New Doncaster depot
THE newly created Western Route Supervisory Board was scheduled to meet for the first time, as this issue of RAIL went to press.
Comprising the managing directors of operators Heathrow Express (Fraser Brown) and Great Western Railway (Mark Hopwood), Network Rail’s Route Managing Director Mark Langman and Transport Focus Great Western Passenger Manager Nina Howe, the board was due to meet at GWR’s offices at Paddington under the chairmanship of former Irish Rail chief executive and career railwayman Dick Fearn.
It will subsequently meet every four weeks at different locations along the route until at least the end of 2017, in a national pilot of the supervisory board concept first announced by Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling in February ( RAIL 821).
Although the board holds no formal or executive power, its remit is to improve long-term planning and the passenger experience across the route through the alignment of targets and closer integration of ‘track and train’ operations.
Should it prove successful, route boards are then expected to be extended across the country early next year.
In an exclusive interview with RAIL, Fearn said: “We’ve had a preliminary meeting to get everyone together and agree terms of reference and so on, and April will then be our first board meeting. “Everyone’s agreed that we need to give ourselves until the end of 2017 to make the pilot work, and then we will take stock and review progress. But I am determined to make it work because I want to see other boards being created and other people like me independently chairing them, and sharing best practice.”
He added that Network Rail’s’ Western Route was chosen as the pilot area because no major franchise or operational changes are planned there until May 2018, when the phased introduction of Crossrail services begins.
Significant multi-billion-pound investments are also being made by NR in the much-delayed and over-budget electrification of the Great Western Main Line, and by train and rolling stock operators to introduce a new fleet of Intercity Express Programme trains from this summer.
Fearn added: “Improving current performance is at the very top of our in-tray, but there are three other really important elements for the board to gets its teeth into: the effective implementation of the various improvement schemes on the go; introducing the new rolling stock; and thirdly the arrival of Crossrail on the route.
“I’m an independent nonexecutive chairman, but the other people on the board all have a huge amount of executive power, so winning on this board is to channel that in a co-ordinated way to make things happen.” ■ The full interview will appear in a future issue of RAIL.