Modern Railways – April 2019

http://www.modern-railways.com April 2019 Modern Railways 11

News Front

DFT MANAGEMENT OF RAILWAYS RAPPED

TAXPAYERS’ MONEY ‘NOT ADEQUATELY PROTECTED’, SAYS PAC

THE HOUSE of Commons Public

Accounts Committee has criticised

the Department for Transport’s

management of the railways. In

its report on rail management

and timetabling, the committee

highlights issues including the

May 2018 timetable disruption,

the Govia Thameslink Railway and

East Coast franchises and strategic

management of programmes,

including Crossrail.

Referencing the timetable

disruption, the committee calls for ‘a

clear governance and accountability

structure for the railway’ to be set

out ‘once and for all’, suggesting it

is ‘alarming that the Department

has not ensured a clear line of

ownership and oversight of the

timetabling process, and that

it did not sufficiently probe the

assurances it was getting from

industry on progress’. It laments a

lack of detail in how DfT is setting

out what it is doing differently

to encourage joint working

between operators and Network

Rail in new franchise contracts

or how it is incentivising closer

working in contracts already let.

Regarding the GTR franchise,

the PAC says it is concerned the

Department is ‘still not adequately

protecting taxpayers’ money’. Noting

the various travails of the franchise,

the committee highlights that the

latest commitment of £15 million

to be spent on improvements for

passengers is yet to be detailed. It

suggests that outside the Thameslink

Programme the franchise ‘failed

to include sufficient investment to

secure improvements for passengers’.

On the East Coast route, following

the end of the Virgin Trains East Coast

franchise and the transfer to LNER,

the PAC calls for clarity on when

service improvements promised

by VTEC will be delivered, seeking

this information by the summer.

More widely, DfT’s strategic

management of the railways is

criticised in the wake of the delays

to Crossrail, for which DfT is a

joint sponsor with Transport for

London. The PAC suggests DfT’s

management ‘is not evolving

quickly enough to be able to

procure and execute complicated

projects such as Crossrail so that

they do not face cost increases

and delays’. The committee says

it remains unconvinced that the

Department ‘had a sufficient and

timely grip on the programme

(Crossrail)’, suggesting DfT ‘did not

sufficiently probe the assurances

given by Crossrail Limited over

the progress of the programme

and its expected cost’. It compares

the difficulties with similar

issues seen on the Thameslink

upgrade and Great Western

modernisation and highlights

concern about the forthcoming

Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade.

Also criticised is progress in

making the railway more accessible

for passengers with disabilities,

with the committee highlighting

the slow speed of action. It calls for

information by the summer setting

out how DfT will ensure operators

make sure passengers with

disabilities can use the railway and

to set out an enhanced monitoring

regime to ensure compliance.

FARES REFORM PLANS SET OUT BY RDG

THE TICKETING and Settlement

Agreement (TSA) could be replaced

and fares moved to a basis of

single-leg pricing, if proposals

from the Rail Delivery Group are

taken forward.

The outcome follows a

consultation run by RDG in

partnership with Transport Focus

last year, which attracted nearly

20,000 responses along with

feedback from over 60 organisations.

Among those, 84% of people said

the current fares system is not fit for

purpose and should be reformed.

Based on the consultation, the

RDG has set out five principles for

reform: value for money, fair pricing,

simplicity, flexibility and assurance.

The outcome of the exercise is

the proposition that passengers

should pay only for the travel they

need with a system designed to

give them the best value fare.

A two-stage approach to

regulatory reform would first

see government, industry and

stakeholders work to replace

the TSA, which was setup at

the time of privatisation based

on structures inherited from

British Rail. Instead, a new set of

regulations would underpin the

fares system, which would allow

a single fare to become the core

building block of pricing, enabling

fares better suited to passengers’

needs and removing current

inconsistencies. This structure would

also enable better use of modern

technology such as smart and

Pay As You Go (PAYG) ticketing.

RDG says the changes would

enable the ‘unbundling’ of fares

through the move to a single

fare as the basic unit of pricing.

Operators will be able to create

discounted, premium, train-specific

and personalised variations of

such fares, ensuring fares are

priced appropriately to the market.

Regulation would move from the

day return and seven-day season

ticket to the maximum price paid

for travelling over the course of a

week, with systems programmed

to deliver this automatically

and passengers to benefit from

travelling at off-peak rather than

peak times. On longer-distance

routes regulations would be based

on the overall level of revenue

that can be raised, while allowing

appropriate demand management

on individual services. Adoption

of a system based on a single-leg

structure would enable pricing

of local fares to be disaggregated

from the national structure,

such as allowing devolved

authorities to influence fares.

RDG says the proposals form a first

part of the industry’s submission to

the Williams Review, but is seeking

to start the process of change prior

to the review reporting. This could

begin with a review of the TSA

and a series of trials over the next

year, which would cover single-leg

pricing on a long-distance main

line operator, PAYG on a suburban

commuter operator and leg-based

pricing on a long-distance operator.

Contracts would be revised and

agreed, with the potential for the

programme of reform to be rolled

out over the next three to five years.

Open access operator: this is Hull on 8 March 2019, with a former Great Western HST that Hull Trains has deployed as cover for

unreliable Class 180s and, at left, an Intercity Express Train brought in by HT as a promotion for its forthcoming IET service. Ian Lyall

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