Stagecoach loses South West Trains franchise

The company that runs the South West Trains has lost the right to run the franchise, to a consortium including the Hong Kong metro operator.

Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) will be taking over the franchise from the 20th August.

As an operator of a comparatively modern railway network, most of it was built after the 1980s, it will be an interesting challenge for the MTR to run the Victorian era infrastructure that South West Trains relies on.

Aiding them though will be FirstGroup, which already operates a number of railways in the UK, including Great Western Railway, Hull Trains and London’s trams. For its part, MTR already runs services between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield, as part of TfL Rail.

In a statement, the Department for Transport (DfT) said that the new franchise will oversee £1.2 billion of investment into the railway, bringing some 22,000 extra seats into London Waterloo each morning peak and 30,000 extra seats out of Waterloo each evening peak.

There will also be a fleet of 90 new trains, providing more space for passengers on Reading, Windsor and London routes. These trains will come into service by 2020.

However, it’s worth noting that South West Trains had already promised to add extra capacity regardless of who the franchise operator is. A fleet of 30 new trains is due to start coming into service from next month as part of an existing £800 million upgrade to the network, and particularly Waterloo Station.

In fact, First MTR will be taking over the franchise just a week before a major upgrade to Waterloo Station comes into effect. Platforms 1-9 will be closed during much of August, reopening on the 28th August, a week after First MTR takes over the line.

Having a major franchise swap in the middle of the Waterloo closure may prove to be a genius decision or an unmitigated disaster.