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Railways: East Midlands, West Midlands and Cross Country Franchises

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Derek Twigg) has made the following Ministerial Statement. I am today announcing the publication of consultation documents for the new East Midlands, West Midlands and Cross Country rail franchises. Copies of the consultation documents have been placed in the House Library and are available on the Department for Transport website at www.dfl.gov.uk. On 18 October 2005, the Secretary of State announced that three new rail franchises would be created (East Midlands, West Midlands and a new Cross Country) from four currently existing franchises (Central, Silverlink, Cross Country and Midland Mainline). The new franchises will begin operation on Sunday 11 November 2007. The publication of the three documents begins the formal consultation process on the service levels that the new train operators should provide. The documents are a consultation on the franchise specifications and seek views on the minimum service level that the Department for Transport (DfT) will wish to procure. This consultation and the responses received will later inform the invitation to tender (ITT) that bidders for each franchise will be asked to bid against this autumn. Bidders will have to provide the minimum service levels that the ITT sets out and will be able to propose additional services above this minimum subject to any operational constraints and affordability. Our aim is to ensure that all three franchises build on the recent success of current operators. Passenger numbers on Britain's railway are growing, particularly on key routes served by these new franchises. We want to see those numbers continue to grow. These new franchises are expected to meet current and future passenger demand and deliver a 2 to 5 per cent increase in the number of trains operated per day. Bidders will also be required to build on recent performance improvements, and deliver value for money for both fare and tax payers. The documents propose service levels that will address crowding, allow for future growth and put faster services in place on key routes. Passenger capacity will increase. On the Cross Country franchise, DfT is proposing a timetable structure that allows bidders to put forward a substantial increase in capacity on key crowded trains. The department expects bidders to propose additional carriages and longer trains on busy routes. Overall, the Cross Country network is expanding with extra stations served. In particular, the consultation documents propose service levels that further capitalise on the   £7.6 billion investment on the west coast main line. This is an important consultation that covers the provision of over 2,000 daily rail services. The consultation will run until 7 August 2006. Over the coming weeks the department will be having extensive discussions with local interested stakeholders. It is important to ensure that these new franchises deliver further improvements for current and future rail passengers.