Return to Archive -by date - by topic - 1999
Today's railway is like a doughnut. All the substance is round the outside while at the centre, where policy and direction should reside, there is a void. And it is all down to Government.
Given the time needed for public appointments to go through the official channels it was always going to take time to appoint an all-new triumvirate of Rail Regulator, Franchise Director and an active chairman for the revived BR Board. But at a crucial time for the evolving railway we will have had an acting Regulator for seven months before the new man arrives and six months of a lame duck Franchising Director
So months of drift and dither, just as the privatised railway was recognising the need to get its corporate act together and rectify the worst excesses of privatisation.
But this regulatory hiatus was no excuse for the DETR to go into policy purdah. For the last six to nine months the department has been sitting on things, avoiding decisions on important issues such as new safety regulations and piggyback gauge enhancement.
What policy there has been has reflected this Government's predilection for focus group. For example, when the truckers take to the streets over fuel tax in the budget, the next spin to emerge from the DETR is the acceptance of 44 tonne lorries. That the current derogation is aimed at encouraging modal transfer to rail was yesterday's popular issue. Now we are into appeasing the road hauliers, who knows what new swing tomorrow might bring.
But it is unfair to blame the detail on Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and his ministerial team. Like all ministers they depend on their civil servants to convert aspirations into practical policies. And the ‘T' in DETR is a shell of its former self, with the top mandarins who made privatisation happen either promoted or retired.
Even so, this is no excuse for the dog's breakfast of a policy on franchise renegotiation the present civil service team have foisted on the DPM.
Consider, it is seriously proposal is that all Train Operating Companies should put forward individual offers for renegotiation of their franchises. Then the Government will take forward the three or four proposals offering the best value for money.
Whoever came up with that must have had a brain on auto-pilot. For a start, it means that already over-stretched TOC managements will be distracted for weeks working up their proposals. In parallel, Railtrack will have to process 25 sets of requests for pathing exercises, access costs, infrastructure upgrades and most of it likely to prove nugatory.
But that apart, what could be more inimical to the development of the railway than renegotiating individual franchises? Take for example GNER's long running attempt to start talking about an extension.
This would be based on the infrastructure being upgraded to take tilting trains. But no one seems to have pointed out that GNER is not the only user of the ECML.
True there is talk of freight by-passes if someone will pay Railtrck to upgrade, But what of WAGN's aspirations to run north of Peterborough ? What might Northern Spirit want to do on its north south corridor? what about the Yorkshire conurbations?
As this month's informed sources explains, we already have on the WCML an awful warning of what happens when a powerful intercity operator does a unilateral deal with Railtrack for the operation of high speed tilting trains on a busy route,. The weak are expected to go to the wall, or rather the overcrowded slow lines.
This is of course the antithesis of the strategic approach to railways and transport that John Prescott espouses. But fortunately we don't have to wait for the DETR and its Misters to do wake up to the situation they have created.
Even though Sir Alastair Morton is a mere shadow of his future strategic self, he is not noted for keeping silent in the face of arrant nonsense. And the current proposals for franchise renegotiation, to be enshrined in some eventual new Objectives Instructions & Guidance for the Franchise Director, could make the Strategic Rail Authority , shadow or not, look very silly indeed..
So here is how Sir Alastair can fill the centre of the donut at a stroke.
First, he has to be strategic and choose the three routes where franchise renegotiation would solve present problems and provide the biggest benefit for the nation. He will, of course appreciate the importance of regional balance in making his choice.
For argument's sake (and we are sure that readers will join in the argument) assume that Sir Alastair's best bets are ECML, Cross-London (aka Thameslink) and Trans-Pennine.
Having done his homework Sir Alastair summons all TOCs and FOCs, PTAs other funders involved, together with the appropriate Railtrack Zones to a Strategy Conference for each route. All parties say what they would like to do, or could do, or might do. Sir Alastair, in his inimitable manner, nails down commitments and at the end of the day those present are told to go away and do their bit to make their bit happen.
In the case of the TOCs the outcome would form the basis of their proposal for a franchise renegotiaton. It would have the advantage that the benefits of co-operation between operators could be written in.
So there we are. Say three months to choose the routes, two months notice for all involved to prepare for the conference, another two months to finalise renegotiation proposals.
Good grief, it's January 2000 already. Action this day Sir Alastair, after getting the Channel funded and built this should be a doddle!
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