By the time Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander unveils the next stage of the Government’s rail reforms this autumn, Britain will have celebrated the 200th anniversary of the world’s first railway.
The Stockton to Darlington Line came into service on 27 September 1825, heralding the country’s position at the forefront of the industrial age.
Two centuries later, Britain’s railways are widely regarded as reflecting the nation’s general malaise rather than a shining example of its ambitions.
In a bid to reverse the decline of the rail system, Labour has already reintroduced nationalisation, bringing the running of the trains back under state control, as operating contracts expire.
Doubts grow over Labour changes
One year on from winning power, the Government is now poised to introduce far greater and more complex reforms into the system that will set out just how the railways will run in the years ahead – and serious doubts are already emerging over just how successful the changes will be.
Under plans to be enacted as part of the Railways Bill, a new body will be created, called Great British Railways (GBR), that will bring both track and train under one “guiding mind” for the first time since British Rail was broken up as part of privatisation by John Major’s Government.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander makes a speech in front of a train carriage with Great British Railways branding (Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)When she announced the plans, Alexander said the new arm’s length body would mean passengers will “travel on GBR trains, running on GBR tracks, and arrive at GBR stations – all delivered by a single organisation in line with the clear strategic direction set by government”.
But one of her first acts upon taking over as Transport Secretary, Alexander pushed back the creation of GBR until 2027, meaning the Government is already taking ownership of train operators without the body responsible for managing them being in place. The second operator to come under public control, C2C, running between London and Southend, will transfer over next week.
It means civil servants in the Department for Transport (DfT) will continue to pull the strings for some time. Industry insiders are becoming increasingly sceptical about just how independent the new body will be, given the civil service’s aversion to relinquishing control.
‘Micromanagement’ by civil servants
“The continuing micromanagement of GBR by DfT is certainly a worry,” one industry source told The i Paper. “The civil servants like playing with the train set and won’t give that up easily.
“Not least because it would mean their jobs don’t exist in the same way as they do currently. And the Treasury might not let them loosen control even if they did want to.”
Another leading industry figure went further, warning that the independence of GBR with full oversight of the railway was crucial to the success of the Government’s entire rail plan.
“It’s all hanging in the balance,” the source said. “If Labour want GBR to work – and it has to because that is what everything will be judged on – then they [civil servants] have to let go. Otherwise, services simply will not get better.”
Civil servants have yet to be enticed to move to Derby to work for GBR (Photo: David Lovelady/Visit Derby)The decision to place the headquarters for GBR in Derby has been cited by critics within the industry as being partly to blame for a struggle to hire personnel for the new organisation.
DfT civil servants, who are currently running the trains from Whitehall, have yet to be enticed to move to the East Midlands, raising the prospect of duplicate roles being created in both GBR and the department.
“The last government decided to put the headquarters in Derby in a failed attempt to save some seats. It would be a lot easier to redeploy civil servants to GBR if it wasn’t in Derby,” the industry figure added.
Such claims were rejected by a DfT source as “groundless”, however, highlighting Derby’s “proud rail heritage”. They also insisted that “Heidi has been crystal clear that she wants professionals running the railways, not civil servants”.
Ministers cannot afford to get reforms wrong
The creation of GBR was already in the pipeline under the Tories, following a root and branch review of the railways by businessman and former British Airways chief executive, Keith Williams. Now it is helping Labour’s plans to renationalise the railway by providing it with a ready-made organisation from which to run the rail network.
But it also means a failure to improve passengers’ experience of rail travel will fall squarely at the feet of ministers, even after GBT is up and running.
Great British Railways branding on the side of a South Western Railway train carriage (Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)Voters are overwhelmingly supportive of bringing trains back under public control, after years of delays, cancellations and price hikes. But the high expectations of frustrated passengers have raised the stakes and prompted warnings that the Government now cannot afford to get its reforms wrong.
The nationalisation programme got off to an inauspicious start back in May, when South Western Rail became the first train operator to come under public control under Labour’s reforms, only for the 5:36 am service from Woking to Waterloo to require a rail replacement bus.
The Labour chair of the Transport Committee Ruth Cadbury told The i Paper: “With GBR not expected to be up and running until 2027, the Government has a job to do in managing the public’s expectations of when they will see real change to the reliability and user experience on their trains and simplified ticketing.”
A year free of national rail strikes
But the DfT insisted that confidence was already returning to the railways. “A big part is that there have been no national strikes for a year, people can turn up to the station and be confident their train will run,” a senior source said.
“Our key focus will be passenger experience. We’re already improving services in the North, the best practices of South Western will start to be shared across the network, and we are improving mobile phone connectivity across the railways, so commuters can work during their commute, which is better for the economy and gets them out of their cars,” the insider said.
HS2 will not get to Manchester but delays and spending have continued to increase (Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters)A major hurdle for the Government is the fact that a vast amount of the DfT’s capital budget is being swallowed up by the basket case that is HS2, which executives admitted on Wednesday was running a further three years behind schedule.
Ministers are expected to announce further details on Northern Powerhouse Rail in the coming weeks, improving services and connections between Liverpool and Hull, via Manchester and Leeds. But significant problems remain on the network for which there is no immediate funding, such as the increasing congestion on the West Coast Mainline.
Passengers face wait for noticeable improvements
According to Stephen Frost, head of transport at the think tank IPPR, the biggest challenge facing the Government is the question of when passengers will actually start to notice any improvements.
“A lot of what is taking place so far is quite technical, changing the structures of the system, which will take a lot of time and use up capacity in the department,” Frost said. “But in the meantime, passengers will remain unhappy if the services do not improve, if prices remain high.”
Frost said that polling by IPPR has shown that satisfaction for national rail travel is lower than local rail travel and hated even more than potholes.
“Price is the big factor,” he added, suggesting that any attempts to push people towards more rail travel and away from cars and planes will hinge on bringing down the cost of trains.
“While transport is rarely what people think about when they enter the ballot box, the state of trains, in particular, they are totemic and if they are not running properly it can quickly become to symbolise the decline of the state,” Frost said, warning: “If you get it wrong there will be a political cost.”
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