NEWS
McNulty questions cost of off-peak services
Sir Roy McNulty told MPs that the frequency of under-used o f f - p e a k services and the level of
subsidy for regional railways were major issues for the cost of running the network into the future.
Speaking at the first evidence session of the Transport Select Committee’s Rail 2020 inquiry on June 19, Sir Roy said: “There is a need to look at the service patterns we are operating.”
But First Group chief executive
and Rail Delivery Group chairman Tim O’Toole, in his evidence, said cuts to services would not be “politically acceptable” and said instead that people needed to see the positives: passenger growth, safety and performance over the past decade had been a “minor miracle”, he said.
One committee member, Labour’s Graham Stringer MP,
said that
while passenger growth was a success story, it had not been a good deal for the taxpayer.
Network Rail chief executive David Higgins responded: “By 2019, the end of CP5, public subsidy to the whole railway drops from £5bn to £2bn. I think
that’s a pretty good story in terms of what the Government and the public get from the railway.”
He noted that there were decades of under-investment in the railway in the second half of the twentieth century: for example, the typical annual track replacement rate was stuck at 1%, when it should have been 2%, and has been closer to 3% under Network Rail. He said there were 15 years of no investment in electrification, meaning much recent infrastructure spending had been just “catching up” on that previous under-investment.
Higgins accepted the McNulty report’s conclusion that the
industry could make 30% savings by 2019, but rejected its comparisons with other European countries, saying they were too different to be compared usefully.
O’Toole argued for longer franchises, saying it was “undeniably true” that
shorter
franchises meant more ‘cliff edge’ periods at the end of franchises where operators were disincentivised from investing in the route and their service.
The rail unions, who also gave evidence on the first day, urged re-nationalisation and said the consequences of the McNulty reforms would be lost jobs, decreased safety, and more profits for operators.
Scottish passenger forecasts ‘underestimated’
Passenger demand is being consistently underestimated in
Scotland, a recent rail conference heard.
Railfuture, which organised the event, says the estimates have been
“woefully inadequate”.
Rail re-openings have boosted ridership and exceeded passenger forecasts again and again, leading to concern that some schemes have not been developed due to inaccurate predictions in their business cases.
Passenger demand for the Stirling – Alloa line was originally predicted as 85,000 when the business case was developed. This was first revised to 155,000, then 400,000 once the lined opened – which
was exceeded by the end of the first year of operation in 2008.
Railfuture conference chairman Jerry Alderson said: “The message that came out of the conference is that we’re really underestimating patronage, and all the openings in Scotland have proved this. They opened Larkhall Milngavie, and it was a success, they opened Airdrie Bathgate, and it was a success, they opened Stirling Alloa and it was a success. Three out of three.
“Some of been
the estimates woefully have inadequate
and potentially schemes have not gone ahead because the
Virgin’s chief operating officer has
to a secondment of
Network Rail secondment for Virgin boss agreed
compared to the UK average of 92.3%.
at Network Rail, following the operator’s criticism
Network Rail for the state of the infrastructure on the West Coast Main Line, contributing to poor performance.
Chris Gibb will join Network Rail for the rest of the year to improve the performance of infrastructure on the southern end of the WCML. He will report to Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s managing director
of network operations and will work closely with Jo Kaye, route managing director of the London North Western Route and her team. For period 2, Virgin came in bottom of the PPM table, with a performance of just 82.9%
Days before the announcement, Virgin had hit out publicly at Network Rail’s “lack of focus on immediate improvement” and said it had “repeatedly told the ORR and NR” that the infrastructure must be more reliable.
The chief executives organisations of both pointed to the
secondment as an example of collaboration in action.
consultants have underestimated patronage.”
Rail campaigners in England made a similar case at the ‘Devolving Rail to the Regions’ event in Manchester in May: see page 16 for more.
More traffic for freight operators
Rail freight traffic has continued to grow over the past year, despite
a volatile economic
climate. ORR statistics show that for the year to April 2012, the amount of freight moved in tonne-km was up 10% on the previous year.
Intermodal traffic has seen an 11% year-on-year increase, coal grew by 18% and construction materials by 8%.
Maggie Simpson, Rail Freight Group policy manager, said: “Intermodal
rail since results show the freight 2002/3. has
grown consistently year-on- year
These immediate
benefits of the significant infrastructure investment by Government and Network Rail in gauge clearance, and longer trains, as well as the considerable
investment
in ports, terminals and rail equipment.”
rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 12 | 7
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