Nigel Harris Comment
The railway must fight back vigorously - before it’s too late
nigel.harris@bauermedia.co.uk @RAIL
THERE’S been a faint, but noticeable, autumnal chill in the air recently, heralding of seasonal change. We all know that winter is coming.
There’s a similar faint, but distinct, shift in the political air too - agrowing sense that ‘time’s up’ for this tottering Conservative Government. As is the way with all mature governments, Rishi Sunak’s administration increasingly feels like it’s out of ideas, out of energy… and out of time.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Government’s (lack of) railway policy, notwithstanding Rail Minister Huw Merri-man’s efforts to project a sense of control.
He has a tough job. We have a lofty ‘global elite’ and anti-rail Prime Minister whose favoured transport is the helicopter, and who seems not to comprehend that he’s in charge of far more than his ‘stop the boats’ objective (which is an abject failure, too).
Look no further for system failure than TPE’s shocking decision to withdraw and store its 13 sets (65 coaches) and associated Class 68 locomotives after just five years - simply to save money. Ageing, inferior Class 185 diesel multiple units (plus newer ‘802s’) will take over. This backwards-facing, retrograde decision beggars belief. Another use must be found urgently for these fine trains… Scotland?
What a shameful performance by affable Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper, who signposted so much positivity in his Bradshaw Address in early February.
Remember? Getting GBR up and running. Reuniting control of costs and revenues, currently separated between the Department for Transport (costs) and HM Treasury (you guessed it - revenues). Redefining railway structure so that Managing Directors could both manage and direct once again, and grow the railway. It was all very encouraging. So much promise. So little delivery. Harper has made no visible progress towards any of his fine intentions. As Christian Wolmar said in RAIL 990, our railway is “leaderless and rudderless”, and drifting inexorably towards the rocks of total chaos.
There is now virtually no pre-election chance of the promised legislation required to create Great British Railways. There is hushed murmuring off-stage about more rapidly implemented secondary legislation, which would transfer the SoS’s franchising powers to… whom? In the absence of GBR it could only be Network Rail, which would not go down well with train operators. Even that couldn’t be done before next summer, and with an election by then imminent there would be no time to effect meaningful change, so there’s only a vanishingly small chance of even this poor alternative.
The best we can hope for now is some sort of draft bill, which could outline a manifesto commitment
