Rail users from all over the north of England gathered in Manchester on Tuesday November 12th to swap stories, share concerns, and hear from industry and Transport for the North on the latest rail developments in the region.
A rail user stakeholder event, organised by Transport for the North’s strategic rail team, aimed to provide delegates with a unique opportunity to feed in their views and hear first-hand from Transport Focus, Network Rail and the train operators the latest news on rail services and infrastructure and how things are changing post May 2018 when services suffered badly from a major time-table melt-down. A key theme for the event was explaining the work organisations like Transport for the North and the rail industry are doing to put rail passengers ‘front of mind’ when considering all-things rail – be it planning a new station enhancement, an upgraded service or the introduction of new trains while working to maintain existing services.
David Hoggarth, Strategic Rail Director for Transport for the North said: “We had a great turnout for this event and a full venue with real interest in the way the industry is shaping up – particularly following the recent rail reviews which are fundamentally changing thinking.”
Eversholt Rail’s Tim Burleigh provided a highlight for the event with an update on the developments in the latest train technologies. This included two pioneering initiatives in the north of England – one on hydrogen-powered trains, and the other on dual-mode battery/electric train technologies.
“Tim also updated delegates on the latest thinking in Very Light Rail (VLR) technologies,” said David, “ this is an area that could become increasingly important as it offers a viable route to bringing rail into communities where traditional heavy rail services might simply prove uneconomic.”
Tim, Head of External Relations for Eversholt Rail – the company that owns nearly three quarters of the new trains currently being deployed in the north of England – told delegates that the North was an important test-bed for the new train technologies. He said plans for the first full fleet of hydrogen trains are now under development, and there is a real prospect that spare capacity from hydrogen production or battery recharging facilities could be used by other modes of transport in addition to trains.
Almost half of the sixty-plus delegates who attended the event responded to a survey on the state of the North’s railways before the event with feedback consistently emphasising that railways are an essential lifeline for many communities – especially for those with limited access to other means of transport.
Jordan Sargeant, Stakeholder Manager for Transport Focus, told delegates that his organisation had evidence trust in both the North’s main rail operators had been hit as they struggled with capacity and reliability issues. He said: “Our findings show that industry must communicate, engage and consult more effectively. It is often not only unclear to passengers if or how their interests have been considered, but also often which industry bodies are involved and their roles in decisions affecting them.”
He also added that, Transport Focus’s research showed passengers had “little sense of a relationship with the railway or individual rail companies. This often leads to conflicting expectations and confusion about where passengers’ money is going.”
In addition to a presentation from Transport Focus on passengers’ views, delegates also received updates from Anna-Jane Hunter, Director North of England Rail for Network Rail; Lucja Majewski Kent, Regional Development Manager for TransPennine Express and Carolyn Watson, Community and Sustainability Director for Northern.
For Network Rail, Anna-Jane Hunter scoped out the scale of the rail programmes Network Rail have been working on in the Region on track, station and electrification work and shared with delegates that there had been ‘challenges’ in delivering some of the projects – especially in relation to electrification work. She added that ‘lessons have been learned and the industry is working together to improve delivery as we continue transformation of rail in the region.’
As well as major projects like the £1.2 billion East Coast upgrade, the Hope Valley Line upgrade work, the trans-pennine route upgrade work and major depot improvements, such as those at Wigan, she said much work has been done on station improvements including the provision of defibrillators on stations across the North and upgrades to facilities such as seating, waiting areas and information screens in Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
For TPE, Lucja Majewski Kent told delegates that the train operator was working to ‘re-imagine and transform the offer we make to customers’ as she scoped out the scale of the work being done to introduce three new fleets of Nova trains as well as completely refurbish existing stock to new standards. While acknowledging issues in the roll-out of the trains in relation to capacity and reliability, Lucja explained that the new trains are bringing in new capacity and offering new routes to take passengers further – these include Liverpool to Glasgow and extending the Liverpool to Newcastle services up to Edinburgh.
Like Network Rail, TPE has been involved in significant station improvement work and the operator is also working on implementing a digital strategy to provide Smart ticketing and offer enhanced wi-fi.
For Northern, Carolyn Watson, the Community and Sustainability Director for the operator said that the focus was on ‘delivering a better experience for customers’ with the removal of Pacer trains from service and the introduction of new CAF trains into service now underway. As the operator with the greatest reach into all corners of the North, Carolyn stressed the importance of the work Northern does with community groups throughout the region and the work it too has been doing to enhance facilities for passengers who are often dependant on the railway for access into key centres.
Both operators, Transport Focus and Network Rail took part in an extensive question and answer session with delegates at the event and remained on hand for one to one conversation later in the afternoon.
David Hoggarth, said: “We were really pleased that we managed to offer the opportunity for an open and honest debate around some of the challenges and opportunities we face here in the North. While it is clear there are still frustrations and concerns, it is also evident that rail users understand that forward progress is being made – but that much more needs to be done so we can provide rail users in the region with services and facilities that really meet their needs.”
As David explained at the event, Transport for the North is now working on the implementation of a number of initiatives to come out of the recent Blake Jones Review on Rail and has also inputted into the national Williams Review which is expected to be published later this year.
