Comment
Open access debate mirrors the GBR conundrum
rail@bauermedia.co.uk @RAIL
LOVE them or hate them, open access operators have cemented their place on Britain’s railway since Hull Trains started running in 2000.
Curiously, they are both niche and a major threat to contracted train operating companies (TOCs) holding government contracts. Niche because they remain small, but a threat because, according to bodies such as the Department for Transport, they take paths that deny the TOCs (and thus the DfT) income.
Thus TOCs usually object to open access bids for paths - normally by saying there’s no room.
But that didn’t stop Grand Central following Hull Trains’ lead. GC initially served Sunderland from 2007, before adding West Yorkshire to its operating map with trains to Bradford Interchange from 2010. Lumo came later and now runs limited-stop services between London and Edinburgh with five trains each way.
Amid claims that open access operators cherry-pick routes, subsequent studies show that they help grow the overall market, which helps the incumbent TOCs. Supporters also argue that they drive up standards and keep fares affordable by competition.
They don’t have it all their own way. Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway (WSMR) didn’t even last three years in its attempts to provide an alternative service between London Marylebone and Wrexham via Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury. It started in April 2008 and ended in January 2011.
Rail regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) would not let it break the West Coast franchise’s monopoly on Wolverhampton-London traffic. In addition, ORR allowed Virgin West Coast (as the franchise was then) to extend a Chester service to start and end at Wrexham. Nor did the recession that kicked in at the end of the 2000s help WSMR.
Now a reborn WSMR is having another go. But this time the DfT is supporting its efforts - to the extent of instructing Avanti West Coast (today’s contracted operator) to withdraw services from Shrewsbury (see pages 18-19). This time, WSMR plans to run via the West Coast Main Line with a service that includes Milton Keynes, which makes for a faster journey than its predecessor had over its route via Banbury into Marylebone.
But this apparent change of direction is not all that it seems. By ordering Avanti out of Shrewsbury, DfT is cutting loss-making services from its bill.
In effect, DfT is as good as saying that it doesn’t want to spend taxpayers’ money on Shrewsbury, but WSMR is welcome to try its hand.
You’d expect a Conservative government to favour the private sector, just as Labour would typically support state control.
Rail Minister Huw Merriman said as much in February’s George Bradshaw debate in London. However, he also admitted that it might be three years before his
