Hendy keen to retain charters’
NETWORK Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy has backed the idea of guaranteed paths to make sure that charters - including steam - are not squeezed off the network.
In an exclusive interview with Steam Railway Editor Nick Brodrick, Hendy said that feeding paths into the schedule rather than looking for ‘white space’ is “just a clever thing to do”.
His endorsement backs an idea that so far has only had limited application on the national network. However, he warned that if this does not happen, “in the years between now and 2025 everything’s going to be so full that such an opportunity won’t be there”.
Hendy was talking not only about securing space on relative backwaters, but also specifically acknowledging the need for paths on both the East and West Coast and the Great Western Main Lines, as well as the requirement to access London termini at times that suit passengers.
Some commentators believe that the increasing squeeze on paths, such as on the southern section of the East Coast Main Line, is just the beginning of what could become a death-like grip, choking off the timetable space in which a charter could run. They believe that without appropriate action new trains, more services and electrification will make shoehorning charter services into any remaining gaps all-but impossible.
Crossrail should be fully open before the end of 2019, Great Western electrification may have been delayed but is still on the way, and Virgin Trains East Coast will introduce new services with the new Hitachi Azumas next year.
While it’s true that some trains - ‘Jacobites’, ‘Torbay Express’,
the Belmond Pullmans and ‘Shakespeares’ - already have regular paths, Hendy suggests a big change from the more general ‘white space’ approach taken since privatisation. This is seen as no less than a move from the ‘we’ll see if there’s room, but if there isn’t, sorry’ approach that might have worked on the relatively empty railway of the 1990s, to guaranteeing slots. ■ For more, and on charters’ gauging and toilet requirements, see Steam Railway issue 467, out now.
Days gone by on the East Coast Main Line were re-created on May 6, when preserved D9009 Alycidon hauled the ‘Hull and Leeds Executive’ Pathfinder charter from Willington to London King’s Cross via Leeds and Hull. The main line-registered Class 55, painted into BR blue, hauled a rake of blue and grey Riviera Mk 2s, with a Mk 1 buffet, replicating ECML expresses in the 1970s and early 1980s. Paths for such trains must be protected in the future, according to Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy. The Deltic races through Welham Green six minutes early on its way to the capital.