Move with the times.

Seize the opportunity now to make more of charter operations

THE continuing reluctance to encourage nonessential rail travel is leading to speculation about what will happen when the Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs), negotiated with the franchised operators for a period of six months from March 23 this year, expire.

As before, the Government has the option of franchise termination, with operations brought under direct control using the Operator of Last Resort mechanism, or continuing with the EMAs with more emphasis on a requirement to promote the return of passengers.

The restoration of the full May 2020 timetable has a cost that is close to £1 billion per month which, if predicted annual passenger growth of 2.5% had taken place, would have been paid for by a combination of fare box revenue, contract premiums and support payments for loss-making services.

This is an impossible outcome for the foreseeable future, and a more commercial timetable where a greater proportion of costs are covered by the income streams available will need to be adopted to cater for much lower passenger numbers.

The regime in force had led to train operators accepting a range of restrictions on rail travel that have removed competitiveness. This is in contrast to airline operators, which have challenged blanket rules about social distancing that for them could only lead to financial failure.

To justify the current level of rail industry financial support, travel has been defined as essential public transport, which is a description that is appropriate where journeys are made to reach work, education and access to functions such as health and legal services.

For these ‘compulsory’ journeys Government control of rail timetables and fares has been a continuing feature, as well as a requirement to provide capacity to mitigate overcrowding. Most recently the requirement to wear a face mask has been added to travelling conditions.

When it comes to discretionary or leisure journeys the public transport description is much less relevant, as there is no essential need either to travel or use rail to reach a destination given the ready availability of alternatives - although rail undoubtedly provides faster journey times and more convenient access to many large-scale events, such as sporting fixtures and festivals.

In an unexpected outcome, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has recognised that there is a difference between what can be defined as public transport and operations that are clearly associated with tourism and hospitality. It follows that, for the latter, guidelines issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have greater relevance.

It is reported the Department for Transport (DfT) accepts this segregation, indicating that because of the characteristics of serving the tourism and hospitality market, travel restrictions should reflect the DCMS advice that has allowed restaurants and pubs to reopen with a need to observe social distancing that does not include wearing a face mask.

It appears the DfT is not prepared to provide a carte blanche environment for charters, or indeed the provision of catering on timetabled services, which has left operators - including heritage railway lines that offer extensive dining services - in some doubt as to what can be provided.

Any reduction in capacity to match demand is likely to hit longer distance services hardest, as it is not feasible to wear a mask and be denied refreshment over a lengthy period, which will have an impact on the current practice of having sufficient trains in the timetable to meet demand for one-off events.

In the past this requirement was covered by running additional trains, but the practice declined as rolling stock to work extra services became scarce, and greater timetable capacity enabled services to absorb a larger number of passengers than the day-to-day demand.

As an example, the 2012 London Olympics saw little special trains running later timetabled services on some London routes. This was a far cry from the 1966 football World Cup, which required BR to provide a wide range of additional services.

One of the few events that cannot be catered for with the planned timetable is the Glastonbury Festival where, unusually, the Great Western Railway withdraws off-peak main line services to provide resources to run additional services. This is a consequence of the reduced ability to run charter trains, as there has been a lack of suitable rolling stock and an inability to provide train crew working on unfamiliar routes.

In the era when network freight services were operated, larger depots were able to provide traction and qualified train crew to work special trains, but with operations now confined to point-to-point working, networkwide route knowledge no longer exists.

The constraint became evident when the former InterCity Charter Trains Unit was acquired by Waterman Railways in 1994, and it was found train crew depots no longer had the ability to provide resources as they were confined to dedicated operations and no longer held route knowledge for out-of-area working.

The all-year timetable is a luxury that was judged both unaffordable and unnecessary by the privately owned rail companies in the pre-BR period, and there was a significant difference in capacity between the summer timetable and that operated for the greater part of the year.

It may well be a taste of things to come that the dated trains being operated by Locomotive Services Limited for an eight-week period from July 20 on the Settle and Carlisle line reflect an approach often used in the past. The trains are being run using the charter trains regulatory framework defined by the Office of Rail and Road, which sets track access charges that are heavily discounted for repeat itineraries, no doubt because once a path is established the cost of train planning work is diminished.

A change that has happened since the concept of dated trains disappeared from the timetable is the recent availability of good quality rolling stock cascaded by the widespread introduction of new trains. Growth in the number of licensed operators also provides greater scope to provide train crew.

There is a new opportunity for charter operators to supplement the timetable with a wide range of services to meet seasonal demands for travel and reach a wide range of events. It is by far a cheaper option than continuing to run a huge number of largely empty trains in a period of reduced overall demand.

“There is a new opportunity for charter operators to supplement the timetable with a wide range of services to meet seasonal demands for travel.”