RAIL


All down the line


Commuter misery fills the headlines, but investment is bringing benefits for domestic business rail travel


By DAVE RICHARDSON I


T’S BEEN A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT ON BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS, with strikes, can- cellations and delays on Southern leading to calls for it to be stripped of its franchise, and allegations that train operating companies are trying to hide the lowest fares from passengers using station ticket machines. The traveller who books in advance can


avoid this scenario, but there’s no doubt that the experience of rail travel varies tremen- dously depending on the route and the opera- tor. While commuting into London and other big cities can be stressful and expensive, most long-distance operators offer a good working environment, especially if you avoid the busiest trains and can travel first class.


IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS... As a nation we love to moan about our railways, but major improvements are hap- pening up and down the country. The vast majority of train operators are franchised


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by the UK government, and in competitive tenders when franchises are renewed, the Department for Transport (DfT) lays down strict demands which may include more capacity, new services and improvements to ticketing, station services and wifi provision. The government is also spending heavily on major projects including Crossrail and the electrification of Great Western and Northern routes, plus a fleet of new Intercity Express trains. In ten years’ time – perhaps – comes High Speed 2 (HS2).


What remains largely absent is genuine competition between train operators, which critics believe creates complacency. Open- access operators, who are not franchised and pay no premiums to the government, are currently limited to two operators on the East Coast route from London’s King’s Cross. These are Firstgroup’s Hull Trains and Arriva-owned Grand Central, mainly operat- ing to Hull, and Bradford and Sunderland respectively. They will be joined in 2021 by a new, one-class Firstgroup service from


London to Edinburgh competing directly with low-cost airlines. Arriva-owned new operator Great North Western Railway will start a London-Blackpool route in 2018. These developments in open access don’t come quickly enough for the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC), which is calling for a complete rethink of the franchising system. “We could really do with open access on all main intercity routes, and scrapping the franchising system, which is heavily biased towards the amount of money the govern- ment gets paid,” says GTMC chief executive, Paul Wait. “It is well documented just how dreadful some rail operators are, but with so many franchises owned by the same group, where’s the incentive to do better? “Let’s change the system so it is based not on how much the government is paid but the customer experience, with operators being rewarded according to how they perform. But like Air Passenger Duty, franchise money is an easy touch for the Treasury.”


BBT September/October 2016 87


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