva, Stagecoach and the DfT has now been concluded. Arriva settled out of court with the DfT. The case between Stagecoach and the DfT went to the High Court, with the DfT winning. Judgement for those who wish to read through the legalese:
https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/2019-rail-franchising-litigation/