New stupid question

[Pretoria]

Can anyone answer who owns Virgin rolling stock ?

And if Virgin, why should they pass it on to First Group ?

[Vapouriser]

Cant remember all the details but rolling stock owned by.another firm. Who may be owned by Virgin. Or not. The rolling stock may be operated by another firm again. They have to hand it over to next franchise or they wouldnt have any rolling stock for the operator to run. If theyve just spent loads on new rolling stock. Well. Tough. I think that sums it up.

[Narrow Minded]

Possibly another stupid question, sparked by the new stupid question above which isn't actually stupid because the system is such a convoluted mess, will the whole privatisation fiasco ever get sorted out??

[Vapouriser]

It is srted out. The train operators are given more and more taxpayers money to ensure they make a profit. How could it be better.

[laurence703]

I believe Alstom own the Pendolino's and Voyagers
Shane will know for certain

[MuzTrem]

Perhaps the more important question is: who paid for them?

...will the whole privatisation fiasco ever get sorted out??

I was really hoping that the McNulty report, the new alliances, longer term franchises etc. might be a step in the right direction. After this announcement I'm not so sure. If the DfT continues to reward successful operators by throwing them out, where is the incentive for franchise holders to invest?

Then again, as Sir Richard pointed out in his statement on today's news, Virgin paid a net premium of £160 million to the government last year, having inherited a loss-making operation from BR fifteen years ago. Privatisation can work successfully, and re-nationalisation would not necessarily make everything more efficient. Remember, the last time we put our railways under direct government control, Ernest Marples got his hands on it!

As Nigel Harris put it in a recent issue of Rail: who owns it is less important than how you manage it. In this case, the bad management is coming not from Virgin, but the DfT...

[anythingsdr]

Nearly All Rolling stock is owned by a rolling stock leasing company, two I can remember are Portabrook & Angel Trains, mainly because its who's trains i deal with at work, the DFT then says to the Train operating company, you can have x class 153's, y class 158's etc etc, and what trains they can run where & when. LEaving the TOC pretty much no freedom to 'just add an extra carriage' as everybody seems to think will solve the problem, then blames that Train Company for something that they cannot do anything about the problem as its the Government that won't help...

At least I think thats how it works... Shane will correct me if im wrong I'm sure!