Tony Streeter
Vivarail chairman and former Chiltern Railways boss ADRIAN SHOOTER tells TONY STREETER of plans to launch a ground-breaking new TOC
“VTL is also looking to pursue revenue streams other than steam-hauled charters. The share prospectus envisages that additional non-passenger services will be offered to the railway industry.”
Agentle hubbub from London’s Strand drifts through the open window into the upstairs of Simpson’s restaurant. Adrian Shooter has just listened to Labour’s ideas for the railways at a Breakfast Club organised by this magazine. In a quiet moment afterwards he’s now outlining something closer to home - a new train operating company.
Shooter is perhaps still best known for his time leading Chiltern Railways, which ran from privatisation through to 2011. Then there is Vivarail, which he now chairs, that’s converting former Underground D-Stock into Class 230s for the national network.
Less well known is that he’s also long been a trustee of the Vintage Trains Charitable Trust which stands at the heart of activities committed to preserving and running Great Western steam locomotives on the network. Based at Tyseley in Birmingham, the grouping has its own coaches, its own booking arm, and a workshop in which to fix locomotives - both its own and others. It doesn’t though have its own train operating company (and in recent years has used West Coast Railways). The new Vintage Trains Ltd ( VTL), chaired by Shooter, is the vehicle intended to change that.
However to be sustainable, Shooter says: “It’s obviously got to be profitable.”
VTL will become a trading subsidiary of the newly established Vintage Trains Community Benefit Society, which is partway through a £ 3 million share issue intended to raise a minimum of £ 800,000 by May 31; as of March 20, it had reached more than £ 700,000. The aim is for a soft start this year, with Tyseley’s regular summer Sunday series of ‘Shakespeare Express’ trips that run between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Yet given that it only expects to run 82 trains in 2020, VTL is also looking to pursue revenue streams other than steam-hauled charters. The share prospectus envisages that additional non-passenger services will be offered to the railway industry.
It forecasts that in 2020 this will be worth £ 215,910 and in 2023 will have grown to £417,510. As comparison, projected income for passenger services is more than £ 2.9m.
Yet what might those non-passenger services be? Shooter says: “We believe there is an opportunity for us to offer various levels of training within the industry.”
Part of that is likely to be imparting railway-
specific knowledge to managers joining the industry from outside. However, much of it may come through an opportunity brought by changes in driver licencing. For Shooter believes that with the advent of the so-called rail driving licence, rail might become more like civil aviation.
“The chances are if you go on a BA jet, your pilot actually started by applying for his own Private Pilot’s Licence and paying for it himself,” he says. “Now it may be that that will happen in the rail industry, and if it does we’ll be there to help. We know that many TOCs are going to need a lot more drivers and it may well be that some TOCs will choose to use our services because they believe it’s the best value for money.”
Shooter points out that while he was chairman of London Overground operator LOROL, that company committed to recruiting 300 drivers from the local area. VTL, he argues, could offer TOCs a service right from the point of recruitment, and training could be provided at Tyseley. There is a possible synergy between this and Vivarail, because Shooter says using Vivarail trains for the train-handling elements is entirely possible. He adds that Tyseley would be turning out a driver who is fully competent in terms of understanding all the rules and regulations, and confident handling a train.
We believe there is an opportunity for us to offer various levels of training within the industry.
Adrian Shooter, Chairman, Vintage Trains Ltd