RDG - feeling the Maynard love

This written answer from Rail Minister Paul Maynard…

Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough): To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Rail Delivery Group; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys): The Government is supportive of the Rail Delivery Group’s role of providing industry leadership in the railway to achieve better outcomes for rail users. We continue to work closely with them to ensure they are well placed to provide the strategic leadership needed to deliver key reforms in the railway.

There's lovely.

Partnership Railway - more gloom for the Roscos?

So, today the rail industry launched its ‘In Partnership for Britain’s Prosperity’ plan.

Backed by all passenger train operating companies and Network Rail, as well as rail freight companies and the supply chain acting in partnership as one railway for Britain the plan contains the following commitments:

1. Strengthen the railway’s contribution to the economy, keeping running costs in the black, freeing up taxpayers’ money
2. Increase customer satisfaction by improving the railway to remain the top-rated major railway in Europe
3. Boost local communities through localised decision making and investment
4. Create more jobs, increase diversity and provide our employees with rewarding careers

The RDG press release contains a host of supportive quotes from business and the industry, as well as this from NR CEO Mark Carne:

“Over the next 18 months passengers and communities across the country will see a transformation in the services that they receive. Thousands of new trains will be introduced as the culmination of years of heavy investment in improving our railway comes to fruition, stimulating the economy by delivering new job and housing opportunities."

'Thousands of new trains'?

Has anyone told the Roscos? Or did Mark mean 'vehicles'?

Manifesto responses - Germolene or Iodine?

This from Howard Wade...

Interesting to compare and contrast trade associations responses to the recent spate of manifestos.

Here is Rail Delivery Group  Chief Executive, Paul Plummer, who may be in danger of sleepwalking over a cliff...

"Working together, by the end of the next parliament, we will be running 6,400 extra services a week and 5,500 new carriages. On top of this, train companies are making a range of changes to improve the experience of passengers from simpler ticket buying to better information. This is all part of a £50bn-plus upgrade plan to improve journeys and to make local economies stronger and fairer, now and for the future.”

Plummer was, of course, speaking on behalf of RDG's 'train company members' (ie the TOCs and FOCs, pointedly excluding Network Rail which is gagged during Purdah).

Compare this with recently appointed Railway Industry Association Chief Exec, Darren Caplan. He pulls no punches, as many of his members are fighting for survival as Plummer's "£50 bn plus" is consumed by both Treasury and boiling frogs:

"We hope that [insert party of choice] recognise and share our concerns about the need for continuity of year-on-year funding for the rail supply sector, which faces the ongoing challenge of planned projects being postponed due to funding limits and which could ultimately lead to passenger and freight services suffering as a result. 

"The current 'Control Period 5' (CP5) will see significant reductions in spending in 2018/19, which could lead to asset degradation, reductions in sectoral employment, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises in the supply chain going bankrupt, and a negative impact on productivity. This in turn could lead to capability gaps and increased costs when the delayed work is commenced, perhaps several years into the next Control Period, CP6."

No doubt about who is speaking for the real railway industry.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Steve Strong...

Reading the words of Mr Plummer I can't help but feel that it lacks key references to 'strong and stable' and 'for the many, not the few'?

Perhaps RDG could amend their statement to read:

"This is all part of a £50bn-plus upgrade plan to improve journeys and to make local economies stable and strong; for the many, not the few.”

You are welcome!

All The Stations - worth a watch

A Pilgrimage of Grice undertaken by Geoff and Vicki, supported by RDG...

From the All The Stations website:

All The Stations is a project to travel to ALL the national railway stations in Britain in just three months, and to create an online documentary film about the journey.

Here is a vlog the team filmed yesterday:

Good effort!

Worth a watch. Worth a follow.

Meanwhile, Eye hopes that RDG will contact RFG and RSG so that freight and the supply chain can also offer to showcase their contribution to Britain's railway?

Three percent (3%) will take some nudging, so every channel counts.

If we are serious about 'One Railway', Eye would expect nothing less.

Rail Sector Deal - the PM offers some clues

Word reaches Eye that the great and the good are meeting tonight to discuss what a Rail Sector Deal might look like.

The original announcement of possible Sector Deals in January, managed to, ahem... overlook Rail, in favour of:

• Life sciences
• Ultra low emission vehicles
• Industrial digitalisation
• Nuclear industry; and 
• the Creative industries

No matter!

Happily Number 10's original announcement made clear that:

"This is not an exclusive list and the government is prepared to work with any sector which can organise behind strong leadership to address shared challenges and opportunities".

So far so good.

And with almost perfect timing for tonight's RDG/RSG discussions, Theresa May made clear at today's PMQs that the Industrial Strategy would be regionally focused "tailored to the needs of particular parts of the country".

