Midlands Connect
Transport spending per head in the East and West Midlands is among the lowest in the country. Midlands Connect Director MARIA MACHANCOSES tells PAUL STEPHEN how the emerging sub-national transport body has set about securing a larger slice of the pie
Midlands Connect Director MARIA MACHANCOSES reveals why the region warrants more transport investment.
Regional transport spending has long been a contentious issue. With capital spending during the last decade dominated by flagship projects including Thameslink (£ 7 billion) and Crossrail (£16bn+), politicians have been routinely accused of favouring London and the South East while leaving the rest of the UK to languish.
While this policy is undoubtedly quite sensible in meeting the highest demand and securing the greatest return on investment, it has presented a political headache to successive governments in terms of delivering on their manifesto pledges to rebalance the national economy.
Little surprise, therefore, that the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way. Figures from the Department for Transport indicate that transport spending in the north of England (£ 831 per head) is set to creep above levels in London and the south (£ 799) between 2018 and 2021.
The Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (£ 3bn) and a new fleet of trains for the Tyne & Wear Metro (£ 337 million) are among the northern schemes to be given the go-ahead, although suspicion around where Westminster’s priorities truly lie is likely to persist until longawaited legislation is finally passed for both Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 Phase 2b.
To help address the problem of regional disparity, government has increasingly turned to devolution as a means of handing large
areas of the country a greater say in how investment is allocated at a national level.
Already a largely devolved matter in Scotland and Wales, the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act was passed into law by Parliament in 2016, granting the Secretary of State for Transport powers to establish sub-national transport bodies (STBs) in any other part of the UK outside London.
Transport for the North ( TfN), England’s Economic Heartland (EEH), Transport for the South East (TfSE) and Midlands Connect (MC) were the first four to be created under this Act, with a remit to provide strategic leadership on transport matters in their respective regions.
Constituted to provide an advisory role to government on behalf of their local authority members, all four STBs were also given an option to return to Parliament at a later date to request legal powers over how transport investment is then delivered.
TfN was the fastest out of the traps to gain any of these additional powers, becoming the UK’s first ever statutory STB on April 1 2018. This enables TfN to jointly manage the Northern and TransPennine franchises (with the DfT), deliver on smart ticketing systems, decide on capital grants, and develop a 30-year Strategic Transport Plan - published with much fanfare earlier this year ( RAIL 873) - to formally request up to £ 70bn worth of transport infrastructure investment.
Meanwhile, both TfSE and EEH aim to publish their own draft transport strategies for public consultation later this year, before seeking full statutory status with legal powers (that have yet to be determined) by 2020-21.
Positioned geographically in the middle of the four STBs is Midlands Connect, which provides a voice for 23 local authorities and nine Local Enterprise Partnerships across the Midlands - from the Welsh Marches to the Wash.
It published its 25-year transport strategy in March 2017, to try to make the most of the region’s central position and its vibrant freight economy, and to maximise the impact of HS2 once its opens between London and Birmingham in 2026.
MC Director Maria Machancoses explains: “The North, Wales, the South East and the South West are all equidistant from the Midlands’ towns and cities and its freight distribution centres, and because of that our network is becoming saturated.
“Much of the existing infrastructure is based on north-south connections. And all of a sudden there is not much more capacity, so the region’s ability to connect with others is now being hindered.
Politicians like to cut ribbons and have diggers on the ground to show that things are happening on their patch, but Midlands leaders understand that the spade might be between Hereford and Birmingham, but the benefits will be felt in Worcester as well as Solihull. Maria Machancoses, Director, Midlands Connect
“MC has been set up to address the geography and celebrate our national position, while addressing the key issues of east-west connectivity and the fact that we will be the first UK region to benefit from the arrival of HS2.”
According to Machancoses, the lack of previous leadership in the Midlands has cost it dear, with investment historically failing to match demand in the region. This is now being addressed using MC’s self-styled ‘one voice’ approach, to link what were previously discrete small-scale road and rail enhancements by giving them pan-regional significance.
