Paul Stephen
All eyes will once again be on the Great Western Main Line in October, as it hosts the introduction of Britain’s newest generation of high-speed trains. Network Rail’s Western Route Managing Director MARK LANGMAN looks ahead to this special occasion and b
“What remains of the Great Western Route Modernisation still constitutes the largest investment and modernisation on the line between Paddington and Cardiff since it was built by Brunel 175 years ago.”
As far as Network Rail’s Route Managing Directors go, the face of Western’s Mark Langman ought to be one of the more easily recognisable to RAIL readers - not least because of Channel 5’s new television series Paddington 24/7, which points the lens at a large part of his Route after first airing on September 11.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg for Langman in terms of publicity, since his appointment in September 2015 following a four-year stint as head of NR’s neighbouring Wales Route.
Early headlines were undoubtedly of the negative kind. Langman’s arrival came at an inauspicious time for Western, dominated by the troubled spectre of its Great Western Route Modernisation programme, which was beset by delays and spiralling costs. The Hendy Report would be published later that year to re-plan the project (and many others), while controversially deferring large amounts of electrification.
But worse was to come in 2016. Reports published by both the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee heavily criticised NR’s management of the project, and the hopelessly over-optimistic cost and time estimates it had given.
The coup de grace eventually came in July 2017, following confirmation from the Department for Transport that routes to Bath, Oxford, Bristol Temple Meads, Swansea and the Thames Valley branches will definitely not get any wires, with the use of bi-mode trains now the preferred option.
Although these issues were inherited, rather than of his own making, Langman feels that his Route has now reached a watershed moment as the problems of the past diminish behind a warm glow of more positive announcements. After all, what remains of the Great Western Route Modernisation still constitutes the largest investment and modernisation ever undertaken on the line between Paddington and Cardiff since it was built by Brunel 175 years ago.
At a cost of almost £ 3 billion, this is now beginning to bear fruit with the wires already energised as far as Maidenhead and with Didcot to follow in January, enabling operator Great Western Railway to introduce increasing numbers of new Class 387 electric multiple units to replace diesel Turbostars. Cardiff will be reached by December 2019.
GWR will also imminently begin operating a new fleet of Intercity Express Programme
The reason I came here was because of the size of the challenge. If you look across all of the Routes, this is perhaps where the most exciting stuff is happening. Mark Langman, Western Route Managing Director, Network Rail
bi-mode trains built by Hitachi. These are replacing High Speed Trains, some as old as 41, on selected routes out of Paddington - several months ahead of the East Coast Main Line, which will get its own version of the IEP in 2018.
Work will also begin in 2018 to build an interchange with High Speed 2 at Old Oak Common. And in May 2018, Langman will welcome Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) services on NR metals between Paddington and Heathrow and then to Reading 12 months later, to cap a hugely transformative decade for the Great Western Main Line.
As the beneficiary of such a large amount of sustained investment, Langman even had the pleasure of receiving royalty on the Route. On June 13, he accompanied Her Majesty the Queen on a journey between Slough and Paddington, aboard an IEP that she had just named Queen Elizabeth II.
He would then host Prime Minister Theresa May barely a fortnight later, when she opened new sidings in her constituency of Maidenhead.
He says: “When I came here there was a lot of history around the electrification programme. But we had a revised plan for it about two years ago at the time of Hendy, and the majority of the people now delivering that project have changed since then.
“The reason I came here was because of the size of the challenge. If you look across all of the Routes, this is perhaps where the most exciting stuff is happening. We’re electrifying the railway to Cardiff, introducing new trains and modernising large parts of it. Plus we have Crossrail and HS2 coming, too.”
He adds: “We’re really starting to make progress now, because we’ve been talking about it for so long and the passenger benefits are starting to become a reality. The Route will look completely different to any time in its history since it was built, and certainly since the HSTs came into service in 1976, which was probably the last big transformation.
“For me, it’s about keeping that tradition going of the Western being at the forefront
If we start having conversations with local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and perhaps other funders, we can start doing something greater for the towns and cities we serve.
of change in an industry that’s rapidly changing.”
The change that Langman describes is not just limited to rolling stock and infrastructure, however. The Western was also chosen earlier this year to pioneer a new organisational structure.
