Tory manifesto - Welsh railways

This from Julian and Sandy...

With the Prime Minister facing a difficult day in Wales over her U-turn on the 'dementia tax' I thought it might be worth looking at what the Tory party manifesto had to say about rail in Wales.

Here's the relevant section:

Wales plays a crucial role in our modern industrial strategy, in the promotion of growing industries in Wales and in the additional powers handed to Welsh local authorities and businesses to promote local growth. Welsh businesses will be central to our new trade and export policies, and our investment in improved infrastructure will help Welsh companies bene t even more from the UK single market than they do now. We will modernise the railway infrastructure across Wales, including new and improved stations, and explore ways to harness Welsh natural resources for the generation of power. 

Not sure whether this applies to narrow gauge lines as well as standard gauge, but clearly it is all jolly promising...

I found it by searching the Tory party manifesto for 'single market' and in the Wales bit there is an intriguing reference to the benefit of the UK single market. I had no idea that was under threat too.

A new Welsh border would make accounting on the English leg of the Holyhead-Cardiff Red Dragon Express extremely tricky.

Tory Party manifesto - Rail

Here are the sections on rail from the Tory manifesto launched today...

Thin!

Ministerial responsibilities - the right Hammond finally gets rail!

Is there a worse website in the world than .gov.uk?

No matter. 

Thank God for twitter!

With a bowler tip to @wmtucker, who pointed Eye to the pages giving the new ministerial transport team's responsibilities:

Baroness Kramer

Baroness Kramer was appointed Minister of State for Transport in October 2013.

The minister is responsible for:

• HS2 – Phase Two
• rail – funding and futures (including RIS, SOFA, ORR, stations policy)
• cities and urban renewal (including growth deals and Heseltine Review)
• localism and devolution
• local connectivity (including smart ticketing, buses, taxis, light rail and trams)
• accessibility and equalities
• future transport (including ULEV)
• natural environnent (including biofuels)
• SMEs
• international

Stephen Hammond MP

Stephen Hammond was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport on 4 September 2012.

The minister is responsible for:

• rail – (including operational issues, major projects, fares and ticketing, Rail Delivery Group reform, franchising)
• London (including Crossrail)
• maritime
• Better Regulation
• corporate

Robert Goodwill MP

Robert Goodwill was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport in October 2013

The minister is responsible for:

• aviation
• strategic roads and Highways Agency
• motoring agencies
• road safety and standards
• freight and logistics – including lorry road user charging
• local roads
• cycling
• HS2 Phase One
• Europe

Eye congratulates Stephen Hammond, the minister for rail. It's about time!

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

I think there may be a stiff contender for the worst website in the world.

The website of Eye favourite, the Soi Disant Veteran Observer, continues to feature a twice failed candidate for London's Mayor and a still very much dead Madam Chair of the Transport Select Committee!

Perhaps the 'Soi Disant' played a role in designing the 'award winning' gov.uk portal?

Conservative reshuffle - Goodwill in

Robert Goodwill has been appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary at @transportgovuk #reshuffle
— UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) October 7, 2013

Note this is a PUSS role rather then a ministerial one.

Robert Goodwill is the MP for Scarborough and Whitby.

UPDATE: This from Wikipedia with a bowler tip to ASLEFs @SimonWeller...

He takes a keen interest in steam engines and owns several; he once brought an engine back from the former Czechoslovakia to restore it.

Crank alert!

Hammond back!

This from @Number10gov...

PM appoints Stephen Hammond as Parliamentary Under Secretary at Department for Transport.

Finally!

Rail brief please.

Mostly missing minister replaced by Burns

The new Minister of State for Transport is Simon Burns.

Biog below from his website:

Simon was born in September 1952. He was educated at Christ the King School, Accra, Ghana; Stamford School, Stamford, Lincolnshire; and Worcester College, Oxford, where he obtained a BA Honours Degree in Modern History. He also has an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from Anglia University.

Simon's Experience
Simon was Member of Parliament for Chelmsford from June 1987 – April 1997, for West Chelmsford from May 1997 to April 2010, and elected Member of Parliament for Chelmsford in May 2010.

From 1975 to 1980 he was Political Adviser to the Rt. Hon. Sally Oppenheim MP. From 1980-83 he was a journalist and company director of What To Buy for Business magazine, and from 1983-87 was on the Policy Executive of the Institute of Directors.

He has been active in politics since 1970 when he was a founder member of the Rutland and Stamford Young Conservatives, and founder and Chairman of the Stamford School CPC.

In 1972 he worked for Senator George McGovern in his presidential election bid against Richard Nixon. In December 2007/January 2008 he spent 10 days working on Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign in the New Hampshire Primary. From 1973-75 he was a committee member, Political Action Officer and Secretary of Oxford University Conservative Association, and a member of the Oxford Union.

