If you took a train to work today in the North of England you might have been lucky and experienced one of the region’s new trains, but it’s more likely that this wasn’t the case and that, somewhere along the line – your patience will have been tested.
It could have been on arrival at the station when you looked for a place to park your bike or car. It could have been accessing the platform with heavy bags – or having nowhere to keep out of the wind or the rain. It could have been that the train was late, or worse still, cancelled. Or when it did arrive, it could have been a relic from a bygone age – a drafty museum piece – more at home in a period drama than a modern westernised country.
The reality driving the rail revolution
But let’s just say you did find somewhere to park-up, the train was on time, and it was a new one. Even then, the chances are that somewhere on your regular commute, the train will trundle at well below the speeds it was designed for, or worse still, stop, making way for another train crossing its path. Or it may simply dawdle along behind a train making more stops than yours and be slotted into the wrong place.
You do this day in, day out, as you work to feed to your family – try to build you career or build your business. Factor in that, on many journeys, you might even have to stand for want of a seat you’re paying thousands of pounds for, and you have a flavour of the reality of life on the railways in the North.
So, as Strategic Rail Director for Transport for the North, I really do have an appreciation of the problems passengers face. If for no other reason than – I am one. I also see first hand the massive potential of rail in the North – and the positive response by passengers where new trains or additional services have been introduced.
This makes it all the more disappointing that some passengers are not getting the service they deserve; performance is poor; key investments have been delayed, and the rail industry has been in disarray. Everyone now recognises – things have to change. They have to change for passengers and for the staff who, despite the challenges, day-in-day-out strive do their best to deliver a good service.
Good News
I can report there is some good news here – things are changing. The North is now home to England’s first sub-national transport authority. It is working hard for rail passengers. It’s at last getting new trains, a billion pounds worth between Northern and Trans Pennine Express, and, through its Northern leaders is both calling the rail industry to account and putting the case for the investment and change that is needed.
Radical reforms are now under consideration. It is widely recognised that devolving decision-making to those closest to passengers will help us do things better. When things went wrong in 2018, and there was a timetable meltdown – we didn’t just watch it happen – we called the industry to account and asked for solutions, such as an amended timetable and an industry expert to oversee the recovery. This helped stabilise services and ensure compensation was put in place for those who faced the worst of the disruption.
Devolved Thinking
Devolution will help us go even further. More power to utilise local knowledge in decision-making will mean investment is better targeted and operational problems are better understood and acted on. We have been unequivocal about what we expect from our rail franchise operators – and from Network Rail in providing the required infrastructure. The North has been short-changed on infrastructure over many years – too much ‘make do and mend’. More investment is urgently needed, and we are working hard to get it.
Of course, securing investment is one thing – ensuring it can be rolled out smoothly and efficiently is another. That’s why we have a plan, and a clear investment programme. Our Northern leaders have already put their weight behind a £7 billion ‘Northern Infrastructure Pipeline’ for the first half of the 2020s – a list of interventions that will mainly be delivered by Network Rail, Highways England, HS2, the train operating companies and local authorities. This should include schemes like the Transpennine Route Upgrade, Cross Manchester Capacity and reliability, investment in the Calder Valley Line, the Hope Valley Line and further electrification schemes. We also want to see schemes that improve journey times across the network – making the train more competitive with the car. These are just some of them – but they are symptomatic of a network that has been starved of investment for too long. Without putting in this new capacity and capability the North will continue to struggle. Our economy depends on it.
Taking Action
In the shorter term though, there are some more immediate challenges. Where there have been failures, such as with Northern, our Members have made their views clear. The Secretary of State has set out a process for Northern and we have been clear that, if the franchise should prove unsustainable, then to re build passenger confidence, the Operator of Last Resort should be brought in.
Putting the Passenger First
What matters to me most is getting the best possible outcome for passengers in the short and longer term and protecting the investment we have worked so hard for. There is an opportunity here to re-set things and put passengers at the heart of decision-making as called for in the Blake Jones review. There has been movement in the right direction over the last few months. There is now a clear consensus that radical change is needed and that local decision-making will play an important part in that change.
I’m quite clear that any interim arrangements with Northern must be a stepping stone to the Williams Review outcomes – providing greater local accountability, and better responsiveness. We have fed into the Williams Review and we have made it clear we want to see greater devolution, more local accountability and better integration of track and train.
Rail passengers in the North of England have every right to expect their connections to work, their fares to be good value and for them to be easy to understand. They want rail staff to feel empowered and information systems to tell them what they need to know, when they need it. They deserve access to stations for all rail users and for travel to be safe and comfortable – a 21st century experience.
Going Forward
Just a few short years ago, the mechanisms for delivering what we need simply didn’t exist. Today though, things are different. Our elected representatives from across the North now regularly meet on the Board of Transport for the North to agree on transport interventions and initiatives that will shape the future fortunes of the region for decades to come. We have a plan. We have a radical investment programme.
What that means to you and me is that the train should come when it is supposed to, it will reach its destination on time – and you should have a very good chance of getting a seat. It doesn’t seem a lot to ask does it? But in order to meet that challenge, brave investment and management decisions will be needed. Bring it on. The North is ready.
David Hoggarth, Strategic Rail Director