Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(18/12/2019 14:57)wirralbus Wrote:  If Northern was taken over by an operator of last resort , would the problems go away overnight ?

Its highly doubtful , once a new operator is chosen , the publics ire would then fall on TfN as they chose this operator.

I seem to recall the summary of the submitted bids was:
Arriva - met franchise requirements plus the bid included new EMUs and additional TVMs
Govia - offered less than Arriva, tried to offer the bare minimum with a question mark over whether all the requirements were properly met
Abellio - Proposed new DCO commuter DMUs and EMUs with the intention of a DCO commuter network with brand new trains around all the main cities in the franchise. Many Sprinters and the 319s would have been returned to ROSCOs in addition to the Pacers due to the higher number of new trains.

So Abellio's bid would have been preferable to most passengers but the RMT would have had a fit if they had been given the franchise - going from a franchise with no DOO to one where all commuter trains are DCO.