From 1977-81 he was Treasurer, Southfields Ward, and a member of the Treasurer's and Executive Council, Putney Conservative Association. In 1983 he was Conservative candidate in Alyn and Deeside (North Wales) when he reduced Labour's majority from 6,800 to 1,368. In 1986 he was Chairman, Avonmore Ward, Fulham Conservative Association.

Simon has been Parliamentary Private Secretary to Timothy Eggar MP, and the Rt. Hon. Gillian Shephard MP, at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until July 1994. He has also been Assistant Government Whip (1994-1995), Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury (1995-1996), & Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health (1996-7).

Simon Burns MP celebrating the resurfacing of Lady Lane following his successful lobby of Essex County Council - September 2009

In June 1997 he was appointed opposition Front Bench Spokesman for Social Security, a position he held until August 1998 when he was appointed Front Bench Spokesman for Environment, Housing and Planning, until June 1999. He was elected a member of the executive at the 1922 Committee in July 1999 and Treasurer of the 1922 Committee in November 1999. He was a member of the House of Commons Health Select Committee from 1999 – 2005.

In September 2001 Simon was appointed Shadow Health Minister and was reappointed to this position in May 2005. From December 2005 to May 2010, he was the Senior Whip in the Opposition Whip's Office and since May 2010, he has been Minister of State at the Department of Health. In January 2011, he was appointed a Member of the Privy Council.

Aside from his Shadow Ministerial duties, one of Simon's proudest achievements in Parliament since 1997 was successfully piloting through Parliament his Private Member's Bill – the Football (Offences and Disorder) Act 1999 – to tighten up the law on football hooligans, and pressuring the Government to strengthen legislation further in 2000 by giving the courts the power to withdraw hooligans' passports and prevent them from causing trouble abroad.

Simon is interested in American Politics, collecting political books and swimming.

Following, ahem, a slight problem on the roads, Eye suggests he devotes his considerable skills to safely focusing on the needs of rail users.

A big Eye welcome to Patrick McLoughlin

So. Farewell Justine Greening and the mostly missing Theresa Villiers.

And a big Eye welcome to Derbyshire Dales MP and former Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin, the new Secretary of State for Transport.

Biog below from the Conservative Party site...

Patrick McLoughlin

Member of Parliament for Derbyshire Dales

Patrick was born in 1957 in Staffordshire, where he was educated first at Cardinal Griffin Roman Catholic School and then at Staffordshire College of Agriculture.

He worked for five years in agriculture, before following his father and grandfather - both coal miners - and going to work underground at the Littleton Colliery in Cannock.

He became a member of the National Union of Mineworkers and then an industrial representative for the National Coal Board's Western Area Marketing Department.

He began to get involved with the voluntary arm of the Conservative Party from 1977, becoming a member of several National Committees and serving as Vice-Chairman of the National Young Conservatives from 1982-84.

Before becoming an MP in 1986, Patrick gained valuable political experience in the world of local government, sitting on Staffordshire County Council from 1981 to 1987 and Cannock Chase District Council between 1980 and 1987.

In June 2005, Patrick was appointed to the Privy Council.

POSITIONS HELD:

• MP for West Derbyshire, 1986 -
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Transport, 1989 - 1992
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Employment, 1992 - 1993
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, 1993 - 1994
• Assistant Government Whip, 1995 – 1996
• Head Commissioner at the Treasury, 1996 - 1997
• Pairing Whip, June 1997 - 1998
• Deputy Opposition Chief Whip, 1998 - 2005
• Opposition Chief Whip, Dec 2005 - May 2010
• Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip, May 2010 - 2012
• Secretary of State for Transport 2012 -

PROUDEST POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENT:

• Winning my Parliamentary by-election with a majority of 100

 INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF POLITICS:

• Walking
• Gardening

 FAMILY LIFE:

• Married with two children

 Now awaiting junior posts...

A Conservative vision for the railways. Be afraid...

Oh dear!

In just 24 hours ConservativeHome has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Yesterday it reported on the growing pressure from Tory MPs to peg rail fare increases at RPI+1.

So far so good.

Today, alas, there is piece from Tim Leunig, Chief Economist of CentreForward. offering his thoughts on how to keep the cost of the railways and fares increases down.

Aside from usual suggestions from the Mad Vulcan School of Transportation Management (eg abandon electrification and HS2, close stations and lines, encourage more car use, stuff the North etc...) Leunig comes out with this particular gem:

"Create a third class on London commuter routes – standing room only. Taking seats out is much cheaper than lengthening trains and platforms. A £1 flat fare standing room only deal would make economic and political sense. Journey times are under 30 minutes, and many people are standing anyway."

Can anyone spot the abstractive nature of Loonie's proposal?

PM enters Derbyshire bear-pit and survives

Following the debacle of Derbygate the East Midlands rail industry no longer appears shy of letting government know exactly what it wants.

