AS SWT's franchise comes up for renewal, above inflation fare increases have led to renewed calls from rail users for timely improvements to the region's rail services. The new 10-year franchise to operate the SWT network will run from February 2007. Five major companies are to fight it out to operate the franchise currently held by Stagecoach and covering services out of London Waterloo to the South, South West and suburban areas of Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey. The new deal from 2007 will see SWT operating as part of a South Western franchise alongside the Isle of Wight's Island line, also run by Stagecoach. The shortlist announced by the government last month includes Stagecoach, Arriva, National Express, FirstGroup and GNER, the Eastern Coast mainline operator which has joined forces with Hong Kong's MTR Corporation to bid for South Western. All five firms have experience of operating rail franchises. Having been named Train Operator of the Year in 2005, Stagecoach is said to believe its billion pound investment in new Desiro trains, coupled with major investment in the refurbishment of stations, in customer services and in the implementation of CCTV, should stand it in good stead when bidding against outsiders. The competing firms must now submit detailed bids to the Department of Transport which has recently taken over the franchise responsibilities after the Strategic Rail Authority was axed. The South Western franchise is likely to be awarded in the autumn. According to Alton Line Users' Association chairman Chris Campbell, his group will continue to push for improvements to the London Waterloo to Alton/Farnham line. Most importantly this will include the reinstatement of dual-track working between Alton and Farnham to provide an opportunity for more freight traffic to serve the Star Energy oil terminal and the recently opened materials recycling facility (MRF) adjacent to the line at Froyle. Redoubling the line would also speed up passenger services. In the meantime, Mr Campbell hopes that work currently taking place on the line at Woking will help to improve performance, and that upgraded signalling from Aldershot, expected to take place by 2008, should also result in a reduction in journey time. While work over the Christmas period has served to distort travelling time, passengers had been complaining, he said, of normal off- peak services running at 84 minutes or more from London Waterloo to Alton. "People were not staying for Christmas parties because it was taking so long to get home," said Mr Campbell. He also said that people were reluctant to pay the new year fare increases while the level of service was so disappointing. "For years the journey from London Waterloo to Alton has taken fewer than 65 minutes. If SWT feels it has to put its fares up then they should be kept at the rate of inflation," said Mr Campbell. In practice the government has agreed a rate of one per cent above the rate of inflation leading to an average increase for SWT regulated (peak time) fares of 3.9 per cent. According to an SWT spokesman, this increase was performance related and reflects the "radical improvement" in time keeping since the introduction in December 2004 of the new SWT timetable. Unregulated (off-peak leisure) fares rose on Monday by an average 4.9 per cent. "We didn't want to price ourselves out of the market compared to car and bus travel so we have tried to remain competitive," said the SWT spokesman, who was keen to stress that the company reinvests heavily in the network, as recognised by the industry's 2005 operator award. The Rail Passengers' Council (RPC), the national body representing rail passengers, has expressed "dismay" at the announcement of "spiralling rail fares". In a recent statement, RPC chief executive Anthony Smith reflected ALUA's concerns about the inflation-busting price hikes. "The rail industry is going to have to work hard to demonstrate that these rises represent value for money," he said. Further to a recent National Passenger Survey, which revealed that only 41 per cent of rail passengers believed they received value for money, the RPC is to carry out extensive research into passenger views on the current ways they pay for rail travel and what they would like to see in the future.
