The Government has announced that rail franchising is over, after more than 24 years. The Emergency Measures Agreements introduced in England on 23 March have been extended by 18 months and will be known from now on as Emergency Recovery Management Agreements or ERMAs, while the Scottish Government announced just before the weekend that it has extended its support for ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper for another six months. The DfT said the new ERMAs are ‘more demanding’, and has reduced the 2 per cent management fee to 1.5 per cent at most. Taxpayers will see savings in the longer term, said the DfT.

A Virus has done it. Covid-19 has finally pushed the tottering franchising system over, and changed the course of railway history. In the conclusion of a two-part special Sim Harris considers the future now.

The Government must decide the fate of most English rail franchises by Sunday, when the Emergency Measures Agreements which came into force on 23 March run out. However, transport secretary Grant Shapps has refused to reveal what could happen.

Trains built just five years ago are among those set to be upgraded at Selhurst Depot as part of a £55 million fleet modernisation programme announced by Govia Thameslink Railway and leasing company Porterbrook.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced a new campaign to tackle the ‘blight’ of graffiti on railways and roadsides. In a letter to the rail industry, the transport secretary has called for long-term plans to tackle the issue in addition to action which has already been taken, including a review of response times so any graffiti damage is dealt with quickly. Network Rail has already allocated an additional £1 million to carry out a ‘graffiti blitz’, on top of its annual £3.5 million programme of anti-graffiti measures. The graffiti ‘artists’ often place themselves at serious risk when they trespass on railway property, and a number have been killed.

A new report from Network Rail is setting out plans for the future carbon-free railway, and it reveals that the last diesel trains could be withdrawn or converted to other forms of traction within three decades or less. The report, an ‘interim business case’, sets out the strategy for decarbonising the network. One key recommendation is that ‘from now on, diesel-only trains should only be bought where there are clear strategic and economic reasons for doing so. Where this is necessary, only trains where the possibility exists in future to replace the diesel engines with a zerocarbon alternative should be chosen’.

Monday essay: is franchising finished?

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