Transport for the North’s (TfN) Rail North Committee met last week for a Consultation Call to discuss a number of topics including: the consultation on East Coast Main Line Rail Services; Rail Reform and the next steps; the latest on the Manchester Recovery Task Force work; Rail Operations across the North, and the work TfN is doing to help drive better journey times, improved accessibility for stations, and a more reliable rail network.
TfN has received strong representations from members ever since proposals for a revised timetable for the East Coast Main Line were shared by train operators in early June. The proposals include more frequent services between London and the North on the route, but in some significant instances, at the expense of existing East-West services in the North.
Members were in agreement that the timetable proposals in their current form were not acceptable and backed a proposal by North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, that a call should be made to put the timetable changes on hold and for a Task Force to be established to develop a better outcome for regional services.
The Committee then discussed Rail Reform following the publication of the Williams-Shapps White Paper. The Paper proposes a major shake-up of the railways, the biggest reform in the last 25 years, with the aim of bringing track and train under a single ‘guiding mind’ to give clear accountability and more joined up decision-making.
While, as officers pointed out, the role of bodies such as TfN and local authorities is not yet clearly defined, TfN is closely engaged with both the rail industry and the Department for Transport in shaping up the new model and has already commissioned some new work on how ‘Great British Railways’ might work in the North, with a full proposal expected to be brought before members by the end of September.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham told the meeting the next steps in the process were ‘tremendously important’ as there is clear need to articulate and shape what new political governance looks like for the North without just ‘having it done to us’.
He said he couldn’t accept a national guiding mind if there was no clear voice for the North of England. He added that he wanted to see TfN as the arbitor and voice of the whole of the North ‘knitting us all together’.
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe told the meeting “If we didn’t have TfN we’d have to invent it” adding that, as a mature organisation, TfN could create a model which could become a ‘plug and play’ for other similar bodies.
During a Rail Operations update members heard that the new train operator contracts now in place provide a much greater opportunity for TfN members to shape the future of rail services in the North during the business planning cycles.
Rail North Partnership Director, Gary Bogan said: “It changes the most fundamental aspects of how we work”, adding, “there is a real opportunity for us to shape things”.
TransPennie Express’s new Managing Director, Matthew Golton, said the new contract enabled the operator to take the “long term view” and the operator was looking to consult closely with the communities it serves as it works towards expanding it services across the North and into Scotland.
Northern Trains reported it is now beginning to focus on how it can decarbonise its railway with many of its trains expected to be 35-40 years old by the middle of the next decade and only 25% of its network currently electrified.
More immediately, the operator said it had made good progress with issue it had with some of its new trains with 24 out of 25 now back into service. It added that it is still seeing a strong level of leisure travel and is looking closely at how commuter patterns are likely to develop as we move towards September.
The meeting also heard an update on the work-in-progress in relation to the Manchester Recovery Task Force with enhanced collaboration with the DfT unlocking a roadmap for future infrastructure and services.
Rail specialist Richard George joined the meeting to explain that one-to-one discussions were still continuing on the proposed service changes, but that we “still have the same choices we had two or three years ago”.
While he said he was “fearful there were no easy fixes”, he said the specification for the new timetable would need to be decided “pretty soon”. He said the Castlefield Corridor remained at ‘the heart of the specification’.
Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis highlighted the issue of connectivity between Manchester International Airport and Sheffield suggesting the Government needs to give the issue its “best attention” and maybe bring additional resource adding that this would be a good way of “showing levelling up”.
A full update on progress of the Manchester rail congestion issue is expected at a Rail North Committee consultation call in July – seeking endorsement on the principles of a timetable change in December 2022.
Finally, three other areas of TfN Business Planning were covered. Jim Bamford, Transport for the North’s Head of Investment Planning, reported TfN had been working closely with Network Rail on a Journey Time Improvement initiative which bakes in a new process into Network Rail’s renewal programme to ensure when work on routes takes place as assessment is made of potential line-speed improvements.
Members were shocked to hear of line speeds of just 30mph between Leeds and Bradford and services between Southport and Manchester slower than in the days of steam.
Several pilot studies have already been commissioned with promising results and a bid has been put in to provide half a million pounds to assess around a third of the lines in the North. The initiative has been widely welcomed by officers and members and could help establish a new and smarter way of working across the whole rail network in the North.
On rail network reliability, the meeting heard TfN has recognised that between the train operators and Network Rail’s responsibilities there are some potential infrastructure interventions to help performance and reliability which simply ‘fall between the cracks’.
A list of such schemes which could improve reliability is currently being drawn up and the delivery plans to support the initiative are expected in the coming months.
Strategic Rail Director, David Hoggarth reported on TfN’s work on establishing a minimum standard for stations including accessibility – an issue which significantly impacts the North.
He said TfN was looking at the best ways of the North getting its fair share of the national pot for station accessibility enhancement work with Rail North Committee Chair, Liam Robinson, pointing out that in the Network Rail’s current Control Period only 10 stations across the whole of the North of England where being funded for work.
He said: “We need to work to get all our stations accessible. We need tactile platforms too. We also need to focus on the longer term on our plan for level boarding.”
Cllr Robinson said “engineering solutions” were needed that “treated everyone equally”. A paper on station accessibility is to be provided to the TfN Board consultation call in July.