{"id":92608,"date":"2018-06-07T09:09:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T09:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=9333c841307f43d2ac6886a05636b044"},"modified":"2018-06-07T09:09:07","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T09:09:07","slug":"statement-to-parliament-east-midlands-rail-franchise-invitation-to-tender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=92608","title":{"rendered":"Statement to Parliament: East Midlands rail franchise invitation to tender"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>I am pleased to inform the House that this morning the Department for Transport <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/faster-journeys-more-seats-and-better-compensation-for-passengers-in-next-east-midlands-franchise\">published the invitation to tender (<abbr title=\"invitation to tender\">ITT<\/abbr>) for the East Midlands rail franchise and the consultation document for the Cross Country franchise<\/a> signalling the start of a 12 week public consultation.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"east-midlands-rail-franchise\">East Midlands rail franchise<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/east-midlands-franchise-2018-invitation-to-tender\"><abbr title=\"invitation to tender\">ITT<\/abbr> for the East Midlands franchise<\/a> sets out an exciting future that will deliver a brand-new fleet of trains, more seats for passengers, reduced peak journey times between Nottingham, Sheffield and London and a dedicated, high quality, express service between Corby and London. These improvements will mean more comfortable journeys for both long distance and commuting passengers at the busiest times of the day.<\/p>\n<p>We have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/consultations\/future-of-east-midlands-rail-franchise\">listened to what improvements passengers want to see<\/a> and will be requiring the next operator to deliver a wide range of improvements across the network including improved compensation for delays, smart ticketing, high-quality wi-fi connection, more frequent and increased capacity on local services and services that start earlier and finish later.<\/p>\n<p>As the Secretary of State set out in the government\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/a-strategic-vision-for-rail\">Strategic vision for rail<\/a> in November 2017, we are now fixing the operational divide between track and train so that both Network Rail and train companies share one imperative: putting the passenger first. Better performance and reliability on the East Midlands franchise will be delivered through a new collaborative partnership between the next operator and Network Rail.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"cross-country-rail-franchise\">Cross Country rail franchise<\/h2>\n<p>The current Cross Country franchise, operated by Arriva Cross Country is due to end late 2019 (though it can be extended by up to a year). I am therefore pleased to launch today a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/consultations\/cross-country-rail-franchise\">public consultation<\/a> which will run for 12 weeks and will help to inform and develop the franchise specification for inclusion in the <abbr title=\"invitation to tender\">ITT<\/abbr>. We will encourage responses to the consultation through: meetings around the network with formal stakeholders; promoting it directly to passengers on Cross Country trains; and one or more webinars to reach out to people across this extensive franchise<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Publication of the ITT for the East Midlands rail franchise and the launch of the consultation for the next Cross Country rail franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}