This is perhaps best demonstrated by MC’s flagship Midlands Rail Hub scheme, which proposes investment in platforms, signals and new track right across the region, having started life as an isolated project being pursued by the West Midlands transport authority to eliminate rail bottlenecks in Birmingham.
“There was an understanding that the Midlands was punching below its weight, and was not very good at articulating what the real priorities were for the region to succeed,” says Machancoses.
“Our members knew that each leader had strong views on their local station, franchises and services, but they were being articulated in a parochial way that was very quickly dropped by national agencies because it did not consider the wider strategic role of the network.
“The East Midlands remains the most uninvested region per head in the country, regardless of what you hear elsewhere. But when you have all the evidence and understand what is hindering your growth from a strategic point of view, you have a far better chance of influencing government decisions on future enhancements.”
Machancoses remains tight-lipped on the final shape and cost of the Midlands Rail Hub until consultation has finished with partners, including Network Rail. But she says a Strategic Outline Business Case for the concept is due to be submitted to government within the next few weeks.
Outline plans include the construction of a new chord at Bordesley (to enable more services to access Birmingham Moor Street, rather the city’s overcrowded New Street station), and the reinstatement of a fourth platform at Snow Hill, while also remodelling stations at Kings Norton and Water Orton to further increase capacity in the Birmingham area.
MC also supports two new platforms being built at Birmingham Moor Street, to help cater for an additional five million passengers per year by 2043 ( RAIL 875) and as part of West Midlands Rail Executive’s ‘One Station’ concept to integrate Birmingham’s existing city centre stations at New Street and Moor Street with the new HS2 station currently being built at nearby Curzon Street.
RAIL understands that the suite of enhancements for Midlands Rail Hub will cost around £ 2bn, and would largely be delivered on the existing network between 2026-33. MC says that once complete, the scheme will create space for six million more journeys and generate an extra £ 649m in economic growth each year.
Other specific outputs of the Midlands Rail Hub include opening up paths for 36 extra freight services per day (carrying some £ 22bn worth of goods per annum), and 24 extra passenger trains per hour throughout the region.
That would result in double the number of trains running on key corridors between Birmingham and Nottingham and Leicester and Hereford, two additional services each hour between Birmingham and Derby, improved journey times between Nottingham and Lincoln, and the restoration of direct services between Nottingham, Leicester and Coventry.
The Midlands Rail Hub also plans to bring current journey times down from 69 minutes to 50 between Nottingham and Birmingham, 84 minutes to 60 between Hereford and Birmingham, and just 35 minutes from Leicester to Coventry.
Machancoses adds: “We’re not talking about tunnels or four-tracking or any of that, but pretty well-understood interventions that are easy to implement but which can have a huge impact on the user. We’re not talking about 250 schemes either, but a handful of priorities which the region is fully behind.
“We feel that cost isn’t really worth talking about until we’ve got the work done properly, and decisions can be made properly based on the evidence in the outline business case that will be coming out in May or June.
“Some people might be critical that we’re not shouting enough when TfN already knows exactly what things will cost and how long it will take, but that’s not the Midlands Way. Evidence is at the heart of it all, and we don’t want people to think ‘you said it would cost X amount and now it will be Y’.
“We call it an incremental approach which shows serious maturity. Politicians like to cut ribbons and have diggers on the ground to show that things are happening on their patch, but Midlands leaders understand that the spade might be between Hereford and Birmingham, but the benefits will be felt in Worcester as well as Solihull.”
Beyond the Midlands Rail Hub, other rail projects being pursued by MC include improvements to journey times and capacity between Derby and Crewe via Stoke, Shrewsbury and Birmingham, plus Nottingham to Lincoln via Newark.
MC is also working with Transport for the East Midlands, HS2 Ltd and other delivery bodies on an East Midlands Gateway Study, to develop the best options for connecting the proposed HS2 station at Toton with surrounding major employment centres - including Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and East Midlands Airport.
