Autonomy promised for future GBR Regions

BRIEFING from Network Rail has indicated that the future Great British Railways organisation will be run on a regional basis. It increasingly looks like a new name for Network Rail, with some additional responsibilities including the marketing of services on behalf of the train operators and overseeing the current National Rail Contracts that have replaced franchise agreements.

The boundaries of the five existing NR regions are to be retained, which a time traveller from 50 years ago would recognise as similar to the former BR structure, as they are organised as Scottish, Eastern, Southern, Western & Wales, and North West & Central.

There are some differences as devolution in Wales will mean there is a unified approach to the former London Midland operations in North Wales and the long-standing Western operations in South Wales.

Another difference of note is that the Midland Main Line will be the responsibility of the Eastern Region rather than its former place as part of the erstwhile London Midland Region, that was a legacy of the creation of the LMS at the time of the 1923 grouping.

NEW HEADQUARTERS

Much has been made of the competition to choose a new headquarters location for GBR where leading contenders in the main reflect traditional railway centres, although London has been excluded, no doubt to reflect what the Government is seeking to achieve as part of a ‘levelling up’ agenda.

Concern has been expressed about the omission of Milton Keynes from the list, given that it is the location of the timetable planning organisation. It has taken some time for train planning expertise to recover from the closure of the former regional offices which saw the loss of much expertise and there could be a repeat of this if the function is relocated.

Some might regard the re-creation of regions as the management focus as a step-back from the successful concept of sector management, where revenue and costs for a given operation were brought together, bringing management focus to secondary lines, such as Chiltern Railways and what is now Greater Anglia.

It will remain an anomaly that a number of train operating companies such as LNER, Northern, and South Eastern will be run directed by GBR on the basis that it is expected the Department for Transport will transfer this role to the new organisation. This does not make much sense in the context of the new contract structures and legislation setting up GBR should require separation of these operations.