Wessex Route contingency plans outdated, says ORR report

Network Rail had not updated contingency plans for action to be taken during disruption on its Wessex Route since 2011.

That’s according to investigations made by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) into poor performance on South Western Railway (SWR). Its findings were published on July 5.

Although the ORR says the contingency plans contain “the right operating principles”, they do not match current operational practices. Changes in traincrew diagrams, for example, have made (in the ORR’s view) matching resources to diversionary routes “very difficult”.

ORR points out that the current plans were written when the complexity and flexibility of traincrew diagrams were very different, and that they “have limited the ability of the control to efficiently recover incidents”.

In other key findings, processes for how to respond to incidents - such as who should be in the lead and the steps they need to take - were not always followed. The ORR cites an example where, after a fatal incident, the relevant signalling centre was not involved in the conference call which agreed an action plan. ‘Lessons learned’ reviews into incidents involving more than 1,000 delay minutes did not always happen, and the ORR says that when they did, there was “limited evidence” that those lessons were put into practice.

Other factors include the loss of experienced staff from SWR when the Rail Operating Centre at Basingstoke was opened, a change in the senior leadership team when SWR took over from South West Trains in August 2017, the introduction of longer trains, and the London Waterloo upgrade. In addition to causing disruption, the latter has also reduced the amount of stabling space available.

The ORR’s investigations found that in 2017-18, the Wessex Route was responsible for 68% of SWR delay minutes, compared with a national average of around 60% for other operators on different routes.

Network Management and Other (NMO) factors accounted for 34% of all NR-attributable delay minutes, driven by increases in infrastructure causes and a rise of 41,000 delay minutes in track patrols and related possessions. Non-track assets such as train detection systems, points and power contributed 29% of the total, but delays caused by external factors fell by 20% during the year. Track causes increased by 37,000 delay minutes, accounting for 14% of the total.

The Wessex Route has been hampered by difficulties in recruiting skilled staff, with the Clapham Delivery Unit reporting a 15% vacancy gap - although the Route is taking measures to address this issue.

The ORR concludes that it has concerns about the Wessex Route’s general performance planning. It warns: “Given that we have concerns around Wessex’s plans to deliver improvements in the short term, we do not have confidence there are sustainable plans for the medium to long term.”

The regulator says that NR has accepted the findings, and that it will be monitoring progress in developing and implementing improvement plans. ORR Director of Railway Planning and Performance Graham Richards said: “We acknowledge that the performance issues on SWR are not down to Network Rail alone, and we have therefore shared our findings with Michael Holden to inform his review.”

Transport Focus Chief Executive Anthony Smith added: “While welcome investment is being made in South Western Railway, passengers need to be able to rely on the trains today.

“Network Rail and South Western must continue to work together to produce a more robust service. Passengers want to know lessons have been learned and there are plans in place to improve poor performance.”