Promoting freight is also high on MC’s list of priorities, given the national and regional importance of rail freight hubs - including East Midlands Gateway, which is being developed on 700 acres of land to the north of East Midlands Airport.
The region’s only major sea port at Immingham also handles more than 55 million tonnes per year, making it the UK’s largest port by tonnage. Much of that arrives via the 300 rail freight movements handled by the port each week.
“We have four of the five national rail freight routes crossing the Midlands, so why wouldn’t you explore and identify opportunities?” says Machancoses.
“The Midlands Rail Hub has identified an extra 36 freight paths a day which would potentially take 4,000 lorries off the road.
“When you consider how many headquarters and distribution centres are at home here, and that the UK’s busiest cargo airport is also in the East Midlands, they are all investing heavily in rail freight and new terminals.
“We want to make sure the world understands that the Midlands doesn’t have many ports, but given the appetite to open up access to global markets, getting more access to ports for rail freight is definitely going to be the way forward.
Given the appetite to open up access to global markets, getting more access to ports for rail freight is definitely going to be the way forward.
“The goods need to get to the port on time, otherwise there is a massive impact on businesses. We’ve identified lots of freight in the West Midlands that have Immingham as a destination, so we can open up new paths for them.”
Achieving any of these results will clearly rely on close collaboration with key external stakeholders, including Network Rail, Highways England and DfT.
Close relationships with internal stakeholders will also be vital to the delivery of new infrastructure or services, as MC has made it clear it will play no part in their actual delivery.
Unlike Transport for the North, MC has no ambition to manage franchises or control operations. It has opted instead for a ‘softer’ approach where guidance and support is given to local transport authorities such as Transport for West Midlands. This, it argues, enables MC to balance local commuter needs while maintaining its wider, strategic view.
Says Machancoses: “We might not be the one that shouts the most, but we are the most collaborative, evidence-based and mature STB, in my view. We’re not here to become another player in the crowded national or local agency space, either.
“STB is a dreadfully boring name, but it’s important to emphasise that we only want to strategically influence at a national level - we’re not dealing with the here and now, or operations and franchises.
“We’re very fortunate to have a clear devolution agenda here in the West Midlands with TfWM, and the East Midlands is trying to firm that up with TfEM, so why would we not try to embrace that?
“It’s about having a strong pipeline of development that has government as well as local political buy-in, because that’s not what we’ve had for decades.
“I’m not going to criticise TfN because each region is going about it differently. Franchising is completely different in the North than in the Midlands. We might be able to influence how that is configured in the future, but for the moment MC has made it very clear that we will not be getting into that space.”
MC has also taken a very different approach to achieving statutory status than its fellow STBs. Machancoses is in no particular hurry to seek the necessary secondary legislation from a heavily distracted Parliament still mired in agreeing the terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union.
With no plans to become a delivery body, it is perhaps debatable whether any statutory powers are needed at all. MC already appears to have more than enough clout in its present form.
Machancoses concludes: “We have been having a mature discussion about the benefits of becoming statutory or not, and we wanted to have that debate in the Midlands rather than just copying and pasting the set-up at TfN. “Unfortunately, we’ve also been having that debate at a time of Brexit, where there was very little legislative time for Parliament to deal with anything, let alone secondary legislation of these kinds of matters.
“We’re also very aware that the UK might face a spending review, so our leaders have been very clear that right now it’s about securing that pipeline, so that it doesn’t get forgotten or stopped due to a lack of funds.
“Let’s get results rather than spending lots of money on legislative process and legal requirements and so on, which will come. At the moment we have to concentrate on providing the region with the certainty it requires. Let’s concentrate on influence and results.
“It’s about how that influence lands inside the Department. And the clear message from Network Rail, Highways England and directly from the DfT is that MC is treated no differently from TfN or any of the others when it comes to engagement and making recommendations.”