Fare Dealer
RAIL fares expert Barry Doe says BR-type quality can ensure a way ahead for the railway.
THE arguments about the way ownership of the railway should proceed are being bogged down with statements about the past that are not true. I find this so depressing.
How can we have a debate about the future if we can’t even agree on the past? A typical case appeared in a recent Open Access, where a regular contributor (whose views I normally respect) referred to “a monolithic, unresponsive, bureaucratic structure”.
I agree that matches today’s structure exactly, where the railways can do nothing without the permission of the Department for Transport (DfT), which is indeed monolithic, unresponsive and bureaucratic. All entrepreneurial flair has been extinguished.
The trouble is the author was making that statement about British Rail! I know more than three decades have passed since the creation of Regional Railways, Network SouthEast and InterCity, but can anyone who is really objective fail to have been impressed by the huge progress made by those sectors and the leadership shown by managers such as Chris Green?
‘Unresponsive’? Is that the word for the railway that created the High Speed Train, increased business dramatically, gave us a simple fares system (since ruined), introduced railcards, and in general offered standards of comfort and on-board service that were far higher than anything that exists today?
Yes, a handful of operators since privatisation have equalled the quality of BR - among them First ScotRail and GNER (as I mentioned in RAIL 911’s The Fare Dealer), and to which I would add Anglia Railways in its GB Railways days, South West Trains (SWT) and East Midlands Trains (EMT).
I recently heard former Secretary of State for Transport Sir Patrick McLoughlin (who could never understand that increased usage in recent times has been despite privatisation, not because of it) say that the current system is superb, and that the proof was having people with the flair of Sir Brian Souter involved.
I had the privilege of knowing Sir Brian when he was chief executive of Stagecoach and he’s a man I greatly admire - a man of great calibre who made Stagecoach by far the best of the bus groups in Britain.
He also ensured SWT and EMT were exceptional by appointing fine managers such as Andrew Haines (now chief executive of Network Rail) and Tim Shoveller ( now managing director, Network Rail North West and Central).
However, it seems McLoughlin has overlooked the fact that Stagecoach has been dismissed from running railways by the DfT. Only the monolithic, unresponsive and bureaucratic DfT would be so stupid as to get rid of the best owning group, just to satisfy their own prejudices.
I feel that the only way forward is to get the running of our railways back into the hands of first-rate managers who can take total control, who don’t have to seek the permission of the DfT for anything other than obtain a general remit and Treasury budget, and who are then left to get on with it.
As I’ve said many times, BR was a corporation like the BBC - and the Government doesn’t schedule TV programmes. A ‘Strategic Rail Authority Mk 2’ is needed, and if that’s a step too far for now, I am happy with Network Rail taking over the role.
We have in Andrew Haines one of the finest managers of his generation and a railwayman who has been a commercial man as well as an operator. Few today understand running railways as well as he does, and he has many experienced people in his teams.