ORR the new guiding mind?
Regulator should think big, smart, and seize the opportunity
I once heard today’s rail industry described as a convoy of ships, and for success all convoys demand clear understanding of an agreed course - and then skilled captains to ensure a tight formation, with no collisions.
A convoy fleet takes time to form up, and then the very best command from the flagship to ensure all ships move off and progress as one. This is not easy if a fleet features ships of many differing sizes, ages, reliability, varying speeds and weights and all commanded by skippers of sometimes dubious ability - or recklessness! And that’s before you consider the impact of bad weather or headwinds. Those of a certain age may smile with me when I say that on too many occasions the railway convoy has looked more ‘Navy Lark’ than Spithead Review!
Even with a flagship in command, the individual skippers - and, crucially, their crews - must also be clear on their shared course and speed. The lack of any railway flagship in the 1990s led to the launch (and rapid scrapping) of the Strategic Rail Authority, after which command has flitted (with patchy sucess) between Network Rail and the Department for Transport. The convoy has tended to lumber on with the skippers simply trying to keep a safe distance as they move slowly in roughly the same direction. The Office of Rail Regulation (now the Office of Rail and Road) has come across rather like a small, whooping gunboat, nipping in and out of Network Rail’s wake and not seemingly contributing much beyond a string of signals grumbling about course changes which it already knew all about.
But I detect a change in the air. There’s the hint of a new mood, certainly on the bigger ships. At Network Rail, Chairman Sir Peter Hendy and Chief Executive Mark Carne seem to be forging a successful working relationship - after bets were being taken last autumn on just the opposite. Helped by a stronger board where railway knowledge and experience has been boosted by the arrival of career railwaymen Rob Brighouse (new non-executive director) and Richard Brown (nominated DfT director), the company acquitted itself well in its Christmas programme (News and Comment, RAIL 792). One or two well- connected voices are claiming that efficiency was poor because possession times were over-generous for the work actually done. This may be true, but if NR has rebooted its processes and aspirations more realistically, then it can now - and it must - ramp up the work achieved to continue to drive unit costs down.
This new spirit is also hinted at in the Rail Delivery Group, which had played no part in course-setting, merely welcoming the bigger ships’ changes of course. New Chief Executive Paul Plummer (formerly Group Strategy Director, Network Rail) has brought new energy and there are whispers that he even takes industry PR and messaging seriously and intends to do something about it.
At the DfT, Managing Director Rail Executive: Passenger Services Peter Wilkinson shows no sign of trading in his motor cycle leathers for civil service pinstripes. His latest move in announcing that London commuter services will progressively transfer under Transport for London’s wing to create a worldclass city metro is a bold, welcome move.
Which, of the bigger ships in the convoy, leaves the Office of Rail and Road, where the quick-succession departure of Chairman Anna Walker (December 2015) and Chief Executive Richard Price ( January 2016) led to interim appointments, given that ORR is bound to change, partly as a result of Nicola Shaw’s much anticipated review but more particularly as a result of the DfT’s review.
On this page in RAIL 792 I argued that ORR is failing to align with NR, where railway expertise is being developed, and that it is inviting trouble by appointing two more economists (Professor Stephen Glaister as chairman, Joanna Whittington as chief executive - both interim). ORR has a reputation for obsessing on economic regulation while it buys in limited (but expensive) railway consultancy, which doesn’t make sense now NR is on the public books. Here’s ORR’s response:
Nigel Harris in his Comment piece (RAIL 792) worries that ORR is not evolving to match the changed railway landscape.
Nigel, be assured that at ORR we are very actively contributing to the various reviews into the rail industry at this time. We welcome these reviews very much; for as the industry evolves, so regulation must evolve to follow it.
This will doubtless mean ORR reconfiguring accordingly - just as we did last year, to accommodate our new function at that time in monitoring the performance of England’s motorways and A roads under the management of the new Highways England.
When the time is right we will of course share our thinking on how economic regulation of the railway should change. In the meantime, and to the substantive point of Nigel’s piece, we very much endorse his compliments on Network Rail’s ontrack performance for their Xmas enhancements; a difficult programme, also conducted in some terrible weather. Stephen Glaister It’s good to hear that ORR accepts that it will have to reconfigure. Indeed, as I was writing these words, news broke that ORR Director of Railway Performance Alan Price had resigned. This makes matters worse. It means that ORR’s seven-person board has now but a single director with operational rail knowledge or experience - Chief Inspector of Railways & Director of Railway Safety Ian Prosser, who is only the 25th Chief Inspector at Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate.
And we should all be glad about that. Having celebrated its 175th anniversary last year, HMRI is doing a good job of keeping NR’s feet to the fire at a very tricky time. NR faces an eye-watering challenge in both operating and enhancing Victorian infrastructure which is being used way beyond anything its builders ever dreamed of, at a time of extreme weather and following 40 years of often dubious drain maintenance.
We have seen an increasing number of landslips (large and small) recently, some leading to serious derailments, happily without injury. It is now nearly nine years since a passenger train fatality and industry risk models all indicate that risk increases significantly after about seven years.
It is increasingly important that key industry relationships are strengthened and enhanced, and if we are to ensure the best quality economic and safety regulation and outputs, then ORR must get a move on and boost its rail skills both on its board and among its staff. The rest of the convoy is showing greater cohesion, enhanced competence and faster progress. ORR must not lag behind. Quite apart from regulating ORR, the DfT will need the best-informed rail advice - and right now ORR cannot provide it. ORR should set its own agenda - or someone else will.
“ORR has a reputation for obsessing on economic regulation whilst it buys-in limited but expensive railway consultancy...”