Supervisory Boards
It is now almost 18 months since career railwayman DICK FEARN was appointed to independently chair the Western Route Supervisory Board. PAUL STEPHEN considers how successful this has been and what results are being achieved
EXCLUSIVE: RAIL discusses the progress of the Western Route Supervisory Board with chairman DICK FEARN.
“Bringing track and train operations and long term planning closer together” was how Network Rail described the purpose of the UK’s first ever supervisory board, when it was created for its Western route in February 2016.
With senior representation from NR, Transport Focus and the route’s primary train operating companies (TOCs), the board was intended to be the pilot for the Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling’s latest initiative to help bridge the operational divide that was created at the time of British Rail’s privatisation.
By providing a forum for the various parties to better co-ordinate their strategic planning and embark on joint problem solving, the concept was wonderfully simple. But how have things fared in its execution?
When RAIL last met the board’s independent chairman Dick Fearn in May 2017 ( RAIL 827), he said success could be judged in two areas. The acid test was always going to be in how the board’s activities were being translated into passenger and performance improvements, while the trial itself would be deemed accomplished if and when NR decided to migrate supervisory boards to other parts of its network.
For the latter, Fearn did not have to wait long to put a large tick in that box – new boards were announced for the East Coast Main Line and Wales last September as a result of a glowing review of his own board that had been conducted by independent consultants. West Coast & West Midlands and Chiltern both swiftly followed in November, and then Anglia this April.
NR has subsequently missed its selfimposed deadline to achieve full networkwide coverage by Spring 2018, but the track authority’s enthusiasm and appetite to complete this task nonetheless appears undimmed.
NR Chief Executive Mark Carne tells RAIL:
“We have found some top people to lead these boards that will help bring track and train closer together. It’s early days but I have confidence they will grow into their role and make a substantial difference.”
It might still be early days, but have any observable passenger benefits yet been delivered? Fearn’s answer to this question is a categorical yes, and he is clearly satisfied that much progress is being made on Western as a result of the monthly meetings he chairs.
On his board, most of the members’ collective energy has, unsurprisingly, been focused on providing the conditions for a more cohesive delivery of NR’s ongoing £ 2.8 billion electrification of the Great Western Main Line, and the associated introduction of new train fleets.
With no executive power of his own, Fearn has had the difficult job of making sure that discussions are steered towards this ultimate aim, while seeking consensus where there are often conflicting demands and individual agendas.
Much has happened on the route during his first year in the role, including the introduction of GWR’s Class 387 fleet and the first Intercity Express Trains entering service. Meanwhile, newly erected overhead line equipment has been energised as far as Didcot, and is due to reach Cardiff by next March.
Fearn describes his personal highlights as threefold: “First of all, there is a genuine willingness for everyone to give this a go, and nobody has sat back. Heathrow Express liked it because it gave a smaller operator a larger voice, NR’s Route Managing Director [Mark Langman] was obviously very supportive, and [Great Western Railway Managing Director] Mark Hopwood has also been one of the key drivers of the agenda. Nina Howe [Transport Focus’ Great Western passenger manager] has been a huge force for good, and a constant reminder of what the really big issues are for passengers.
“Second, I felt we needed some early wins and a couple of things emerged where we could make a real difference. Smaller schemes like building a new car park at Kemble, for example, were getting bogged down in the mire of bureaucracy that goes on between NR and TOCs, and I found that by sitting down with Mark Langman and Mark Hopwood the process could much more easily be unblocked.
“Third, MTR Crossrail MD Steve Murphy asked to join the board last Autumn even though the operator would not be taking on responsibility for any stations or services on the route until May 2018 (when it took over Heathrow Connect services from Paddington). We all need to prepare for the wider launch of Crossrail in December, and so he’s been a real strength because he’s brought something else to the board and is looking forward.
“Sometimes things can be a bit current and if you’re running around day-to-day like Mark Hopwood does then your focus tends to be on the here and now. Murphy can look forward because his big focus doesn’t really start until Elizabeth Line trains start running through the central tunnels, which gives the board a great mix of people.”
As welcome as increased co-operation and tightknit relationships between board members might be to passengers, RAIL chooses to press Fearn further on the early wins he has achieved.
In order to dispense of any lingering doubts that the board is little more than a talking shop, he is equally aware that readers will require some more convincing evidence, and so he points to perhaps its most tangible and largescale result to date.
He explains: “We were sitting down in the middle of 2017 just six months away from a massive amount of planned engineering work at Christmas and an eight-day blockade. An awful lot of people in the modern world seem to spend Christmas with one lot of relatives and New Year with another, and therefore they need to travel. To simply say ‘sorry we’re closed’ is not good enough and so we were potentially facing another Christmas calamity from a passenger point of view.
“We sat down to see if there were any elements of the work that didn’t need to be done there and then because, in my experience, every engineer will tell you that their project is a priority, but you can never do it all. Crossrail work had to be done in the Paddington area to get it ready for what will happen in December, but a lot of work was renewals around Southall which wasn’t quite as time sensitive.
“It took two or three meetings to get there, but we reduced the blockade from eight days to five and Christmas 2017 passed successfully on the Western. We didn’t lock passengers out for the whole period and we can finish Southall next time, so I felt we definitely made a real difference there.”
