Averting a crisis
AS Chris Milner so aptly puts it in his feature on page 20 this month: “What beggars belief is how virtually new rolling stock can be cast aside so quickly.” And what makes it a double whammy is that, while virtually new trains are stuck in sidings, services on some routes are crying out for more capacity. One of the most high-profile examples in recent months was the withdrawal of HSTs from the CrossCountry network, the operator effectively being told to do so by the Department for Transport. While HSTs were introduced in the 1970s, upgrades and refurbishments over the years have meant there is still life left in them yet – as witnessed by the export of some sets for further use in Mexico and Nigeria (see page 8). Without them, CrossCountry has had to stretch its fleet of ‘Voyagers’ to cope – and once you have had to stand from, say, Leeds to Birmingham, then the average traveller may well think twice about using rail again. Similarly at TransPennine Express, where its loco-powered Mk.5 sets were stood down in December. Without them, TPE has had to reduce services across the Pennines so that its mid-life Class 185 DMU and Class 802 bi-mode fleets could be stretched to cover the work. There are many other similar examples, including all the new stock in store that is yet to enter traffic, and all this against a background of a hole in railway finances because overall passenger numbers are not yet back to pre-pandemic levels. But the operators have no incentive to try and boost these numbers because, since the pandemic, they are now simply paid a fee to run services and the Government takes all the revenue risk. Its current approach to balancing the books is to save costs by running fewer or shorter trains, rather than to tempt more passengers back with a better service and a good chance of a seat. Let us hope the next general election brings about a change of mindset.
Crossword cross words
My apologies to fans of our popular crossword competition who like to submit their entries by email. The dedicated address mysteriously stopped working towards the end of last year, resulting in some head scratching within our IT department. Suffice to say, however, that the problem is resolved and the address rmcomp@mortons.co.uk is now working as normal. Please see page 106 for this month’s puzzle and the chance to win £50 of books from the Nostalgia Collection.