rail@bauermedia.co.uk
NORTHERN faces the prospect of being split into smaller operations if Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s call for “local public control” becomes wider policy.
His call came at Transport for the North’s annual conference in Liverpool on February 5, with Burnham asked how rail could be transformed in the North.
He replied: “I think there’s a simple answer to the question from both an infrastructure point of view and an operations point of view. And it’s three words: ‘Local public control’.
“We would deliver the infrastructure. We did that with Metrolink, so it’s not just an idle boast. We delivered the extension to the Trafford Centre - the new Trafford Park line - ahead of timetable and on budget. We’ve done that with building Metrolink, so we know we can do it.”
He added: “And then you look at operations, at rail operations - well, Merseyrail is the best-performing rail operator in the country. That comes from the accountability that is baked into local public control because people are on the spot - people will be challenged if that isn’t right.
There’s accountability there, visible accountability that I’m afraid hasn’t been in rail operations, as far as I’m concerned, particularly working with private operators.”
Burnham (pictured) is the only Labour former cabinet minister talking so prominently about railways. The other former Labour minister with a role in rail is London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was a minister of state (one level down from the cabinet) in the Department for Transport. This gives Burnham a powerful voice in steering transport policy for any future Labour government.
He told delegates that local public control would let him integrate bus, tram and rail services with ‘tap in, tap out’ ticketing.
He said: “We have a very clear vision working with Vernon Everitt, our transport commissioner, to bring rail into the Bee Network in the second half of this decade, so that the commuter rail system comes under local public control. But the critical thing is that you can then integrate it with the rest of the system. You can’t do that unless you put rail under local public control.”
Northern Managing Director Nick Donovan addressed the conference just after Burnham. He said there was less “clarity of control”, hinting that the network of powerful mayors across northern England was pulling Northern in many directions.
