Return to Archive -by date - by topic.
When it comes to operational convenience BR had nothing on Network Rail
If you wanted to wind up a railway manager in the days of British Rail, all you had to do was attribute some passenger unfriendly change to ‘operational convenience' Alan Williams was a master of the genre and many a defensive letter from a stroppy railwayman appeared in Forum.
Contrary to popular opinion, many BR managers really were passenger and customer focused, which is why they were so touchy about operational convenience being applied to what they saw as an operational – or financial – necessity. But Network Rail, with its management focus on engineering, wouldn't recognise a passenger or a customer were they to be standing in the four foot in a hi viz vest.
Last month's Railtalk highlighted the plethora of blockades on the West Coast Main Line during the rest of this year. But even as it was being written yet more were becoming necessary.
With the preparation for the Bourne End resignalling over Easter running late, Train Operators were told on March 4 that two more weekend closures would be needed before Easter, the first starting on 26 March. Originally, Network Rail to take possession of all four lines for Friday night and Saturday morning.
EWS, who really do understand the privatised railway structure and their rights therein, promptly disputed the proposal. If Network Rail had any idea of what the railway does for a living it would have realised that the freight business carries the bulk of its traffic during the working week – Monday to Friday.
And it might also have twigged that a lot of freight trains run at night. Which means that Friday night to Saturday morning is a normal working ‘day', not the weekend.
As a result of this protest, a revised strategy, with a blockade from 06.30 Saturday to 14.30 Sunday was proposed by Network Rail and accepted by EWS. According to Informed Sources this left Silverlink unhappy.
But not as unhappy as Virgin West Coasts' passengers. Because of the time lost while the decision was disputed, the revised travel details for the coming weekend could not be published until Thursday 25 March.
As a result, many passengers turned up on Saturday 27 March expecting to have reserved seats on Virgin West Coast services only to find themselves on an all stations shuttle between Euston and Hemel Hempstead . At Hemel they boarded a replacement bus provided by the rubber tyred TOC (Frazer Eagle) for a run to Northampton where Long distances trains were turning round.
But what about the St Pancras-Manchester Operation Rio HST service, generously funded by SRA to provide a parallel route during just such a disruption? According to Informed Sources passenger with discounted Virgin West Coast tickets who slugged down the Euston Road to St Pancras were turned away to avoid overcrowding.
Now given that this was a railway imposed crisis you would have thought that someone could have worked out how many spare seats there were on Rio and organised batches of Virgin passengers to fill them. If any one cares at the SRA about what happens to the £29million of taxpayers money spent on Rio , someone's knuckles should be rapped. Bet they won't be, though
There was a similar blockade scheduled for the weekend before Easter, when I was fleeing the country. Followed by the four day blockade over Easter weekend. Followed, I was told just before I went to catch the big silver bird, by yet another over the weekend of 24/25 April for S&T work, tamping and Overhead Line registration between Ledburn and Bletchley South.
As one veteran informed source complained, ‘These blockades will get rail travel a bad name'.
Why is this happening when Richard Bowker assures us that the private sector is inherently more customer focused than old-BR operators? Two reasons, one short term, one long term.
On the WCML Richard Bowker has promised Tony Blair and Alistair Darling that the 125mile/h operation will start with the September timetable. Which happens to be just before the Party Conference season.
Meanwhile my old chum Peter Doolin, Alstom's Mr West Coast, has robbed Network Rail of their get-out-of-jail card (and won a champagne challenge. In March Washwood Heath delivered five Pendolini.
So, unable to hide behind late trains, Network Rail is bloody-mindedly putting the September timetable before anything else. Which is understandable, unless you happen to want to travel.
Longer term, Network Rail has to meet stiff efficiency targets – or reductions in maintenance costs in plain English. Total possessions mean that work can be done more efficiently.
Up to now blockades have been associated with renewals, but now they are seen as a way of reducing maintenance costs too. Tucked away at the back of the Midland Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy was Network Rail's ‘suggestion for a possible revised engineering access regime'.
For example, for cyclical maintenance between Sheffield and Trent Junction there would be total closures every six weeks for seven hours a night for five consecutive nights. Similar regimes would operate over other sections. Major maintenance and renewals would see complete blockages of two lines for 54 hours, either mid week or weekends, with an associated reduction in the number of trains.
Now I am the apostle of the engineering led railway, and disagreed with the great Bob Reid's belief that engineers should be ‘on tap not on top'. But, as one of his former engineers reminded me recently, when Hanslope Junction was re-laid in 1971, there were no exception possessions except for a 16 hour period when the signalling was being commissioned and trains were hand-signalled through the section. ‘And we were no less safe' he added.
Vertical integration would, of course, expose the infrastructure engineers to their commercial colleagues and the total financial bottom line. And there Bob Reid certainly got it right.
It never rains…Having finished writing about Transport Secretary Alistair Darling's Rail Review seminar in good time, what should happen but that Gwynneth Dunwoody's Transport Select Committee publishes its report on the Future of the railways. To go into it here would be piling pelion on ossa so I'll leave it to the News Editor. But suffice to say, if Alistair Darling's review is Tornados dropping laser guided precision munitions during the first Gulf War, that Gwynneth is old fashioned area bombing. No one escapes unscathed and the solution to the railways is the re-nationalisation of Network Rail. Wincing, Alistair Darling welcomed the report and described it as an important contribution to the Government's review of the railways which pointed to many of the problems ‘I have already recognised'. Shortly after it was published, someone who I shall identify only as the Chris who doesn't run blue trains was on the phone chortling. ‘Gwynneth makes you look main stream', he said with some glee. No doubt more on the review next month. |
And finallyThanks for all the suggestions for the ‘100 defining aspects of BR' competition. With some duplication we are already approaching another 100. And some omissions from the original list are embarrassing. How could I have forgotten ‘Monica'. In view of the response, we're extending the deadline for another month. |