Competition body accepts price caps on West Coast Rail lines
Train passengers travelling on certain routes between Preston and Scotland will benefit from capped fares following a CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) investigation.
As part of its mergers work, the CMA examines whether competition issues arise from the awarding of new rail franchises and the CMA has been investigating the award of the West Coast Rail franchise to a joint venture between FirstGroup and Trenitalia.
The new service will operate as Avanti West Coast.
Virgin Trains, a joint venture between Virgin Group and transport group Stagecoach, previously ran the franchise, which switches to the new operator this Sunday, December 8.
Virgin Trains plans to launch a new hourly train service between Liverpool and London when it loses the current franchise.
The CMA’s Phase 1 investigation found competition issues on 21 routes: Four between Oxenholme and Carlisle, and 17 between Preston and Scotland (terminating at Glasgow or Edinburgh).
On 17 of these routes passengers will be able to choose only West Coast Rail, operated by FirstGroup and Trenitalia, or TransPennine Express, which is operated solely by FirstGroup.
On the additional four routes, passengers can still only choose from three operators.
The CMA is concerned that this limited competition could lead to passengers facing higher fares and less availability of cheaper tickets.
After careful consideration, and a public consultation, the CMA has now accepted proposals from FirstGroup and Trenitalia to address its concerns.
For both West Coast Rail and TransPennine Express services these include caps on unregulated fares and maintaining the same availability of cheaper advance tickets for all 21 routes that raise competition issues.
The two operators must submit regular reports to the CMA to show they are complying.
As a result of these measures, the award of the franchise can now go ahead without a more in-depth Phase 2 investigation.
