Rail Professional opinion Katie Silvester, editor


Demise of BR was big cost driver


After 18 months of preparation, the McNulty Value for Money study has finally been unveiled (see opposite page). Many of its suggestions seem sensible and the government would do well to implement them. Network Rail’s de-centralisation has, of course, already begun after it became clear last year that this would be recommended in the final


report when Sir Roy McNulty presented his preliminary findings. Richard O’Brien (see page 19) explains how devolution is going in Wessex. But, in a wake-up call to those who think devolution will automatically see costs come down, he admits that the headcount for that region has had to double in order for functions that all used to be handled centrally to be done at a local level. Devolution will have be handled very carefully to ensure there is not wholesale duplication of roles across the regions as it is hard to see how this will reduce costs – it could easily have the opposite affect. The study compared our railways to other privatised industries as well as to the


railways of four other European countries: France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. What is interesting here is that there is a glaring difference between the UK’s railways and all these other entities – when British Rail was privatised, British Rail itself ceased to exist. But BT, British Gas, SNCF, and so forth, continue to this day. And this is a big clue as to why costs have risen so drastically in the railways. A lot of expertise within British Rail was lost. Some people left the industry altogether, others have become consultants and contractors and can charge handsomely for their time, which feeds back into the wage inflation, which the report also identifies. More than in other privatisatised industries, industrial relations on the railways have


not been good, with strike action frequently threatened or, all too often, going ahead and bringing trains to a halt. McNulty rightly highlights this as a cost driver. Railway managers frequently have to bow to the unions in order to stave off industrial action. This must stop. The leadership of the RMT continually argues for the railway to be re-nationalised, but the union ought to be more realistic – nationalisation is not going to happen anytime soon. The unions need to modernise and lose the 1970s mindset. For the most part their members are not the downtrodden workers of yesteryear, in fact many of them are well paid and enjoy working conditions superior to that of many other workers. If the railways are to continue improving and, indeed, expanding, the unions need to be singing from the same hymn-sheet as railway managers and recognise that wages cannot keep going up at the rate they have been. That said, the high salaries at the top levels of Network Rail also need to come into line with those of other industries. Another effect of the demise of British Rail has been fragmentation of the industry,


with costs arising at all the different interfaces between Tocs and Network Rail, as roles are duplicated and the different parties have to compensate each other over possessions and other inconveniences. Will this really decrease as Network Rail is broken up? One obvious waste of money, which was not tackled by the report, was the practice


of Network Rail being fined over breaches of its licence conditions. The most recent example of this is, of course, the £3m fine which Network Rail received for safety breaches (see page 8). Sir Roy McNulty told Rail Professional that although this practice had not been reviewed during the study, comments had been made to him and his team about the ‘circular nature’ of the payments.


PAGE 4 JUNE 2011


News in brief


Philip Hammond On page 21 of the May issue, Philip Hammond’s year of birth was incorrectly listed as being 1963, giving the impression that he graduated from university at the age of 14. He was in fact born in 1955. Dyan Crowther, whose profile was on the same page in the April’s issue, was born in 1963 and this was accidentally copied over to the following issue.


Coucher exonerated


Network Rail’s former CEO Iain Coucher and his business partner Victoria Pendle have been cleared following allegations of misappropriation of public funds during their time at Network Rail were discovered to be unfounded. Anthony White QC carried out


an investigation following claims by the TSSA union that Coucher claimed excessive expenses and that there were secret payments to himself and Pendle. Pendle had previously worked with Coucher and did some consultancy work for Network Rail. One allegation of a staff member being paid off after discrimination claims was found to be true, but others could not be substantiated.


Third rail replacement?


The rail industry needs to do ‘far more’ to look after passengers during cold weather disruption, a report by the Transport Select Committee has found, with lack of information highlighted as a particular problem. Its report also suggests improvements are made to the third rail network to make it more resilient to ice with a view to replacing it with overhead electrification in the long term.


Southern’s Maps for All


Southern has become the first train operator in England and Wales to fund and install Maps for All. The static maps can be read by sight or touch and have been installed in consultation with the RNIB. So far Three Bridges, Hove and Worthing stations have received them with three more to follow.


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