First Group and MTR awarded Southwest Franchise

[Leanden]

A Hong Kong company is to help operate one of the biggest rail franchises in the UK, the government has announced.
MTR, which runs the Hong Kong Metro, has been awarded the franchise along with First Group to run South West Trains (SWT) for seven years.

First MTR will take over from Stagecoach, which currently runs SWT services across south west England to and from London Waterloo.

I for one, welcome our Hong Kong overlords.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39403162

[Pilot]

So, is the Franchise operator going to be called London & South Western Railway, in line with First resurrecting old railway company names? If First are the senior partner in the Franchise (I don't know what the split is), I'm doubtful we will see the First brand anywhere on the trains, as they seem to be very against that at the moment (I think only Hull Trains rock the First name nowadays).

[Leanden]

Allegedly they will operate as First MTR South Western Trains

[Geo Ghost]

I didn't expect that to happen, I must admit!
I'm really hoping there's no small print int he contract somewhere about extending DOO onto SWT as well.

[Ameecher]

A Hong Kong company is to help operate one of the biggest rail franchises in the UK, the government has announced.
MTR, which runs the Hong Kong Metro, has been awarded the franchise along with First Group to run South West Trains (SWT) for seven years.

First MTR will take over from Stagecoach, which currently runs SWT services across south west England to and from London Waterloo.

I for one, welcome our Hong Kong overlords.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39403162

Just as well because they had been jointly operating LOROL up until 2016 anyway.

[Morgs]

Part of me is sad that Stagecoach did not retain this Franchise though I knew one day things would change. The devil is in the details and the questions that should be asked is A) can they deliver and B) Do there sums add up and make sense?

I do not know the details but I did notice a Pompey to Weymouth service which is a good idea as there is a through service. I wonder how this is going to be achieved and I presume this affects the timings to Weymouth and Bournemouth by transferring some station stops to this Pompey service?

Would it make more sense to extend the Southampton to Pompey service to Bournemouth?

[EXTspotter]

It'll probably be a recast of current services along the line; on the Weymouth Line, Monday to Saturday there are 3 trains per hour; a London to Weymouth which is fast to Bournemouth and semi-fast to Weymouth, a London to Weymouth which is semi-fast to Bournemouth and stopping to Weymouth and a London to Poole which has a really weird stopping pattern (Clapham, Farnborough, Fleet, Basingstoke) and then stopping all the way to Poole. The stopping service is pointless for through journeys - it gets overtaken so any route not entirely within London - Southampton, Southampton - Brockenhurst or Brockenhurst - Poole will not be time efficient to take; on the down it stops at Southampton for 15 minutes and Brockenhurst for 25. The way back to London this happens again at Brockenhurst and Eastleigh (I believe).

The slow Poole train used to be a Southampton to Poole/Wareham stopper. It's probable that they want to deconflict some of the services as the conflicting movements through junctions and allowing other services to pass whilst waiting at stations with additional platforms on the long stretches of two-track without overtaking opportunities; restricting what can be done.

Look for the Poole to London service's paths to be given to an additional hourly Portsmouth - London via Eastleigh to provide the stops at places like Micheldever and Shawford (1tph each), the stopping section on the Poole service west of Southampton to be joined up to the Southampton to Portsmouth stopper allowing the long stop at Southampton Central to be binned and allowing additional platform availability at Southampton in the case of additional services (2nd hourly service Portsmouth - Cardiff?? Extend crosscountry's Reading terminators to Southampton??)