privatisation over 20 years ago effectively hands train operators a monopoly, ex- tracting hefty financial payments from them on the promise that they won’t have to compete. Only on a few routes is there meaningful competition from ‘open access’ operators, examples being from York and Doncaster to London, where Grand Central and Hull Trains run alongside the incumbent Virgin Trains East Coast.
But applications for several new
services have been made to regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which has already approved a new London-Blackpool service to start in 2018 competing with Virgin Trains West Coast. The company behind this new service is Arriva-owned Alliance Rail, which already operates Grand Central’s trains from the North East and Yorkshire to London.
NEW SERVICES
Alliance Rail has also applied for new routes competing with Virgin Trains East Coast, proposing to cut journey times to 3 hours 43 minutes between London and Edinburgh, and 2 hours 29 minutes between London and Newcastle. Other plans include a competing service to Leeds with a new parkway station east of the city, and a service from Grimsby and other stations in south Humber- side, which have not had direct trains to London since the 1980s. Tony Lodge, political analyst at think- tank the Centre for Policy Studies, urges the ORR to come to a decision quickly. “Open-access operations should be agreed if they are innovative, such as
“Waiting for the ORR to make a decision can be like waiting for white smoke at the Vatican”
new routes or faster trains that will get people off planes,” he says. “Alliance Rail is looking for new markets, and opening up a route such as London- Leeds to competition would be very beneficial. We have already seen how open access operators bring fares down, on routes including York and Wakefield to London. “Waiting for the ORR to make a deci- sion can be like waiting for white smoke at the Vatican. But I am encouraged that Stephen Glaister has taken over as chairman as he is passionate about open access, and if a decision is taken soon, then Alliance Rail can talk to investors and order trains to start in 2018 or 2019.” Even if approved, space has to be found for new operators on the con- gested network. Lodge hopes this will be the case with electrification of Great Western’s London-Bristol/South Wales routes, although this will not now be completed until at least 2020 due to delays by infrastructure operator Network Rail. The Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) also wants the railways opened up to competition, while infrastructure improvements are
its primary concern. The Midland Main Line and Transpennine routes are also facing delays to electrification, due to be completed by 2023 and 2022 respectively.
CRITICAL ROLE
GTMC chief executive Paul Wait says: “Investment in railway infrastructure has a critical role to play in laying solid foundations from which UK plc can continue to grow its economy through increased business travel. We are avid supporters of high-speed rail, action to reduce rail fares and investment in other modernisation projects such as ensuring the availability of free wifi. “Reducing the number of interchanges
required would mean a great improve- ment on the ability of business travellers to work while on the move, and our recent Business Rail Traveller survey shows that 80 per cent typically work through a large proportion of a rail journey.” He adds: “The government claims it is
carrying out the biggest rail modernisation since Victorian times, but these plans don’t seem to be moving at a sufficiently fast pace. Greater use of open access to drive down fares and drive up standards, and more in- vestment in routes that provide a truly in- tegrated transport network, should be just the beginning.” Rail may have won the argument for city centre-to-city centre travel on routes of up to about three hours, but HRG is also seeing a switch to rail on routes of around four hours. Paul Dear, its global director of supplier and industry affairs, has seen more demand on routes such as Edinburgh/Glasgow-London, helped by confusion about what’s included in air
EUROSTAR’S ROLL-OUT OF NEW AND REFURBISHED TRAINS, offering more comfort and connectivity, will accelerate this year, but launch of a new route to Amsterdam has been postponed until 2017. Its existing trains,
introduced when the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994, have fallen badly behind those of main inter-city operators in both the UK and Europe,
94 BBT MARCH/APRIL 2016
especially in provision of business services. The revamp includes the long- awaited provision of wifi, and more spacious seats equipped with power points and USB sockets. “We have taken delivery of the first seven of our new E320 trains, and these are being used for a mixture of training and commercial services,” says a spokesman.
“These will roll out over the rest of the year but we aren’t able to specify timings beyond that. We also have the first refurbished E300.” The E320 trains offer a 20 per cent increase in capacity to 900 passengers, and a slightly higher top speed of 320 kph (200 mph). Unlike the present fleet they can also operate on routes beyond France and Belgium,
with a four-hour journey time being mooted from London to Amsterdam via Antwerp, Rotterdam and Schiphol airport. No other routes have been announced but Geneva is considered a possibility. DB German Railways was unable to comment on its much-delayed plans to operate direct trains from London to Cologne and Frankfurt.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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