As part of Network Rail’s devolutionary drive to increase the autonomy of its Route businesses, in February the Western Supervisory Board was created to bring NR closer to its train operating customers, and to encourage collective decision-making in the interests of passengers
Under independent Chairman Dick Fearn, the board comprises Langman, the MDs of GWR and Heathrow Express, and Nina Howe of Transport Focus. Langman agrees that the pilot has been an unmitigated success, mirrored by the fact that similar boards have recently been created for the Wales and the London North East Routes.
“The whole devolutionary journey has been about making Route MDs responsible for not only operating the railway on their patch, but also integrating with TOCs,” adds Langman.
“I’m also really motivated by listening more to our stakeholders and passengers especially, which is what I really like about our Supervisory Board. It’s great having Transport Focus there, to tell us what passengers want and what they will put up with when we’re having difficult discussions about some of the upgrades we’re doing.
“We’ve been focusing on what is the right way for that work to be delivered. Is it a long blockade or a short one? Should we blockade two of the four tracks? Having the input of Transport Focus and the view of the operators really gets you to a good outcome.”
Limiting disruption has been further aided by Langman’s pre-existing alliance with the Route’s primary operator GWR. The two organisations are now embedded to the point where they have a joint communications team, to ensure a greater level of consistency in the messages communicated to passengers.
Langman says a great example of this new spirit of co-working being put into action was during Christmas 2016, when Paddington was closed for almost a week for Crossrail works. Trains instead terminated at Ealing Broadway, where NR and GWR staff worked in unison to move people quickly through the small west London station.
The success of the operation encouraged GWR to submit an entry to this year’s National Rail Awards in the teamwork category, while the alliance was frequently referenced in GWR’s entry for Passenger Operator of the Year.
“We have a really close relationship with GWR,” says Langman. “There’s still a long way to go, but we are starting to see some of the benefits come through - for example, when we used Ealing Broadway as a terminus during the Crossrail works last Christmas.
“You wouldn’t have noticed any difference between my staff and GWR’s, and I was really pleased that we were up for an NRA for that. If you’re going to perform that sort of open heart surgery on the network where everyone demands that trains run at 90% punctuality, it is a huge challenge. But we’ve worked really closely with GWR on solutions.”
He adds: “What we’ve tried to do is keep passengers on trains as much as possible and avoid disrupting them, so that normal service runs as routinely and reliably as possible. Control Period 5 has been truly exceptional for new trains and infrastructure, and if you think deeply about what that means with the preparation, training, and our contingency planning - there are so many moving parts.
“What’s good is that our alliance and the Supervisory Board has allowed us to tackle that collectively so it comes together properly, with the passengers’ interests put first.”
Looking ahead to CP6, Langman says that devolution will also help NR in its nationwide quest to attract third party funding, and reduce its reliance on public funding.
Published in July, the Hansford Review identified areas where NR could address some of the structural barriers to third party involvement, which the organisation is now implementing.
However, Langman says that ultimately it will be the discussions had at Route level with external stakeholders that will uncover opportunities for third party funding and/or delivery, and persuade interested parties to part with their cash. In particular, this could be proactive local authorities that want to deliver targeted local improvements to services or station facilities.
He says: “How do we put a package together as track and train where we can deliver these improvements, in a way that helps third parties come together and fund that?
“If we start having conversations with local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and perhaps other funders, we can start doing something greater for the towns and cities we serve. I think there is definitely more opportunity for us to go out there and look for more investment, because we are closer to passengers and we hear much more about what they want from having more outward conversations.”
The conversation turns away from the Great Western Main Line to improvements elsewhere on the Route, and in particular the South West peninsula of Devon and Cornwall.
Langman is quick to re-pledge NR’s commitment to making the coastal route at Dawlish more resilient.
NR does not currently have a preferred plan for defending this vulnerable stretch of line from bad weather and the effects of climate change, but he says it will be sufficiently
protected to “remain there in our lifetimes”. His comments come more than nine months since NR published its Exeter to Newton Abbot Geo-Environmental Resilience Study Executive
Summary for Winter 2016-17, which offered five coastal defence options and six geotechnical options that are designed to prevent a reoccurrence of the infamous sea wall failure in February 2014 ( RAIL 742).
