Comment
Mayors plan local public control and stronger rail links
OVERCROWDED and 15 minutes late. No, not my train over to Liverpool for Transport for the North’s annual conference on February 5, but the start of the conference itself.
rail@bauermedia.co.uk @RAIL
It was worth the trip to hear Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham explain what he wants from rail services: local public control.
That matters, because Burnham is one of the few ‘big beasts’ of the Labour party talking about railways. He’s held high office as a secretary of state in the last Labour government, so will likely wield influence with the next one. And while RAIL remains politically neutral, all the recent opinion polls suggest we’ll have a Labour government just as soon as the next General Election’s votes are counted.
Officially, Labour is reviewing its rail policies, with work being done for Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh (no relation) by former Siemens Chief Executive Jürgen Maier.
Yet it’s Burnham who has the experience of government and of running transport networks. He’s also on the up with his Bee Network, which is bringing more local control over bus networks in his area.
When he spoke in Liverpool at TfN’s conference, Burnham cited the success of Merseyrail, delivered by private operators Serco and Transport UK on behalf of Merseytravel and the city region’s mayor, Steve Rotheram.
Merseyrail has the advantage of being a largely self-contained network with branches powered by third-rail electricity supplies out to Kirkby (battery-powered services continue to Headbolt Lane), Ormskirk, Stockport and Hunts Cross, as well as lines out to Ellesmere Port, Chester, West Kirby and New Brighton.
This leaves it master of much of its own destiny - unlike Manchester’s complicated rail network that has commuter and suburban trains run by Northern, inter-urban services in the hands of TransPennine Express and East Midlands Railway, while CrossCountry and Avanti West Coast provide long-distance connections.
Burnham can also see Labour’s London mayor, Sadiq Khan, controlling London Overground, although that’s a relatively small operation compared with the likes of Govia Thameslink Railway, South Western and London Northwestern. Khan also has the Elizabeth line (Crossrail) under his control.
Little wonder that Burnham wants to have more influence over Greater Manchester’s trains, which means (in practice) over Northern. But creating Burnham Rail (or BR for short) might not be all that easy.
It’s not impossible. After all, Northern came from the merger of two rail operators, one on each side of the Pennines, so splitting a North West version could be done.
But Regional Railways North West (as it was in British Rail days, later privatised to North Western Trains
