Re: GNER launch legal challenge


John B wrote:
Ian wrote:

The former. If I am waiting on platfrom 2 at Oxford for a train to
Birmingham, I'll get on the first one I see.

How do you avoid getting on trains that terminate at Oxford and are
just heading to the sidings to reverse, then?

The Oxford - Birmingham service is now half hourly, thanks to
Voyagerisation. That's very, very much better than it was before: it
means I can effectively just turn up at Oxford and go. I can't see how
a system in which I was allowed to use some Oxford - Birmingham trains
but not others would improve the system.

Why railway company do you propose should, in the interests of
fairness, be banned from taking Banbury - Birmingham passengers: Virgin
or Chiltern?

Similarly at York, the London trains will be blue-and-red with GNER
written on the side, while the GC trains will be black and grey with
Grand Central on the side; the London trains will be signed as
"London", while the GC trains will be signed as "do not board this
train".

But why? It's a train, it's going to London, why on earth should people
be prevented from taking it? What does the passenger or the taxpayer
gain from that?

And exactly the same would apply to GNER, of course. That's unfair too,
isn't it?

I don't think either is actually unfair; I think GNER should have been
aware of the possibility of another open-access operator when it made
the bid, and I think one reason why it outbid the other franchise
contenders is that it failed to factor the possibility of more
open-access competition into its business plan.

But as I understand it, they were perfectly aware of this. After all,
GC isn't exactly a gosh-where-the-hell-did-that-come-from development,
is it? All the other interested ECML bidders, as I understand it,
insisted on no open access competition and were told "no chance". Why
should GNER be treated differently?

LawRail's trains will take 2.5 hours for the Brighton to London
journey, will be unairconditioned and will be [2] generally inferior to
the current Southern and Thameslink offerings. However, AIUI the ORR
will be obliged to allow LawRail to run if the paths are there - and
also AIUI, LawRail will receive a share of the Brighton/London "any
permitted" ticket pool equivalent to the number of seats it runs
between Brighton and London, not the number of passengers it carries.
Is this fair?

I like your TOC name! In the situation you outline, it would not be
fair.

But is that how ORCATS works? I'd be interested to know how, for
example, GNER and First Scotrail divvy up Glasgow - Newcastle (any
permitted) ticket revenue. When Thames Trains and FGW both ran from
oxford to London, did the ultra slows which went to Paddington but were
only announced at Oxford as Slough, or Ealing Broadway, or some other
god-forsaken spot, count for ORCATS purposes?

However, it's a bit different rom two different companies sending HSTs
down the same rails from York to London, isn't it?

Ian

.

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