On 9 Jul, 18:18, Tom Anderson wrote:

Perhaps I spoke to soon. Shouldn't be any surprise that the
consolidation of the rail operating industry into four or so big players
is progressing apace

YWell, with Britain's rail network divided between the Great Western,
London, Midland and Scottish, London and North Eastern and Southern
railways, we should see considerably greater efficiency.


The privitisation of rail started off with 25 different franchises
with the aim to create as much competition and keep prices down. Yes,
competition does keep prices down (think SWT and no fare hikes on
trains to Windsor/Reading) but amalgamations have kept organisational
costs down - the prime example being 'one'. Others have just happened
due to project reasons, eg: FCC to allow Thameslink 2000 to go ahead
and CT and Silverlink to allow proper 'through' running at Northampton
(most trains do but the Journey Planner doesn't accept it since the
stopover is less than 10 mins).

I really wouldn't be surprised to see the Big 4 returning, although I
was wondering why Govia don't merge South-Central with South-Eastern
as Virgin have done with VXC/VWC quite sucsessfully for 11 years;
although if they win NXC, I won't like the look of Virgin liveried
170s...