North Wales on the right track for growth
Chairman of the North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council ASHLEY ROGERS talks to PAUL STEPHEN about progress in plans to develop the region’s rail services
On February 26, more than 70 invited guests gathered within the Palace of Westminster for the launch of the West and Wales Strategic Rail Prospectus.
Together, they formed a powerful crossborder and non-political alliance comprising representatives from businesses and the public sector across north Wales and northwest England, alongside regional MPs and Welsh Assembly members.
They came to London with two purposes: to demonstrate the breadth of support that exists for the prospectus; and to press upon central government to deliver its central objective - to secure investment in the four strategic rail hubs of Crewe, Chester, Warrington and Manchester Airport.
According to the prospectus, the reward for embarking on the Four Hubs concept would be the creation of 300,000 extra jobs and up to 200,000 new homes, by enabling more than two million people in the area to benefit from improved cross-border connectivity and greater access to HS2.
A boost in productivity was also cited in the report, which estimates that the value of goods and services produced in the combined economy could rise to more than £100 billion. This would equate to a productivity rate per resident of more than 20% above the UK average.
The report was to find a sympathetic ear in Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, who told those assembled that it was “of paramount importance” that HS2 interacts with surrounding lines, including those that will converge on a new high-speed rail hub planned for Crewe ( RAIL 848).
As a former resident of Cheshire, Grayling said he shared the desire to improve crossborder transport provision, while crediting the report with “making a timely contribution to the planning process” and acting as a reminder of the region’s economic potential.
He made no firm commitment to releasing any specific funding for the proposals being put to him, but did point to the large-scale investment that is already being delivered in the region - including resignalling of the North Wales Coast Line and the total fleet replacement and renewal currently being implemented by Northern.
He added that further improvements are likely to arise from the new Wales and Borders franchise that is still being procured by Welsh Government and the Department for Transport (and which is due to commence in October), and from the creation of a new highspeed rail hub at Crewe.
The Government’s formal response to a consultation it ran last summer was not published until March 12, but the Transport Secretary has now confirmed that platforms will be lengthened at Crewe to enable HS2 trains to split and join the existing network (see Network News, page 18-19).
Sharing the podium with Grayling was the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport Ken Skates, who - alongside fellow Welsh ministers - soon hopes to have devolved powers to award and then manage the new Wales and Borders franchise.
Skates said: “It’s fair to say that a vision without action is just a dream, and we are keen to see these proposals are turned to reality. That’s because we want to rebalance the economy, and we have to make sure that people have the right skills, the right regional structures and the right infrastructure to get from A to B.
“Only 1% of commuters between north Wales and northwest England currently travel by rail, and that has to change.”
Three days prior to the launch event at Westminster, RAIL headed to Chester to meet chairman of the North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council Ashley Rogers, whose organisation is a key supporting partner of the prospectus. He is also a major player in the Growth Track 360 campaign, which has laid much of the foundations for the current proposals since beginning its own calls for investment more than two years ago.
Formed in 2015, GT360 represents local authorities, businesses and more than 300,000 people in Cheshire and North Wales. It has consistently lobbied for approximately £1bn worth of targeted rail improvements that it says would stimulate an extra 70,000 jobs and double the area’s Gross Value Added to £ 50.5bn in the next 20 years.
These improvements aim to reduce journey times to London by one hour on average, in particular by electrifying the line between Crewe and Chester to enable electric services from Euston to run right the way through.
Currently only one train an hour runs direct from Chester to London, operated by Virgin
If you can’t come together as a region then do you honestly deserve any investment?
Ashley Rogers, Chairman, North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council
Only 1% of commuters between north Wales and northwest England currently travel by rail, and that has to change.
Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, Welsh Government
West Coast using Class 221 SuperVoyagers. Arriva Trains Wales also runs one train per hour between Chester and Crewe, where it is timed to connect with other Virgin West Coast services to effectively give a half-hourly frequency between London and Chester.
GT360 last appeared in RAIL in August ( RAIL 832), after senior representatives took part in a round table debate at RAIL’s National Rail Conference, held in Birmingham.
It was there that a quartet of high-profile industry experts, including Greengauge 21 Director Jim Steer and HM Chief Inspector of Railways at the Office of Rail and Road Ian Prosser, offered advice on how best to progress the campaign and to secure the investment it needs.
One of the clearest messages given to GT360 was a need to focus more on the benefits of investment, rather than the means of delivering it, and to concentrate on outcomes instead of inputs.
This related especially to GT360’s electrification goal, which was being made at a time when DfT policy had already drifted towards either the procurement of bi-mode trains or the development of alternative fuels such as hydrogen and batteries instead.
Further advice was to consider the work of other campaigns such as the Great Eastern Main Line Taskforce, which successfully secured £1.4bn investment in 1,043 new vehicles for the Greater Anglia franchise that commenced in October 2016.
This was achieved (according to the industry experts) by focusing more strongly on the economic and productivity benefits of investment than GT360 had done to date, and by covering a wider geographical area to secure a wider body of support, which would ultimately carry more weight with central government.
Rogers says GT360 heeded this advice, as demonstrated by the new 28-page West
and Wales Strategic Rail Prospectus, which is concise and packed full of supporting evidence and strong business cases for the Four Hubs concept. Most importantly, the benefits of enhancing rail corridors is given much greater prominence than what those individual enhancements might be.
Meanwhile, the long list of supporting partners provides clear evidence of how GT360 has systematically mobilised mass support, which includes the backing of Transport for the North, Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region.
Rogers adds that the transfer of franchising authority from Whitehall to Cardiff made securing support from Welsh Government even more essential. This was also true of TfN, which will become the UK’s first statutory sub-national transport body in April.
Rogers adds: “I see it as a huge positive that we’ve learned lessons along the way. Technology is changing all the time and we need to be mindful of that. The more we looked at the wider geography, the more it became logical and made more sense from an investment point of view.
“We wanted to make sure that we had wider connections and buy-in from organisations like Network Rail and Transport for the North. There are also two different governments [in Cardiff and at Westminster] which have been supportive and, as businesses, we want to see that.
“GT360 put all that in motion because if you can’t come together as a region then do you honestly deserve any investment?”
Government has now been asked to provide start-up funding for feasibility and business case development, and to help support the delivery of identified solutions to boosting service frequency and to decreasing journey times.
Rogers recognises that improvements are already being delivered, including the Halton Curve which will provide a new route between Chester and Liverpool from December 2018, although these pale into insignificance compared with the biggest prize - Crewe.
“We’ve already had some wins,” he says. “The Halton Curve is being built and hopefully the new franchise will reflect some of the key asks of GT360. But none of this stuff will work without the connectivity offered by HS2, and so the right configuration at Crewe is essential.
“None of this can happen overnight. One of the things we’ve learned is that you might get quick wins, but it’s a long game and keeping the support of your key partners is as important as that base vision.
“We’ve got political buy-in, and moving ahead we need to keep the pressure on for the right solution at Crewe. It’s a long process, but in two years we’ve come a long way.”