The West Coast franchise – our consultation response

05 August 2016

When the requirements of the next InterCity West Coast (ICWC) franchise are established, it is vital that the needs of passengers using and paying for rail services are placed squarely at the heart of the contract. Our response to the Department for Transport’s consultation into the future of ICWC services draws on our wealth of passenger research (including this work specifically on West Coast passengers). It sets out many important issues that should be addressed in the franchise specification and by bidders before the contract is let.

Priority areas to be improved in the next franchise include:

• value for money
• punctuality and reliability
• capacity
• minimising and managing disruption
• passenger information.

Alongside this, there must also be improvements to many other elements of the journey experience including seamless ticketing, on-board facilities and cleanliness, connectivity, station environments and customer service.

Within this document we refer to a franchise compendium – a document that provides additional detail on a number of topics relevant to this franchise – which is available here.