Bidders for the West Coast Partnership (WCP), which will include operating High Speed 2, have been announced by the Government today (June 22).
The WCP franchise begins in April 2019, and will design and run the initial HS2 high speed services between London and Birmingham from 2026.
Shortlisted for WCP are:
- First Trenitalia West Coast Ltd - a joint venture between First Rail Holdings Ltd and Trenitalia SpA.
- MTR West Coast Partnership Ltd - a joint venture between MTR Corporation (UK) Ltd and Guangshen Railway Company, with the following key sub-contractors: Deloitte MCS Ltd, Panasonic Systems Europe, Snowfall AB, Trainline.com Ltd and WSP Parsons Brinkerhoff.
- West Coast Partnership Ltd - a joint venture between Stagecoach Group plc, Virgin Holdings Ltd and SNCF C3.
FrankH - 30/06/2017 23:19
Good luck to whoever wins this one, until HS2 is completed in whatever form there's going to be a lot of assumption in the bidding process. The new stock is going to have to tilt to go forward from Birmingham on the conventional routes to keep to pendolino timings. The only thing I ask is make them a lot more comfortable with legroom. Standard class is more uncomfortable than ryanair for me.