North Wales on the right Growth Track
Ian Prosser, HM Chief Inspector of Railways at the Office of Rail and Road, also stressed the need for tighter cost control. He said this would be vital to encourage either the allocation of public funds at a time of increased pressure on Government resources, or alternatively interest from private investors.
“There are some people who don’t support expensive schemes like HS2 at a time when Network Rail doesn’t have much money, but there is a lot of money out there and we manage to buy lots of new rolling stock with private capital, so there are definitely opportunities there,” he said.
“I talk to Cambridgeshire County Council a lot. It is looking to reopen the line between March and Wisbech, and the first stage is getting things properly costed. One of the mistakes campaigners make is jumping in too fast and coming up with costs on the back of a fag packet. What I’m telling that council to do is to try and find some money to properly cost the proposal, and get the right scheme so it starts small.
“The thing that financiers need most is a really good idea of how much it will cost. They need certainty.”
Sharon Hedges, Franchise Programme Manager at Transport Focus, pointed to the Great Eastern Main Line Taskforce as an exemplar in achieving large-scale regional investment through making a persuasive case to Government.
The Taskforce successfully secured £1.4bn investment in 1,043 new vehicles for the Greater Anglia franchise that commenced in October 2016, after its research compiled in 2014 estimated a return on investment of £ 4.5bn.
Hedges said: “The one parallel that strikes me very strongly is the East Anglia prospectus which made some very strong arguments for productivity and the economy, which - at the end of the day - is what matters as the main result is what you get back out.”
The Growth Track 360 delegates must now reflect on the many challenges that lie ahead for the campaign, starting with the Department for Transport’s release of Network Rail’s Statement of Funds Available, which revealed how much public money can be spent on the railway during the next Control Period that runs from 2019-24.
But there are also many opportunities to look forward to. The route of HS2 Phase 2 confirmed on July 17 should mean that a hub station is now built at Crewe, and a specification for the new Wales and Borders franchise that begins next year could include the provision of some of the new services that Growth Track 360 aspires to achieve.
Network Rail has also begun work to reinstate the Halton Curve for new passenger services (see pages 68-71), representing the first tangible result for a campaign that continues to gain momentum.
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On June 15, RAIL’s National Rail Conference in Birmingham played host to a roundtable discussion that focused on the Growth Track 360 campaign.
A quartet of high-profile industry representatives heard how this cross-border alliance of business, political and public sector leaders is bidding for £1 billion worth of rail improvements across Cheshire and North Wales, before offering sage advice on how best to press the case for investment with both the Government and the Welsh Assembly.
Chaired by RAIL’s Assistant Features Editor Paul Stephen, the discussion was kick-started by Sam Dixon, leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council and one of four members to comprise the Growth Track 360 delegation.
She outlined how the region of some one and a half million residents has traditionally suffered from poor connectivity and slow journey times by rail - a typical trip of just 54 miles from Wrexham to Manchester requires two changes and takes 140 minutes (compared with just 50 minutes by car). The area unsurprisingly has some of the highest car-based commuting mode shares in the UK.
Dixon argued that improved rail connections would be a key enabler to transforming the regional economy, by reducing commuting times and improving workforce mobility. Further economic benefits could be secured by enhancing existing services to London, and strengthening rail connections with the route of HS2 via a new integrated hub at Crewe (see panel).
On the origins of the campaign, which formally launched last July, she said: “People that live in the Mersey Dee area, North Wales and further afield don’t perceive that national boundary between England and Wales in any sense, and to allow bureaucratic boundaries to get in the way is a disservice to the people we represent.
“It’s a pleasure for me as leader to sit in a taskforce in which everyone agrees that this is absolutely essential, no matter their political persuasion or nationality. It is a pleasure to be involved, but now we need some tangible results on some of the measures we’ve proposed.”
The merits of Growth Track 360’s proposals clearly struck a chord during the discussion, with Greengauge 21 Director Jim Steer leading the plaudits.
However, he had reservations about the campaign’s proposal to extend electrification in the area in the wake of well-publicised national schemes such as the Great Western route modernisation, which Network Rail is set to deliver significantly later than planned and substantially over budget.
“When you look at the package, everything is there. But the negative now is that, for obvious reasons, electrification is hardly flavour of the month.” he said.
“We’re struggling to do the schemes we said we’d do, so the strongest case is now for routes that are in the middle of things and are extremely busy. In the meantime, the industry has redressed the issue with trains that are electric and diesel.”
Steer’s advice to the campaign included a suggestion to widen the return on investment beyond the headline economic impacts, to tackle social deprivation and the region’s large wealth inequality through increased connectivity.
He added: “In North Wales there is some really terrible deprivation, and the distance to the Mersey Dee region for employment is an issue as it’s quite a long commute. There is a large labour market in North Wales, and there is a really interesting story to be told here about ensuring that businesses in Chester and the Mersey Dee area are allowed to expand, and for rail to help with more and faster trains.”
SYSTRA’s High Speed Rail Programme Director Julie Carrier said that the proposals could also be made stronger by citing the success of similar regional cases from across the globe, and by consulting with industry to secure a more accurate breakdown on costs.
She said: “From my perspective, the point is to bring in international cases where you’ll see that the ones that have been most successful have looked at not just a railway scheme, but what the railway could do for the region.
“On the cost point, some of the costs in the UK compared with the rest of the world have been eye-watering. There’s a wide variety of reasons for that, but to take this forward I think you need a real handle on costs. I think you’ve been very clear on what you’d expect the benefits to be, and what you want next is where the industry can help to itemise some of the schemes and how they can be taken forward.”