…inevitable
…and Rail Minister tells industry “we have to sweat our assets” while deals are struck on future of franchises.
RAIL Minister Chris Heaton
Harris told the Railway Industry Association annual conference that deals with the owning groups behind passenger train operators, to terminate their franchises, would be reached by mid-December.
If deals are not agreed (FirstGroup has set aside £100 million to release it from its contracts), train services will transfer to the Government’s Operator of Last Resort in January, rather than complete the emergency agreements signed in October.
Asked what would replace the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs) to support train operators, Heaton-Harris said: “I don’t know. It’s in design. It will happen over the course of the next 18 months. The ERMAs have bought us a bit of time.”
A concession model similar to London Overground is widely anticipated.
Asked how long the Treasury would tolerate 90% of trains running, carrying only 30% of the number of previous passengers, Heaton-Harris told the RIA annual conference: “The Government completely gets how important rail is, connecting people.
“The Treasury is never happy spending any money. We are looking to spend money at a time when our economy is shrinking. We have to sweat our assets, as the Treasury would put it. We have to ensure there are lots of people on our trains throughout the day, and not condensed into the peak hours.”
Heaton-Harris said the Treasury had not trusted the Department for Transport to deliver projects.
For example, the 2018 timetable change “created economic havoc” that led to the Williams Review into the industry’s structure.
“Control Period 5 [2014-19] was not a success,” he said, with “pretty much every spending decision” now requiring Treasury
approval.
However, he added: “As the Minister responsible for reversing Beeching, I am ever so excited about what the future can bring. There are tons of good value projects that could feed passengers into the existing network.”
Shadow Transport Secretary
Jim McMahon countered that “it can’t be right” that open access operators Hull Trains and Grand Central have been left without the financial support offered to franchised operators.
In his first major speech to the industry, he also criticised the lack of support for Eurostar, which has been crippled by the twoweek quarantine period required of passengers from France and Belgium. He pointed out that some airlines competing with Eurostar had received support.
However, the MP for Oldham declined to say what alternative policies Labour might offer for rail.
“We are still committed to bringing the railways into public ownership, though you could argue the Government has already done half the job,” he said.
“We are at the very least 18 to 24 months away from presenting a set of Labour proposals. We are working towards the 2024 election. We need to get closer to that before we decide what our priorities will be.”
McMahon declined to say whether rolling stock should be brought into public ownership, alongside the train operators.
Asked for his views on union opposition to Driver Controlled Operation of trains, he said: “Good trade unions recognise the need to embrace technology changes. I am not going to get into the detail of operations.”
McMahon was generous in his praise for transport ministers: “Chris Heaton-Harris is a decent and diligent person. Grant Shapps really cares about transport. Our working relationships are very good.
“But I don’t believe that transport has a big enough voice around the Cabinet table. I think Grant Shapps himself would say he would like to have gone further, but the door to the Treasury is not always open.”