The line was closed for two months for repairs, at a cost of over £1bn to the local economy, while the region remained disconnected ( by rail) from the rest of the country.
The overall investment for options outlined by the strategy, including extending the sea wall further out to sea or raising its height, was more than £ 600 million, although NR said it could defer some interventions and prioritise others for CP6. In the meantime, the Government has provided Langman and his team with £10m for the further development of short, medium and long-term plans, to protect the railway before any plans are put to public consultation.
“We learned a lot from 2014 and rebuilt the line pretty quickly. But the reality is, in the long term, that these things could happen more often,” he says.
“We’ll need to come up with a final set of plans and then see how we can fund that. What we can safely say is that the route around the coast will remain there in our lifetimes, and we need to come up with the right solution for the money that’s going to be available.
“Everyone will have a view on that because it’s part of our heritage, so we must listen to what people say locally. We don’t want to damage tourism or the quality of life down there, but everyone wants to keep the railway there so there is a balance to be had somewhere in the middle of that.”
Remaining in the South West, Langman points to other financial investments currently being made in the area’s rail network to improve frequency and journey times.
They include a £ 9m contract (awarded to Atkins in June) to upgrade signalling around Truro as part of the wider Cornwall Capacity Enabling Scheme. This will create an extra hourly train path between Plymouth and Penzance, as part of a concerted effort to improve connectivity to an economically deprived part of the UK and to modernise a traditionally neglected part of NR’s infrastructure.
“Large parts of Cornwall need a lot of help with their connectivity, and they will be getting IEPs within the next year or so and other cascaded stock. Journey time savings are a real opportunity there for the taking, and we’ve been talking to the South West Peninsula Taskforce about what we can do to squeeze more out of the network.
“IEPs will offer faster acceleration and sharper braking. But the other impact will be on dwell times with the automatic doors, because with HSTs you get doors left wide open and then someone traipsing all the way to the other end of the train to close it.
“We’re going to review line speeds and focus on getting the journey from Paddington out to Plymouth down to under three hours. And there will be some resignalling to do once we’ve finished the biggest single relocking and commissioning of signalling around Bristol at Easter.”
That leads Langman nicely on to Bristol, a city that suffered greatly under the Beeching
I’d like to see the area around Bristol Temple Meads developed into something we can be even more proud of.
cuts and which is now in desperate need of increased public transport provision to keep pace with its economic and population growth.
Capacity is being increased into Bristol Temple Meads by four-tracking to Bristol Parkway, while Class 166s Turbos have been cascaded from the Thames Valley to the Severn Beach line in order to add much-needed capacity to the route.
More widespread changes could arise from the city’s proposed Metrowest project, which would involve enhancing existing infrastructure to enable a half-hourly service to run from Bristol Temple Meads to Gloucester, Bath and the Severn Beach line.
There are also plans to reopen a freightonly line to Portishead that was closed to passengers in 1964, and to upgrade a freightonly line to Henbury that borders the former site of Filton Airfield (closed in 2012), and which has been earmarked for extensive redevelopment.
Langman says that plans are also at an advanced stage to redevelop an under-utilised area to the east of Bristol Temple Meads, into a gateway more befitting of Bristol’s status as an expanding and prosperous city.
He concludes: “Metrowest is at a fledgling state, but it’s pretty exciting to see. We’re in GRIP 3 (Option Selection) at the moment, so it’s not at a basic stage anymore and we’re deciding how it will be funded. The new mayor has delegated transport authority and a pot of money that goes with that, so how do we help the local authority and shape the way they spend that?”
“I’d like to see the area around Bristol Temple Meads developed into something we can be even more proud of. We’re putting together a package that will enable the east side to be developed, and perhaps a new entrance built to where the old Royal Mail building is but not used anymore. We will be working with the local authority, the new metro mayor and the university which is building a new campus there, to get everyone around the table to enhance the area.
“We’re having similar conversations about how we’re going to do the same for Swindon, Oxford and Plymouth, but particularly the latter ahead of the 2020 Mayflower celebrations that will mark the 400th anniversary of its sailing to the New World.”
So, plenty more positive headlines for Langman there!