A Wrexham & Shropshire Train set of newly refurbished coaches now undergoing operational test-running

Our Purpose

The Company has promoted the benefit of passenger open access services that operate in a wholly commercial manner without receiving Government support payments. They are independent of Government but subject to stringent licensing conditions to ensure safety standards are met and passenger network benefits are provided.

Input has been made to various studies including a formal regulatory investigation into the benefits of providing competition to the monopolistic franchised operators. To date concerns about the effect of competition provided by open access operators on the value of franchises has restricted the introduction of services to routes that are poorly served by franchised operators such as Hull, Sunderland and Wrexham / Shrewsbury.

New proposals to balance any revenue loss with an adjustment to track access charges to cover any revenue shortfall caused by abstraction have been tabled by the Office of Rail Regulation which offers scope to change the current regulatory stance.

Renaissance Trains believes that expanding open access operations brings many customer and stakeholder benefits and need not dilute the value of franchises if there is growth in the size of market as has occurred where services are currently running.

The decision to instigate a UK programme of electrification programme has again brought the issue experienced previously of poor network connectivity for population centres that are not part of the electrified system.

Our solution has been to demonstrate that privately sponsored electrification investment can be an attractive business proposition and we have developed a template for a speedy assessment of benefit cost ratios and wider economic gain.