Heathrow plan: a real private initiative
As I argued in RAIL 833, the recent Hansford report on greater private sector involvement in the industry was largely tinkering around the edges. It focused on yet more contracting out, rather than on genuinely stimulating innovation backed by private money into the industry.
I have always been suspicious of what I call ‘pretend capitalism’, which involves private companies taking over bits of the state with very little risk of ever losing their money.
In response to my piece, I was sent details of a genuine attempt to create a new section of railway with no requirement of public funds. It is the latest scheme (and there have been lots in the past) to try to connect Heathrow with the railway from the South.
The Heathrow Southern Railway project would require the construction of eight miles of new railway to connect Terminal 5 where conveniently rail access to the South has been left as an option with Waterloo. The innovative aspect of the idea is that the trains would terminate not in Terminal 5 (terminal stations are a bad idea operationally), but instead run through to Guildford or Basingstoke and even possibly further afield. Trains originating in Surrey could also run through the airport and onto Paddington, thereby reducing pressure on Waterloo for commuters with jobs in west or north London.
The company promoting the idea estimates the cost of the scheme at £1.2 billion, which it says would be ‘privately financed’, although there would need to be guarantees from Government that the train paths would be purchased in order for the company to raise the necessary capital.
This is similar to the way that the Channel Tunnel was underwritten, which resulted in many unused train paths being funded by British Rail (and its successor body) that represented a hidden subsidy. In the case of this scheme, there is less likelihood of paths going unused, given the high demand for rail travel in the South East.
Of course, the figures might not stack up, but at least this is a genuine private initiative which could bring about a great improvement to connections to Heathrow and other parts of the railway in the South East.
It is a far more interesting idea than Network Rail contracting out more services to the private sector, which is exactly the opposite of what it needs to do. How the scheme progresses will be a test of whether the Government is genuinely interested in private investment in the railways, and indeed whether such schemes are feasible in the current structure of the industry.