TRANSPORT AND FLEET


There was some discussion of HS2. Powell said that although Virgin has added extra carriages to its services, it “still only just manages to cope”. He added: “Eleven-car Pendolinos are getting to the limit of what’s possible; new rail lines are needed.


“The fact is, patching and mending the West Coast Main Line isn’t going to be sufficient to deal with demand.


“But we want to understand the value for money aspects, and the impacts of the new line on the existing infrastructure operations. There’s a requirement for something new, but a whole lot of questions.”


Scrimshaw said he was a supporter and called HS2 a “once in a generation opportunity”, though he understood the need to help those whose lives would be impacted by its construction.


Joseph said the Campaign for Better Transport is basically a supporter, but “with conditions”. “It’ll only work if joined into existing journeys,” he said.


“There’s been too much thinking just about the line and not what happens when people get off it.”


All the panellists gave the example of the Olympics and what’s possible with vision and good planning. But problems remain – reforming the over-complex ticket-buying process and the negative perceptions about it, treating stations as interchanges and points on a journey rather than a destination, and making it easier for passengers to claim compensation for delayed journeys were all given as examples of ways to improve the door-to-door journey.


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public sector executive Sep/Oct 13 | 63


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