News and Exhibitions - Five-year direct award Great Western franchise proposed

Caledonian Rolling Stock Cables

CABLE CONSTRUCTION

Conductors:
Tinned fine copper strands according to VDE 0295 / IEC 60228 class 5 are generally used for railway cables. For nominal cross section of over 50mmsq, 0.41mm strand wire may be used instead of 0.51mm as stipulated in IEC 60228. The IEC 60228 class 5 enhances flexibility and the ease of handling, thus lengthening the product life of the cable. These class 5
conductors are extremely flexible, and easy-to-install in the compact rolling stock environment.
Insulation and Outer Sheath:
Crosslinked polyolefine copolymer or EPR will generally be used for insulation whereas electron-beam cross-linked elastomer is employed for sheathing. Cross-linked elastomer compounds offer very good durability that can resist heat, oil, vibration, chemical aggression, etc.

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD

As an OEM, Caledonian rolling stock cables provide our railway customers with future headroom by meeting the following European Norms (EN) and international standards :

EN 50264

EN 50306

EN 50382

NF F 63808

NF F 63826

NF F 63827

BS 6853

DIN 5510-2

NF F 16 101

UIC 895

Five-year direct award Great Western franchise proposed

UK: The Department for Transport is considering directly awarding incumbent FirstGroup a five-year contract to operate the Great Western franchise, which covers passenger services linking London with southwest England and south Wales.

Plans to tender a new long-term Great Western franchise were put on hold following the collapse of the InterCity West Coast competition in October 2012. Instead, DfT exercised an option to extend the existing Great Western franchise by 28 weeks, and then directly awarded without competition a new short-term franchise running from October 2013 to September 2015. DfT had intended to negotiate a second short-term direct award contract to cover the period after this expires, enabling it to hold an open competition for a longer-term franchise of seven to 10 years which would start in July 2016.

However, DfT now says that a direct award with a duration of up to five years could offer better overall value and 'further facilitate the effective administration of a sustainable and well-resourced programme of franchise competitions'. DfT is to 'engage with the supply chain to explore the viability and any advantages to a longer direct award', which would start on September 20 2015 and run for 60 months.

The number of services operated would be similar to current levels, with a total of approximately 9 000 a week, but the new contract may include an alliance arrangement with infrastructure manager Network Rail.