CONTRIBUTORS
rail technology magazine Editorial
Managing Editor Michael Thame
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U
nsurprising soundings-off about fares rises for some
dominated much of the national press coverage of the McNulty study – despite his careful and judicious recommendation that overall fares should stay the same, meaning there should be plenty of winners to offset the losers.
There were also predictable warnings from the unions, who can see the writing on the wall: McNulty’s report is full of eye- opening tables and graphs showing how a good proportion of the ‘efficiency gap’ in UK rail is due to constant above-inflation rises for rail workers. His report could well spell the end of all that.
Elsewhere, reception seems generally favourable – perhaps because McNulty shied away from recommending abolishing or merging the main players, or taking flight into the clear blue sky and proposing re-nationalisation or complete privatisation.
Similarly, he specifically avoids recommending widespread line closures; although some will still read ominous signs into his clear warnings on the cost of regional and rural railways, as opposed to inter-city services and routes in London and the South East. He also points to his terms of reference in avoiding such recommendations, which allows him to carefully make the point that he is not making a specific judgement on line closures one way or the other.
‘Reasonable’; ‘sensible’; ‘undra- TT-COC-002610
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matic’; Sir Roy certainly hasn’t caused too many in the industry to start quaking in their boots, as the words commentators chose to describe his report show. There was a feeling at some points last year that he might end up propos- ing truly radical suggestions, but he has clearly come out against top-down reorganisations. He has instead put the primary focus on better working between existing industry players and more sensi- ble incentives for all concerned, including the passengers regarding fares and overcrowding. He was right to avoid that temptation and
the fame (or perhaps infamy) that it would have brought him in rail- way circles. A wholesale reorgani- sation would have been an expen- sive folly, far too reminiscent of the Major and Blair years.
Of course, having FirstGroup’s Tim O’Toole as head of the new Rail Delivery Group has already raised eyebrows, particularly within the rail unions, given the recent controversy over its Great Western franchise and the ‘missing millions’ that it would have had to pay the Treasury had it not pulled out earlier than it needed to. Hopefully this cynicism is misplaced.
The DfT used the launch of the study to announce the details of the West Coast franchise process, with behind-the-scenes negotiations (and maybe some strong-arming) still ongoing over the potential extension of Virgin’s existing franchise until December 2012.
The franchise documents certainly paid lip-service to McNulty’s recommendations to stop micro- managing every last detail, although whether they go as far as he intended is certainly debatable; the habit of so many years is hard to break, and there could be real political fallout from being walked over by operators in negotiating the franchises, by giving them too much ‘freedom’.
Sir Roy repeatedly emphasises how big a challenge his cost-saving proposals will be, and he is right – especially with an expanding network, no net increases in fares beyond those already announced, and an overall industry structure broadly the same as we have had for the past eight years. So, the hard work starts now.
- Railtex 2011 will be a great time for the whole industry to come together to debate all of these arguments in detail. RTM looks forward to seeing you there, but in the meantime, turn to page 88 for our 72-page preview containing
all you need
to know about this year’s biggest UK rail event.
rail technology magazine Apr/May 11 | 3
EDITOR’S COMMENT
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