News


Report criticises Network Rail’s lack of transparency


by Katie Silvester


Network Rail must be made more accountable, says a report by the Public Accounts Committee. And it wants the Department for Transport to stop treating Network Rail like a private company that it has little control over. The report, Reducing Costs


in the Department for Transport, says that the committee finds it ‘unacceptable that Network Rail’s costs are still not subject to direct National Audit Office and parliamentary scrutiny’. Two-thirds of the DfT budget is spent by third-party organisations like Network Rail and Transport for London. The DfT, the report says, views


Network Rail as an ‘essentially private sector company’. Yet department officials were unable to tell the committee what characteristics Network Rail shares with a private company.


Margaret Hodge, chair of the committee said: ‘Rail budgets aren’t being reduced as much as other


SCOTRAIL TRIALSWI-FI


Passengers on Scotland’s rail network are to be linked to the internet for the first time. Four trains from ScotRail’s


Class 170 fleet, running on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route, will be the first to trial wi-fi technology. The Scottish government is investing £250,000 in the trial. It wants the holder of the next rail franchise from 2014 to offer full connectivity in the central belt and on routes to Aberdeen and Inverness. Scotland’s business community has long complained about the lack of internet connection on trains. ‘Wi-fi connectivity is essential to doing business in the 21st century and its introduction to our trains is vital,’ said Liz Cameron of Scottish Chambers of Commerce.


St Pancras receives French freight service n


High Speed One chief executive Nicola Shaw has


promised St Pancras International will remain a passenger-only operation and will not become a freight terminal.


She was making her remarks at the station on Wednesday 21 March after a train loaded with cargo had travelled from Lyon via


An SNCF freight train arrives at St Pancras to demonstrate the potential for carrying more cargo on HS1


Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, to demonstrate potential. Shaw said: ‘It’s a great novelty we have a freight train here but I confirm we are not going to turn the station into a freight terminal.’ A terminal is planned, however, to directly connect with HS1 at a location close to the M20 and M25 motorways.


areas, yet passengers still face high fares. The department needs to understand why the cost of rail travel is so high, and understand better what scope there is for further efficiencies.


‘It is unacceptable that Network Rail is still not fully transparent or accountable to parliament or the taxpayer.


‘The department hands


Network Rail over £3bn each year and underwrites debt of over £25bn and yet maintains the fiction that this is a private sector company. ‘The National Audit Office must be allowed full audit access as quickly as possible to this organisation, which is essentially kept afloat through public funds.’


Chop chop! The committee wants the National Audit Office to have access to Network Rail’s accounts ‘as quickly as possible’


News in brief


Website seeks customer views


First Capital Connect has launched a website specifically for its passengers to tell them what improvements they would like to see. The site – Your Ideas – has so far received suggestions about introducing electronic rail tickets on smart phones and giving alternative route information when delays and disruption hit services.


Glasgow stations ‘won’t close’


The Scottish government has been forced to confirm that no Glasgow stations will close as a result of its consultation on the next rail franchise. The government had refused to rule out closures in reconfiguring the network. But after a campaign in the city, transport minister Keith Brown made an explicit promise to keep all current stations.


Election jibe


The RMT has threatened legal action over an election poster for Boris Johnson. The poster, headed, ‘Not Ken again’ lists Bob Crow as one of several elements likely to make a return under Ken Livingstone, alongside ‘broken promises’, ‘waste, ‘scandal’, ‘council tax rises’ and ‘cronies’.


Strike threat


Subway staff in Glasgow are drawing up counter-proposals to management plans which would see 45 jobs axed. Eddie Duffy of the Unite union said staff were angry at the plans and some were calling for a strike ballot. ‘We don’t believe there need to be any compulsory job losses,’ he said. Strathclyde Passenger Transport says the changes are essential to its modernisation programme.


Unions launch joint campaign


The TUC and the rail unions have launched a campaign to fight for jobs, services and affordable fares on the UK’s railways, in response to cuts anticipated following the government’s command paper.


APRIL 2012 PAGE 9


Peter Brown


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