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2.57 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Tony McNulty): I congratulate the hon. Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) on securing the debate and on providing an opportunity for the House to discuss the Greater Anglia rail franchise. I do not think that he did his constituents or others in East Anglia any service by the manner of his speech. I shall forgive him his childish and tiresome rant about the state of our railways. People who consistently do our railways down do no favours to commuters or all those struggling to work hard in the railway system. I forgive him, too, because there is no budgetary provision whatever in any shadow Budget emanating from his party for the full renationalisation of the railways, so he is out on his own, as ever, in that regard, too.
What I cannot forgive, even under the cloak of parliamentary privilege, is the irresponsible manner in which the hon. Gentleman alluded to some conspiracy theory, where we have everything but the second gunman on the grassy knoll. To speak of half-truths, innuendoes, stitch-up, companies being shafted, nudge-nudge, wink-wink and the Strategic Rail Authority telling FirstGroup what it may or may not get elsewhere, is frivolous beyond belief, irresponsible in the highest regard and does the hon. Gentleman no credit at all. Nor does it help in any way to pursue what his constituents require.
The hon. Gentleman will know that, last year, the SRA consulted the industry, stakeholders and passengers on its proposed policy of one operator at London termini. The authority's consultation document suggested that having one substantive operator at a terminal would—this may have been the area that he should have dwelt on—facilitate optimum use of available capacity, both in the station and on the approaches to it; provide a simplified, more understandable and impartial day-to-day interface with the passenger; remove many of the contractual interfaces that he complained of at stations and simplify the timetable planning process; and improve reaction to service disruptions.
In the main, the responses to the consultation were positive, supporting the notion that such a policy would bring significant benefits to operators and passengers alike. The SRA has therefore adopted the policy in its programme of replacing franchises. All services into London Liverpool street are therefore to be combined into one Greater Anglia franchise. The franchise will be comprised of the services currently operated by Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and the West Anglia services of West Anglia Great Northern, the franchises for which are due to expire by 31 March 2004. All the stations managed by those operators will be included in the new franchise, as well as the stations operated by Central Trains between Peterborough and Norwich.
The competition for the franchise was originally launched on 27 March 2002. There was a strong response to the invitation to pre-qualify and in May last
year the authority announced that nine parties had done so successfully, including FirstGroup, the incumbent operator of the First Great Eastern franchise. Following the publication of the Strategic Rail Authority's new franchising policy in November 2002, the competition for Greater Anglia was relaunched in January of this year. On 1 April, the authority announced that three parties had qualified as bidders for the franchise. These are GB Railways plc, the incumbent operator of the Anglia Railways franchise; National Express Group plc, the incumbent operator of the West Anglia Great Northern franchise; and Arriva Trains Limited.As the hon. Gentleman said, there has been much debate and speculation over the decision not to qualify FirstGroup to receive an invitation to tender for the franchise. While this is a matter for the Strategic Rail Authority as the letting agent, it would be difficult for me not to comment on the matter in the context of this debate. Of course, the authority's primary concern in letting any franchise is to get the best possible deal for passengers and taxpayers. Given that the Greater Anglia contract has a headline value of up to £3.5 billion, there had to be a rigorous process for selection.
The Transport Act 2000 makes it clear that each franchise competition is a new competition and everyone, whether incumbent or not, must treat it as precisely that. The Strategic Rail Authority is well aware that Great Eastern has performed well under the stewardship of FirstGroup. That was not overlooked in the decision-making process. However, that process is primarily centred on the responses to the "Qualification to Receive An Invitation to Tender" document. That was a clear and concise document, explaining precisely what was required of bidders.
FirstGroup, along with all the bidders, accepted and participated in this process. The Strategic Rail Authority evaluated the substance of FirstGroup's response on a basis consistent with all others. The notion that it is about settling old scores or nudge-nudge, wink-wink elsewhere is immature to say the least and ill becomes the hon. Gentleman. He besmirches a number of people who are working with integrity throughout the rail industry. He might want to reflect on those comments when he looks at Hansard tomorrow.
Bob Russell: I have been well briefed.
Mr. McNulty: The hon. Gentleman says that he has been well briefed. He might have employed a speechwriter to give greater emphasis to the genuine concerns among commuters from his constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Braintree (Mr. Hurst).
As I said, the SRA evaluated the substance of FirstGroup's response, consistent with all others. On the basis of those responses, it selected the bidders that scored highest against the criteria that had been clearly set out. The authority made it clear in advance of the qualification exercise that if a sufficient number of applicants met the minimum requirements, it would invite not fewer than three and not more than five bidders.
FirstGroup was not ranked among the top three bidders and was therefore not invited to continue in the bidding process. The company was understandably
disappointed, but I am glad that the prospective legal challenge has been withdrawn and the SRA can now focus its attention on selecting a preferred bidder and working towards signature of a franchise agreement. Unless I am informed otherwise today or subsequently, the SRA will not change the bidding process halfway through; the process was clearly mapped out for all individuals concerned.What are the next steps? In June, the Strategic Rail Authority finished consulting stakeholders on their aspirations for the franchise and, having evaluated the responses received, issued a final franchise specification to the bidders on 1 July. This specification indicates a number of options and proposals that could be included in bids such as schemes designed to enhance capacity, the possibility of a metro-style service within the Greater London Authority boundary, improved interchanges between train and other forms of transport and improved station facilities such as the capacity and quality of car parks, improved facilities for cyclists, better access for disabled passengers, better security and improved signage.
The SRA also requires bidders to put forward with their bids a detailed rolling stock plan, indicating how they would maximise the use of infrastructure capacity during peak periods. Such plans would be expected to show how the bidder intends to accommodate the implications of operating longer rolling stock, and what trains they intend to refurbish, replace, procure or lease.
The authority intends that rural routes be managed within a separate business unit. The successful franchisee will be expected to ensure that the business unit has appropriate autonomy to review and develop rural services, and to provide local focus, accountability and partnership with the communities that they serve. As I said, rural routes are important in this regard.
The bidders will work up their proposals and submit them for the authority's consideration in time for a preferred bidder to be announced later this year. The franchise is envisaged to come into effect in April 2004. Of course, all bids must be backed by a robust business case. The authority will be looking to select the bid that is affordable, deliverable and of most benefit to passengers: in other words, the one that offers best value for money.
I hope that I have gone some way towards demonstrating that the new franchise will bring significant benefits to passengers—a point that the hon. Gentleman chose not to touch on—both to commuters to London, and to users of local services. The Greater Anglia franchise is the first to be let under the new franchising policy, and the first to be let under the one operator per London terminal principle. It will therefore be under a particularly bright spotlight, and I know that everybody in the industry will do their utmost to ensure its success.
I understand the hon. Gentleman's point about the comments of aggrieved employees who would rather that their company was involved in the bidding process. However, it is a matter of regret that he chose to couch his contribution in such a childish and immature context, which did nothing for commuters in the area served by Greater Anglia, or for his Colchester commuter constituents. Nor did it add anything in terms of highlighting what is a very important issue.
In my previous manifestation as Minister with responsibility for housing, I had a rather rough debate with the hon. Gentleman in Westminster Hall. I came here today with the explicit intention of being nice, emollient and terribly ministerial, but I am afraid that I
could not be because of the unnecessary and immature drivel that he introduced into the debate. Perhaps next time will be third time lucky.
- Adjourned accordingly at seven minutes past Three o'clock.
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