Franchising
Supporting what works best
The jury’s out on rail franchising according to John Leech, Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester Withington. Without a public sector comparator he says, how can we tell what is the most cost-effective way of providing the rail network of the future?
T
here have been three major Rail announcements in the past couple of months, and on two of them I believe the government is making absolutely the right choices. British railways are seeing their biggest investment in more than 100 years delivering growth and jobs to Manchester and the North.
The first major announcement is on HS2. I have long supported HS2. It deals with the impending capacity crisis on the West Coast Main Line, something that opponents of HS2 don’t seem to address when criticising the plans. The government’s announcement of £33 billion of investment over 20 years will be good for Manchester and create up to 60,000 new jobs. Some 10,000 jobs during construction, 1,400 permanent operational jobs and over 49,000 jobs in the regeneration and development areas associated with station developments. There will be two new stations in Manchester, next to Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.
The Liberal Democrats were the first party to commit to high-speed rail. It is a key part of our priority of moving towards a low-carbon economy. Once complete, HS2 will transfer approximately nine million journeys from road to rail and 4.5 million from air to rail.
By shortening train times, HS2 will also make investment and economic interest in regions outside of London and the South-East more attractive. This is vital if we are to help rebalance the UK economy.
The second announcement was
Network Rail’s plans for the next five years. The plan includes more than £1 billion of investment for the North West. This investment will create 20,000 jobs and boost investment, returning
independent oversight over the whole process When Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin made an announcement to the House of Commons about rail franchising on the East and West Coast Main Lines, I listened with interest. Both franchises had gone wrong for different reasons that are all well- documented. Sam Laidlaw’s independent report
£4 to the regional economy for every £1 spent.
Local passengers will benefit from shorter journey times and more frequent services. The journey from Manchester to Leeds, for instance, will be cut by 10 minutes.
One of the most telling statistics is that this government has committed to electrifying more than 800 miles of track over the next five years, compared to just 10 miles in Labour’s 13 years. Electrifying the North West and North Trans-Pennine lines will spare the environment and cut journey times. In the long term, this huge modernisation project will reduce running costs and help put an end to runaway increases in train fares.
Argued for reform
But we are not doing everything right. The third major announcement was on the future of the franchising system. As a former Transport Select Committee member with a long interest in transport matters, I have long argued for reform.
I believe that a decision should not be made just on price. Past performance and customer satisfaction should be part of the process, which should be transparent and include some
into the West Coast Main Line found that Department for Transport officials had supplied Ministers with inaccurate information before the original decision was taken.
The government also accepted
Laidlaw’s recommendations that civil servants need a clearer, simpler structure of governance and having someone senior in charge when working on these franchises. The Secretary of State rightly apologised for the department’s mistakes.
The extension of the West Coast Main Line franchise to Virgin was good news. It ended the uncertainty, and rewarded a company that has a track record on delivering a good service to customers and a decent return to the exchequer.
Allow time to judge
The second announcement was that the East Coast Main Line would be put back out to franchise.
This doesn’t make sense. I believe that the franchise has not been in the public sector long enough for an independent assessment to be made about the performance, although most assessments seem to think they have provided an excellent service. In November 2009, when National Express East Coast had its contract terminated, the franchise was taken over by Directly Operated Railways (DOR).
May 2013 Page 53
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