Competition Commission wants longer rail franchises

The Competition Commission, in its provisional decision on remedies to improve competition in the rolling stock leasing market, has recommended that the Department for Transport (DfT) undertake radical reforms to the rail franchising system, including the introduction of longer franchises of twelve years minimum – the Commission considers that a minimum franchise term of twelve years would give train operating companies sufficient time to make a return on investment in new trains and would enable operators to determine the type of trains to be used, rather than the rolling stock been specified by the DfT. The Competition Commission has also recommended that there should be a more flexible approach to the letting of franchises which enables bidders to propose a contract length appropriate for the rolling stock investment they wish to make – the Commission also considers that the assessment criteria for the award of franchises should give credit to bidders who undertake investment which will deliver benefits beyond the length of the contract term.

Salisbury train depot wins award for fourth consecutive year

The engineering team at the Salisbury depot of South West Trains has won a rail industry award for the quality of maintenance of diesel trains for the fourth consecutive year – the Modern Railways ‘Golden Spanner Award’ was awarded to the depot for the most reliable pre-1995 diesel multiple unit fleet. Salisbury depot maintains the class 158 and class 159 units which operate trains between London Waterloo and Paignton/Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter and services between Romsey and Salisbury via Southampton Central.

Penzance heliport to close

Penzance heliport is to close and be sold for redevelopment with flights to and from the Isles of Scilly (St Mary’s and Tresco) been transferred to Lands End airport, near St Just – the transfer is planned to be made with effect from Monday 30 March 2009.

Go-Ahead Group achieves Carbon Trust standard

Go-Ahead Group, the parent company of Wilts and Dorset, has become the first public transport company to have been officially certified with the Carbon Trust Standard after taking action to achieve a relative reduction of carbon emissions (tonnes CO2 per million passenger journeys) of eleven per cent – the Carbon Trust standard is the only independent certification in Great Britain to recognise achievements in action on climate change by leading organisations in both the private and public sectors.

Universal ticketing for mobiles agreed by train companies

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATCO) has introduced an industry-wide mobile ticketing standard based on ‘2D barcodes’ – the introduction of this new standard means that rail operators are now able to sell mobile tickets which can be used on the trains of other companies. It is claimed that the new barcode standard works on ninety per cent of mobile handsets currently in use.

And finally,

Just days after Wilts and Dorset publicised the introduction of the company’s new website ‘www.wdbus.co.uk’, the operator’s major competitor, Transdev Yellow Buses, has also relaunched its website ‘www.bybus.co.uk’!