Transport Focus’ Great Western Railway Passenger Manager Nina Howe agrees with Fearn’s assertion that passengers are now seeing benefits that have directly arisen from discussions had by the board, and that their interests are being closely protected. Although this has not yet been translated into significantly improved scores in the transport watchdog’s bi-annual National Rail Passenger Survey, she feels this will be the end result as performance levels continue to rise.
She says: “There is a strong desire to work
There’s so much more to be done on Western, but it’s a definite concern that we’re still doing too much stuff in the T-12 timescale and too much catching up. Dick Fearn, Independent Chairman, Western Route Supervisory Board
together and sort things out. I feel that I have a strong voice on the board and that I’ve been able to challenge the other members, ask questions and talk about what’s important for the passenger.
“It is discussions like Christmas 2017 and planned timetable changes where it provides the most useful forum to discuss alternative and less disruptive ways to tackle issues, because performance is the most crucial thing to passengers.
“The latest NRPS scores [Spring 2018] were a reflection on the continued disruption on the route as electrification continues, and we know that performance will drive levels of satisfaction.” (GWR’s overall satisfaction score rose by 2% from spring 2017, to 81% - see Network news, page 24.)
Despite the success of the pilot and achievements of the first year, Fearn concedes that the Board is by no means out of the woods, and is arguably still to face its greatest challenge at the end of the year when Elizabeth Line services commence from Paddington main line station to Heathrow. This will be followed a year later when full through services start from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east via central London.
He says ensuring a smooth transition to these new and uplifted timetables on the Western route could be made more difficult by Network Rail and its Infrastructure Projects directorate, which is not currently meeting it obligation to train operators to always give at least 12 weeks’ notice of planned engineering works, known as T-12.
Although there is a representative on the board from NR’s system operator function, which is responsible for timetable planning, Fearn will be encouraging all board members to increasingly hold NR to account.
“There’s so much more to be done on Western, but it’s a definite concern that we’re still doing too much stuff in the T-12 timescale and too much catching up,” he says. “We’ve recently put our heads together and took the decision to be tougher primarily on NR and Infrastructure Projects because we cannot keep having four or six weeks’ notice to do this stuff.
“There’s a shared willingness to stand up for that and I helped write a joint letter with Mark Hopwood and Mark Langman to the Secretary of State to show that we are not frightened of the Department for Transport, and are prepared to stand up for ourselves.
“We have a guy from the system operator
but he cannot wave a magic wand and sort things directly. He is a conduit to Jo Kaye, head of System Operator at Network Rail, and she is not happy at the late notice being given by Infrastructure Projects because it makes her job more difficult.”
Fearn adds: “There’s no point in me trying to pretend that everything’s perfect yet, and year two will definitely be more difficult than year one because we’ve got to run so many more services. The good news is that having worked a year with this lot on the Supervisory Board already, we have a better fighting chance than if we were starting it all now, because there’s a process now to resolve conflict and get things unblocked quicker.”
Finally, RAIL puts it to Fearn that the recent high-profile timetable meltdown on Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway-operated routes is exactly the type of situation that supervisory boards could play a central role in avoiding in future.
Since May 20, when almost half of Britain’s rail services were rescheduled, unprecedented delays and cancellations have tested passengers’ patience to breaking point. The Office of Rail and Road has been asked by Grayling to conduct a full inquiry into the cause of the mass disruption, and will scrutinise the respective roles of operators, NR and the Department for Transport.
Within the terms of reference for the inquiry, network planning processes will be specifically analysed and in particular the level of co-ordination between NR and TOCs to identify and manage potential risks. This is an area in which Fearn feels supervisory boards must become increasingly relevant, and where their muscles can be flexed in order to iron out any wrinkles in future timetable changes.
“Supervisory boards must have a role in looking forward to these kinds of big changes, otherwise you’d have to start questioning their very purpose,” he says.
“We can’t have a day-to-day role putting right something that’s gone wrong, but we must have a role because all of the relevant players are around the table.
“As far as timetable changes and the risk of calamity goes, it’s perfectly legitimate to say that the boards must assess that on each case. We’ve got massive change coming up on the Western so it’s definitely incumbent on us to assess the risk, and to try to identify mitigating action before it’s too late.”
Apart from the East Coast Main Line, there are not currently any supervisory boards on which Northern sits. The case is similar for GTR, which operates over several different NR routes, but none with a supervisory board except the ECML.
The phased introduction of the Thameslink Programme is being assisted by an Industry Readiness Board that is independently chaired by former Virgin Trains boss Chris Gibb, but Fearn nonetheless believes that some of the fallout that has occurred since May 20 could have been avoided had NR opted to put in supervisory boards at an earlier stage.
“I think it’s a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to that had there been a board working away for a year or two, they would have been able to raise some of the red flags that might have given an indication of the issues,” he says.
“Cynics will say the proof is in the pudding and am I asking all those questions ahead of the big changes on the Western? The answer is that, yes I am, but can I sort it myself? Of course not. But I can ask questions and keep bringing the parties together to try to ensure we have got a good plan and nothing like this happens on the Western.”
Supervisory boards must have a role in looking forward to big changes, otherwise you’d have to start questioning their very purpose. Dick Fearn, Independent Chairman, Western Route Supervisory Board