DfT Island Line franchise U-turn
CAMPAIGNERS on the Isle of Wight say they have convinced the Department for Transport to drop plans for the island’s rail service to become a self-sustaining business.
The 8½-mile line receives some £1 million a year from fares and costs £4.5m a year to run.
It had been proposed to separate the service from Ryde to Shanklin partway through the next South West Trains (SWT) franchise after 2019.
Islanders feared this would be a step towards eventual closure of the line, which is in poor condition and uses 1938 London Underground rolling stock.
In 2015, then-Rail Minister Claire Perry announced the intention for the Island Line to become a “separate and self-sustaining business”. This was confirmed in June when the Invitation To Tender was published.
It stated that the franchise winner should “work with the Isle of Wight Council to secure a long-term sustainable solution for the future of the Island Line during the course of the next franchise that will enable it to become a selfsustaining business”.
However, according to the campaign group Keep Island Line in Franchise (KILF), the franchise objective has now been amended to “enable it to become a more sustainable business”.
KILF had threatened the DfT with a Judicial Review at the end of July, arguing that the requirement to make the loss-making business self-sustaining was “fundamentally inequitable” compared with other small branch lines such as Lymington to Brockenhurst or subsidised services such as Northern Rail.
Campaigner Warren Drew said: “That phrase ‘self-sustaining’ only has one meaning and it is impossible to imagine that such a stark and provocative wording was included… without a clear intention eventually to remove Island Line from the franchise.
“It’s just a shame that despite the many and detailed submissions we have made, it has taken the threat of Judicial Review to cause the Department to revisit its proposals.”
Island Line was a separate Stagecoach franchise from 1996 to 2007, after which it was incorporated into the wider SWT franchise, also run by Stagecoach.
It is run under a 25-year agreement between Island Line Ltd and Network Rail that expires in 2019. And it is unlike any other railway. The train operator pays a nominal fee and is responsible for the condition of the track down to a level just below the sleepers. All other structures are the responsibility of Network Rail. When it carries out infastructure
work, NR then charges it back to the train operator over the lease period.
Last winter the Isle of Wight Council commissioned a report from former GNER Chief Executive Christopher Garnett that recommended upgrading the route to take trams ( RAIL 794, 795).
In February, Garnett told RAIL: “With trams we could dramatically simplify the track layout, create line-of-sight signalling and really get the cost of running the railway down. Run it to tram standard, not national rail standard. Totally safe, but different rules.
“There is theoretically a bigger up-front cost of the catenary. But if you have to spend the money doing the track and sorting the pier, plus the cost of converting the replacement Tube trains, it wouldn’t be much cheaper. In the longer term, trams are a more affordable option.”
One source at the train operator noted that the requirement had only ever been to “work with” the island council to secure a solution for the line, which was “not at all the same as actually achieving a self-sustaining option”.
The source felt that both bidders for the next South West Trains franchise (Stagecoach and FirstGroup) would be likely to retain existing rolling stock throughout the next franchise. They would also carry out only a minimum amount of track work, because the cost of investment to separate the business would be prohibitive.
Isle of Wight Council is one of the poorest in southern England, and would not be in a position to take on the cost of running the railway itself.
KILF campaigner David Pugh said: “I am delighted that the DfT has finally dropped its discriminatory franchise objective to see Island Line become a self-sustaining business. It was indefensible and inequitable, and it is good that the Government has now recognised that.
“We believe it is unprecedented for them to amend an ITT once published. Clearly there is still a battle to be fought, but now on much more reasonable terms.
“We agree that the service must be ‘more sustainable’ in the future, but consider that the same objective should also be placed on other loss-making lines around the country. The island must not be singled out for adverse treatment.”