Railway revolution left in the sidings

Government has its hands full with Brexit – and has nothing to gain from opening up the debate

The biggest ever shake-up of the country’s train services turned out to be a spectacular flop in May. Thousands of services were cancelled. Passenger sentiment, which you wouldn’t have thought could get much worse, plummeted through the floor.

The Government’s response to the disastrous train timetable overhaul has been a case study in disjointed bureaucracy that could have come straight out of an episode of Yes, Minister or The Thick of It. There will be, at the latest count, four separate investigations.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the industry watchdog, has already completed one review. It found that Network Rail, the debt-laden government entity which controls the country’s rail infrastructure, was guilty of “systemic failings”. It didn’t implement best practice, the ORR found, but it wasn’t the only one to blame.

ORR chairman Stephen Glaister now has Govia Thameslink (GTR) in his crosshairs. Under a so-called “independent review”, he wants to know if the under-fire train company failed from a regulatory perspective. (It’s worth noting that the ORR was on a board that signed off train companies’ readiness for the May plans.)

Not to be left out, Chris Grayling’s Department for Transport is conducting a couple of probes. One asks whether GTR negligently breached its contract during the time-tabling changes. A second focuses on the actions of Northern – the franchise owned by Deutsche Bahn-backed Arriva Trains.

“I will not hold back from taking appropriate action if the review finds that there has been negligent behaviour,” Mr Grayling told MPS before he popped off on his summer holidays.

Such action could result in GTR being stripped of its rail operating licence – although one can only wonder who would want to step into its shoes.

Given what is at stake, it is hardly surprising that many in the rail industry are expecting the Transport Secretary to rip up the rail rule book and start again. The Dft’s interim report into GTR is due to be published in September.

Industry insiders say it is the “worstkept secret” in the industry that Mr Grayling will use this as a platform to announce plans for a “big bang” review. Most train companies have discussed the matter at length internally and are bracing themselves for massive changes.

Indeed, two weeks ago, as angry commuters found out how much the rail prices would rise next January, train leaders called for a “new vision” for the country’s rail industry.

Rail Delivery Group boss Paul Plummer demanded “once-in-a-generation reform”. “We must come together to establish a new model for running our railway,” he wrote.

Unfortunately, those clamouring for change are likely to be disappointed. “Why would we do that?” said a top bod at the DFT when asked about the prospect of a “big bang” review.

Unsurprisingly, the Government has got its hands full with Brexit. Compared to this massive, once-in-a-generation task, transport problems – bleak as they are – pale into insignificance.

But the Conservatives are also reluctant to open up a debate about rail. Unlike Brexit, this is a topic where the Labour Party has a clear strategy that happens to chime with the majority of the population. Jeremy Corbyn would like to see the railways nationalised; repeated polls suggest that about 60pc of the population agree with him.

Labour would love nothing more than to divert attention from the constant rows about anti-semitism by invoking the rose-tinted halcyon days of British Rail.

It is likely that any debates about the merits of nationalisation would conveniently neglect the fact that rail usage has doubled since privatisation. The public could be wooed by misplaced promises of a better, cheaper service that Labour would deliver under full public ownership.

The upshot is that there may be more reviews of the UK’S rail industry but nothing substantial will change anytime soon. While Grayling may wish to make things better, for the Government, it falls into the “nice to do” pile rather than the “must do”.

An overhaul of the country’s railways will, like many of the country’s vexed passengers, be left in the waiting room for the foreseeable future.

‘Unlike Brexit, this is a topic where the Labour party has a clear strategy’