‘ Seeing the lack of focus on passengers was actually really eye- opening to me’
BARRY WHITE still recalls his shock at experiencing for the first time the reality of life for many hard- pressed northern commuters as he took the train across the Pennines.
Before joining Transport for the North ( TfN) in 2017, a large part of his career involved working on major infrastructure projects, most recently with the Scottish Futures Trust.
And he saw a job leading the new strategic transport organisation, dedicated to transforming the networks used by millions of passengers in the North, as a way of making a difference to people’s lives.
“The North had been badly served by under- investment for four decades,” he says. “I still remember being quite shocked the first time
I got the train from Manchester to Bradford and realised just how slow that journey was. So seeing the difference that could be made and the opportunity to make it, that was really the reason I took this role on.”
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, he is able to reflect on his time at TfN as he prepares for his final months in the job. He announced plans for a career break last year and plans to walk the 800km Camino de Santiago, following the path of a major Christian pilgrimage route in northern Spain.
Northern transport has been high on the national agenda for much of his three years as TfN’s chief executive, not least when Boris Johnson made the ‘ levelling up’ agenda central to his 2019 General Election bid.
While the future of the controversial HS2 project – and the likelihood of it reaching Yorkshire in full – remains uncertain, he is aiming for TfN to submit its bid to Ministers for the Northern Powerhouse Rail project for high speed rail across the North by the time he leaves in May.
But away from the big ticket infrastructure projects, it was the daytoday reality of train transport that brought the wrong kind of attention to the North in the summer of 2018 and shone a spotlight on the long- standing failings of the industry.
The botched introduction of new timetables by operator Northern in 2018 led to widespread disruption and cancellations in what was later described by a review as a “debacle”.
Transport for the North was drawn into the saga because of its role comanaging the North’s two main rail franchises.
“Stepping into that, and just seeing how fragmented the industry was and how there was such a lack of focus on passengers and customers, was actually really eye- opening to me,” admits Mr White.
“When you asked who was responsible for solving this, everyone was looking at each other, and the whole contractual nature of how the rail industry worked means everybody points the finger at everybody else, which is really unhelpful.
“It was dreadful, actually. I remember spending my silver wedding anniversary, which was just a month after that, having multiple phone calls just trying to get things moving forward again, trying to get some short- term measures put in place that would alleviate some of the most immediate problems.
“But it left some communities really badly served for a long time.”
The saga prompted widespread changes to the industry and ultimately led to Northern being taken under government control. The consensus is now that the management of trains and the track on which they run needs to be brought closer together.
But the Williams Rail Review into the future of the industry has still yet to be published, and Mr White says that while rail leaders have learned a lot, he doesn’t think “all those lessons are yet fully embedded”.
Things have not been easy for TfN as it wrestles with the need to provide a unified force for northern leaders while at the same time trying to bring about tangible improvements on complicated projects. The creation of a new Northern Transport Acceleration Council led by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who last year described TfN as “by definition a talking shop”, adds further uncertainty to its future purpose.
TfN lacks the tax- raising powers of Transport for London and is ultimately beholden to the Department for Transport for funding.
Mr White hopes it will one day be more able to make decisions, rather than just give advice. And he describes
leading Transport for the North, Barry Whiteistakinga different path in his career. He spoke to Rob Parsons.
his frustration at the speed of progress on major schemes, with central government putting obstacles in the path of progress on issues like high speed rail with a succession of reviews.
But reflecting on the achievements of TfN, he praised the organisation’s passionate staff and the strategic transport plan it published in February 2019, setting out for the first time “a cohesive” vision for the North.
Plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail continue apace and TfN has led a host of improvements to smart ticketing.
The notorious Pacer trains have finally left service, replaced by a new fleet of more modern vehicles thanks to a huge investment in rolling stock.
“Having travelled in those trains myself, the difference between when I started three years ago and now, when you stand in Leeds station and you look at the concourse across all the platforms, it looks like a different railway station because the rolling stock is so much more modern, so much more comfortable, and wi- fi is better,” says Mr White.
“So that whole development of the railway service in the North, there has been a great sense of achievement around that.”
Seeing the difference that could be made and the opportunity to make it, that was really the reason I took this role on.