Surely the PM had the rail industry in mind, with places like Derby, Doncaster and the North West having vibrant rail clusters with the capabilities to become global centres of excellence!

One can only hope, therefore, that said 'particular parts of the country' are well represented at tonight's dinner?

RDG unveils radical plan for Lincolnshire services

People of Immingham - rejoice!

Those nice people at the RDG have promised you a significant uplift in services.

According to the FT today, reporting on the decline in coal traffic:

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, said there would be space for “potentially thousands” of extra passenger services every year.

707s to Grimsby? That'll do nicely.

BRoR: First national TV ad campaign for 20 years

Coming to a Devil's Lantern near you...

Due to run for 'more than three weeks' on TV and at cinemas; and will be supported by posters on trains and at stations.

Good to hear both goods and passengers mentioned.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

That's some confidence in the product.

Not a train to be seen!

UPDATE: This from Paul (Brigg Line) @Saturday_Only...

@TheFactCompiler Poster at Brigg Station, locals giggle at it as they have a 1 day a week services, running to an anti social timetable pic.twitter.com/gzQiWry4PR

— Paul (Brigg Line) (@Saturday_Only) 20 March 2017

UPDATE: This apparently from ‘Tulyar’…

Good to see the Rail Delivery Group embracing both the tradition and diversity of today's railway in their new logo.

Much as new nations emerging from former colonies, or ethnic/cultural reformations attach significance to the colours and symbols (cont’ p94)…

I wonder if there is (or readers might attribute) significance to the colours used and their positions on the logo. 

Eye suspects it had something to do with not using any existing TOC house colours (future franchise winners - fill your boots!).

TSC - Suggestions for future inquiries

This from the Transport Select Committee... 

Transport Committee invites ideas for future inquiries 

The Transport Committee today invites the public to suggest subjects for inquiries to take place later in the year.

Topics should relate to the work of the Department for Transport or one of its related bodies, such as the Highways Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency or Network Rail.

The Committee Chair, Louise Ellman MP, has said:

“If you have an issue which you think we should look at we would like to hear from you. Please write to us, email, or submit your suggestion using our website or Twitter.

“Your suggestions will be important in shaping our future work programme. Once we have decided on which inquiries to hold we will publish all of the suggestions we received and what we decided in relation to each of them”.

“That said, I must also emphasise that the Committee does not take up individual cases and will not look at local transport issues or specific transport projects unless they raise issues of national significance.”

The Committee last invited the public to suggest inquiry ideas in March 2013. The suggestions received and the Committee’s decisions about its programme were published in June 2013. 

Future programme: 2013-14 

Further information 

Submissions should be 250 words or less and sent by e-mail to transcom@parliament.uk or via Twitter using @CommonsTrans 

Nothing to see here, move along.

RDG on ONS and Network Rail

This from the Rail Delivery Group...

“The railway is undergoing one of the biggest programmes of improvement in its history delivering more trains, better stations and faster journeys and this will not change.
 
“With help from Government, the rail industry will remain focused on delivering its massive investment programme. This is encouraging more passengers and businesses to use the railway, helping pay for further improvements. The effective partnership between public and private sectors is a winning formula for the railway that is delivering for passengers, businesses and taxpayers."

Funny... something is missing!

Where is the obligatory reference to the triumph of privatisation?

Labour responds to changes at RDG

This from Lilian Greenwood MP, Labour’s Shadow Rail Minister...

“This announcement underlines the case for further reform. The Rail Delivery Group is not fully representative of the wider rail industry and it is lacking in transparency, despite its increasing influence over Government policy.

“Ministers must now ensure essential decisions that affect passengers are subject to proper levels of scrutiny, not hidden away behind a cloak of commercial confidentiality.”

Looks like the new RDG communications and policy teams will be busy...

Alas Smith now Roams!

So farewell Graham Smith, the man who acted as midwife to the mighty Rail Delivery Group!

Graham steps down as Director General of RDG today, after two and a half years in the job and prior to that spending a year supporting the Rail Value for Money study.

Not one to go quietly into the night Graham's renewed focus will be on the Railway Benefit Fund, where he will set up a central fund-raising group concentrating on encouraging corporate donations and contributions from the major players in the industry.

Owner Groups and suppliers can expect knocks on the door where Graham will deliver a pointed message encouraging those who profit from the industry to put something back for those employees that have fallen on hard times.

And quite right too!

With bags of experience Eye suspects that a number of people will also be knocking at the door of Albany Smith Management.

However, Graham assures Eye that he will not be taking commissions, although: "if somebody wants me to help them on other things and it's something that interests me I'll consider it".

Quite so, you can't keep a good consultant down...