The Petition of residents of the UK,
Declares that the Petitioners believe that there should be more train services stopping at Silverdale rail station. The Petitioners believe that the trains to Barrow and to Manchester Airport that pass through Silverdale should all stop at the station.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to take steps to support Silverdale station in any further franchise applications in the area.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by David Morris, Official Report, 21 July 2014; Vol. 584, c. 1215.]
[P001374]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Transport:
The Government secure passenger rail services through franchise competitions—a process through which private companies submit rival bids to run specified services on the network. The Department for Transport designs, awards and manages franchise contracts. This includes ensuring franchisees meet their contractual obligations and overseeing fares and ticketing policy. This approach enables long-term investment from the private sector, encourages innovation and harnesses the operational experience and efficiencies characteristic of private franchisees for the benefit of passengers, taxpayers and industry.
Silverdale station is managed and served by the Northern Rail franchise on the Lancaster-Barrow line, on which the longer-distance services are provided by the TransPennine Express franchise (TPE). It currently receives a service pattern of slightly less than one train per hour and has a passenger footfall of around 45,000 passengers per year (which is not particularly high). Under the franchise schedule set out by Secretary of State in March 2013, and most recently updated in October 2014, both the Northern and TPE franchises are in the process of being re-let, with the new franchises expected to start in April 2016.
In line with the schedule, the Government set out the franchise specifications for the Northern and TPE franchises in the invitations to tender for each franchise, both published 27 February 20152. These specifications set out Government’s minimum requirements for the franchise, including in terms of service patterns. To ensure that the views of passengers and stakeholders were taken into account in the development of these franchise specifications a public consultation was carried out in relation to both the Northern and TPE franchises. A summary of the responses to this and the way that the Government took account of them in developing the specifications are set out in a Stakeholder briefing document3.
The specification for the franchise sets out a number of areas that will have an impact on Silverdale station. In terms of service patterns to the station, the specification preserves the current levels of service, however, the longer-distance services on the Barrow line it is situated on are being remapped from the TPE franchise to the Northern franchise. This means that Silverdale station could benefit from the specification of additional through trains between Barrow and Manchester airport, though it is not guaranteed that the extra airport trains will necessarily call at Silverdale; this would be a decision for the operator. This remapping also means that passengers at Silverdale station may benefit from the requirement for bidders on the Northern franchise to provide 120 new build carriages, though details of where these will go on the network will be left to bidders for the franchise. The Barrow line will continue to be part of the Community Rail partnership under the new specification and will benefit from additional funding as a result. It is important to remember that the specification in relation to services is a minimum one. Bidders are encouraged to provide services over and above this specification where it is appropriate and this could include those services to Silverdale station.
The specification includes a number of requirements across the franchise that may be of interest to the petitioners. The franchise will have stringent targets related to the National Rail passenger survey, which will be monitored throughout the franchise term and should lead to improvements at stations and on board services. For stations particularly we will be introducing a service quality monitoring regime, to ensure that they meet our quality standards and we will also introduce a £30 million station improvement fund in the Northern franchise, half of which has to be spent at smaller stations like Silverdale, to improve quality.
The shortlisted bidders for Northern are: Abellio Northern Ltd; Arriva Rail North Limited; Govia Northern Limited; and for TransPennine Express: First Trans Pennine Express Limited; Keolis Go-Ahead Limited; Stagecoach Trans Pennine Express Trains Limited and they are currently developing their bids. As part of this they may wish to hear from you and petitioners about your aspirations for Silverdale station so that it can inform their bids. The bids will be submitted to the Department for Transport later this year, after which we will evaluate them against the criteria set out in the Invitations to Tender. Following this evaluation, we expect to announce the successful bidder for the franchise in the Autumn of 2015, with the new franchises expected to begin in April 2016.
1-https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-franchise-schedule
2-Northern: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatiotis/northem-franchise-2015-invitation-to-tender ; TPE: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transpennine-express-franchise-2015-invitation-to-tender
3-https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/future-of-northern-and-transpennine-express-rail-iranchises