COMMENT
gathering that was held on February 4 in Leeds reaffi rmed that. The outcomes have to be the best for everyone: better local services, because that drives economic growth and also meets social needs in some of those rural areas.
“Rolling stock improvements simply have to be addressed, and we have to ensure that improves life for everyone. What you’ve got is a series of too many old fl eets fl oating around in the north. Sooner or later, the bullet’s got to be bitten, to improve rolling stock. Once you’ve started that, wherever those services operate, you get a better system.”
Governance Explaining how the system would work,
Lamonte said: “The prospectus we’ve circulated on devolved franchising has seats at the table for local and rural bodies. We’d need them to aggregate – if you have every single person with a seat at the table, it would be diffi cult to make decisions. But there are opportunities for groups of local areas to come together, and the north east is doing exactly that.”
But the key question, both between the DfT and the most eager authorities, and between the different authorities, remains one of fi nancial risk. This has an extra dimension in the north, since Northern is a heavily subsidised franchise, with many little-used services that are nevertheless vital for those who do use them.
“It’s absolutely consistent with the philosophical point that decisions made locally are better decisions, and the evidence of where that’s happened – with TfL, or with Merseyrail, or in Scotland – shows that they are the top operators. Obviously, I’ve got personal experience with London Overground, and it just shows you what you can do. We think we can give customers a better service, and when we talk to the TOCs, they recognise it as well. They’d like to see some local accountability and local involvement.
“Obviously West Coast Main Line altered the scene for franchising as far as the DfT is Over-dominant cities?
There have been concerns raised in rural areas that the needs of cities and conurbations like South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire – the authorities that, with TfGM, seem set to have the biggest role on any future ‘Rail in the North’ executive – could have a disproportionate say over the proposed new franchise.
But Lamonte said: “It absolutely is not
about West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Manchester making this up between them. It’s a partnership of 33 authorities. The political
28 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 13
“It’s about improving services right the way through, and getting electrifi cation – which by the way we want more of.
“It’s only by getting all of these in one place, through a devolved franchise operation, that you can start to get the economies, get the synergies, and improve the services for everyone.”
Dr Jon Lamonte
opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
concerned. We were very conscious of the Brown review and the comments made in there.
“We’ve been consistently pushing the case and are keen to show that devolution works, fi nancially as well as in outcomes for customers. We’re with the DfT regularly, talking to offi cials about how it could work, and we think it’s signifi cant that the Northern and TPE franchises are coming up at the same time in February 2016 now, which gives us a chance to demonstrate that we have the capacity, we have the expertise, to do this job and do it well.”
Lamonte said: “It could involve them [smaller authorities] taking on some of the fi nancial risk. We recognise that for the city-regions, we are going to have to take substantial amounts of the fi nancial risk, but there are risk-sharing opportunities and we’re absolutely open to discussing that.”
Electrifi cation and infrastructure
Lamonte continued: “We also want to include Network Rail in all this. We want better stations, better amenities, better track improvements. It’s about getting the Northern Hub – which is not just a Manchester hub.
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