From: Roger Cobbe @ Arriva UK Trains Sent: 08 March 2016 14:12 To: Chris Dellard @ Arriva Trains Wales Cc: Richard McClean; Richard Harper Subject: ATW Manchester Airport access application Chris, In response to your request, we have put together a statement that we would be happy for you to give to ORR. I trust this meets your requirements. Please let me know if you want us to submit directly to ORR, otherwise I assume you will do it. Arriva Rail North Ltd (ARN), a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains Ltd, is the operator of the new Northern Franchise commencing on 1 April 2016, replacing the operations of Northern Rail Ltd and taking over certain services of the current TransPennine Express franchise. As part of its bid for the Northern Franchise, ARN was required to meet relevant provisions relating to timetables of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) issued by the Department for Transport. This included, “The Bidder’s proposed all-day Weekday, Saturday and Sunday timetables for December 2017 and December 2019, including (at least for Weekdays between 0700 and 1959 and also on Saturday, in instances when the Bidder proposes to operate a higher service frequency than on weekdays) the proposed timings for other passenger service and freight operators’ services”. Such timetables were required to comply with a number of provisions of the ITT, including Train Service Requirements specifying features required of such timetables. The ITT stated further, “Bidders must also provide sufficient evidence to satisfy the Department that their proposed timetables for December 2017 to the end of the Franchise Term leave sufficient capacity for [inter alia] other passenger and freight operators to operate the same level of service as in their December 2014 timetables (except where otherwise stated). This does not necessarily require Bidders to preserve other operators’ services in precisely today’s paths. But if proposing to re-time another operator’s services, they must provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the other operator’s services will still be deliverable without affecting the calling patterns of those services, and without material adverse impacts on service intervals, journey times or turnaround times for those services.” The only specific mention in the ITT of the Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) North Wales-Manchester service, as opposed to its implicit inclusion in the generic extracts above, was, “If Bidders do not provide a path for current Wales and Borders franchise services between Chester, Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester to operate through to Oxford Road (sic), they must instead provide a path for the Wales and Borders franchise to operate that service through to Manchester Victoria and on to a suitable turnback facility.” ARN’s bid for the Northern Franchise was compliant with the ITT requirements and included timetable plans for both December 2017 and December 2019, which took account of the TSRs and timetable changes by other train operators expected following completion of the Ordsall Chord. Within our bid timetables we provided paths for other operators, including an unchanged ATW service with the majority of trains terminating at Manchester Piccadilly and reversing in the Mayfield Loop. Although it would not have been appropriate to include in our bid timetable submission, we did examine the feasibility of ATW’s services continuing to Manchester Airport and concluded that pathing of these services would be viable. Having already demonstrated that there are suitable paths through Oxford Road and Manchester Piccadilly platforms 13/14, it follows that there are onward paths on the Slow Lines and leading to Manchester Airport. On balance we consider that accommodating the terminating moves at Manchester Airport is likely to be easier and cause less risk to performance than the up moves into Mayfield Loop made currently by most trains. We did not undertake detailed planning of the option of diverting the ATW service to Manchester Victoria as we took the ITT instruction to indicate a preference for retention of the present route. However, based on our planning of other services required by the ITT, we concluded that it was impractical for any additional services from the west to reverse at Manchester Victoria as platform occupancy for the required through services left no capacity for such operation. We further concluded that if would be difficult to provide an alternative suitable reversal point without detrimental effect on other services, particularly as other terminating services are planned to use the bay platform facilities at Rochdale and Stalybridge. This reinforced our decision to make provision for ATW’s service to remain on its present route. We note that many of the concerns other operators have expressed relate to the possible impact of ATW’s proposals on the performance of the current timetable and the lack of modelling, such as Railsys, to demonstrate such performance impact. Many of the issues raised will no longer be present from December 2017, as with the opening of the Ordsall Chord the pattern of services will be revised, in particular removing many conflicting movements across Manchester Piccadilly station throat currently made by TransPennine Express services. As part of our franchise commitments we will also make various changes in train types and usage enabling reduced dwell times by Northern services at platforms 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly. Furthermore, we undertook Railsys modelling of our proposed timetables in this area, which showed no detrimental effect on operational performance south of Manchester Piccadilly. We have not undertaken performance modelling of the timetable operating prior to December 2017, but consider that the impact on performance of ATW’s service continuing to Manchester Airport is unlikely to be materially different from it reversing at Mayfield. We do not share the views expressed by some other operators that there would be a negative impact on revenue and observe that some of the services over which TPE expresses concern will become part of the Northern Franchise from its commencement on 1 April 2016. We note TransPennine Express has expressed concern at some minor retiming of its Cleethorpes- Manchester Airport service. We are committed to working with the new TransPennine Express franchise to optimise the timetable proposals in our respective bids and would hope to resolve this issue as part of that process. Roger Cobbe Policy Director Arriva UK Trains Ltd 1 Eversholt Street London NW1 2DN m. .