Deja vu all over again? Rail franchising in Britain.
Deja vu all over again? Rail franchising in Britain.
This paper reviews the progress of passenger rail franchising in Britain since the mid-1990s, building on earlier contributions to the Thredbo Conferences and identifies five main phases. A welfare assessment suggests that the reforms were mildly welfare positive up to the middle of the third phase, but some concerning trends have emerged, not least the spiralling transaction costs associated with franchise bids and the apparent prevalence of strategic bidding. The problems that emerged, and some of the lessons learned, in the aborted award of the West Coast franchise in 2012 are assessed. A detailed assessment is also made of the East Coast franchise. The awards that commenced operation in May 2005 and December 2007 (both of which failed) are compared with the new franchise that commenced operations in March 2015. Issues related to the cap and collar regime, GDP support, subordinated loans facility and parent company support are examined. The prospects for movement towards a more variegated set of franchise contracts will be considered.
107-115
Preston, John
ef81c42e-c896-4768-92d1-052662037f0b
November 2016
Preston, John
ef81c42e-c896-4768-92d1-052662037f0b
Preston, John
(2016)
Deja vu all over again? Rail franchising in Britain.
[in special issue: Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (selected papers from the Thredbo 14 conference)]
Research in Transportation Economics, 59, .
(doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2016.07.018).
Abstract
This paper reviews the progress of passenger rail franchising in Britain since the mid-1990s, building on earlier contributions to the Thredbo Conferences and identifies five main phases. A welfare assessment suggests that the reforms were mildly welfare positive up to the middle of the third phase, but some concerning trends have emerged, not least the spiralling transaction costs associated with franchise bids and the apparent prevalence of strategic bidding. The problems that emerged, and some of the lessons learned, in the aborted award of the West Coast franchise in 2012 are assessed. A detailed assessment is also made of the East Coast franchise. The awards that commenced operation in May 2005 and December 2007 (both of which failed) are compared with the new franchise that commenced operations in March 2015. Issues related to the cap and collar regime, GDP support, subordinated loans facility and parent company support are examined. The prospects for movement towards a more variegated set of franchise contracts will be considered.
Text
__filestore.soton.ac.uk_users_krc1d15_mydocuments_Eprints_Deja Vu All Over Againv3.docx
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 July 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 October 2016
Published date: November 2016
Organisations:
Transportation Group
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 399820
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/399820
ISSN: 0739-8859
PURE UUID: 1a269cd6-847f-49f6-bdb5-5775145df081
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 31 Aug 2016 08:58
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:51
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
