Longer franchises of at least ten years could be on offer from the Department for Transport and - in a statement that echoes the very earliest years of privatisation under the Conservatives - Transport Secretary Lord Adonis says train operators are to be given more scope for innovation.rnThe seven-year duration of most franchises do, say the TOCs, give them insufficient time to recoup investments they would like to make, thus stifling the type of investment and innovation the 20-year Chiltern franchise owner has pledged with its new route to Oxford (see page 9).rnLord Adonis is proposing that future franchises would be between 10 and 22 years in return for additional investment, the only exception to this being where major infrastructure changes fundamentally change the scope of a franchise or where a franchisee defaults in mid-term.
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