The Prime Minister was in Derbyshire yesterday to gee-up the troops ahead of the local Elections.

The timing of his visit could not have better, with Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan also having secured an Adjournment debate last night on upgrading the Midland Main Line.

Alert to the lobbying possibilities cheeky local paper the Derby Telegraph decided to welcome the PM with a frontpage demanding electrification of the MML.

Here a delighted Mr Cameron grimaces as he holds yesterday's paper having promised to 'look closely' at the scheme.


With happy memories of previous ministerial visits to Bombardier ahead of the Thameslink decision, let's hope this picture doesn't come back and bite him!

Deltic rails at Deadwood's history rewrite

The mad Vulcan is at it again.

This near illiterate anti-rail rant from Redwood's blog:

Listening today to criticisms of the governemnt’s aim to get the UK railway system to a similar level of efficiency as contiental systems by reducing some 30% of cost, I was struck by people telling me our system is dearer becausee it is privatised. I seem to remember passanger numbers and freight volumes rising strongly, and subsidies falling, when it was fully privatised. Then costs and subsidies rose swiftly again ocne the main part of the railway, the track and signals were renationalised. The old nationalised monopoloy had a poor record with falling use, safety problems and high levels of subsidy.

Happily the Welsh national anthem mangling car-loon has been neatly fisked by Captain Deltic in the blog's comment section:

You claim, presumably from Conservative mythology that “the old nationalised monopoloy had a poor record with falling use, safety problems and high levels of subsidy”.

Fact. Between 1983 amd 1989/90 subsidy fell, at 1989/90 prices from £1,329 m to £587m.

Fact: Over the same period Government subsidy as a share of total passenger revenue fell from45% to 25%. Today it’s around 50%

Fact. Ridership increased from 18.3 bn passenger miles to 20.9bn (21.3bn in 1988/89.

Fact: Over the same period Freight tonnage was down slightly from 145.1 m tonnes to 143.1m (149.5m in 1988/89)

Fact: By 2000 when Railtrack was forced into adminstration passenger miles were 23.7 billion and freight tonnage lifted down to 95.4 million.

1989/90 is chosen deliberately because it marks the end of the economic cycle. Note that passenger ridership in 2000 had only just topped the 1988/89 peak.

Good effort and happy birthday Captain Deltic!

That is all.

Captain Deltic's bonus bashing quiz

Captain Deltic asks "Who said this and when?"...

But Network Rail's remuneration committee still allowed substantial bonuses this year despite a formal letter warning that performance had been mixed. All the regulator could do was to say that he was "surprised and disappointed".

Under a Conservative Government, if the regulator is disappointed, the senior management will feel it. We will give the regulator the power to inflict real financial pain on Network Rail via the confiscation of reduction of bonuses in cases of serious under-performance.

At present, Network Rail's senior management is theoretically accountable to "members" who are supposed to function like the shareholders of a public limited company. In reality they do no such thing. The senior management can get away with scooping the bonus pool because an amorphous grouping of 100 members, the appointment of which can be vetoed by the very management team they are supposed to scrutinise, simply aren't strong enough to stop them.

So a further measure a Conservative Government would adopt to give Network Rail much stronger incentives to respond to their customers is reform of the company's governance.

We will streamline and shrink the membership to turn it into a supervisory board. We will ensure that members will be appointed independently of Network Rail's management.

And we will make sure we have people on it who will provide a strong voice for passengers and for train and freight operators, in setting the overall direction of the company and holding its management to account.

And, in addition, we will inject more contestability into areas of Network Rail's remit. At present, the company has an almost complete monopoly over publicly funded rail improvements.

Clue: It's not just promises that get broken.

UPDATE: This from The Archer...

I’m feeling pedantic so I’ll point out that no promises were broken as we don’t have a Conservative Government.

As I'm sure members of the 1922 Committee will be only too pleased to confirm...

ORR nobbled!

What price Independent Economic Regulation on today's railway.

The supposed guardian of the level playing field is the Office of Rail Regulation whose website proudly proclaims:

The Office of Rail Regulation is the independent safety and economic regulator for Britain's railways

Alas, is that 'independence' now in question?

On the 25th May this year the ORR published Periodic Review 13 - First Consultation

On page 38 there is a table (5.1: Provisional high-level PR13 timetable) listing the activities that need to be completed so that PR13 determination can be implemented on the 1st April 2014, the start of CP5.


Item 3 in a long, long list is:

By 31 July 2011 - We publish a review of the role of open access operators in on rail competition

Nope.

No you didn't.

A great big fat #Fail !

And nor, apparently, has ORR met the revised publication date, of 'by the end of September'.

Eye wonders what could be causing such extended delays?

Congestion in Marsham Street?

UPDATE: And lo, like an Autumn mist, the congestion disappeared as the light shone upon it!

ORR Consultation on 'The potential for greater on-rail competition' can be found here

SW1 Offices To Let - Suitable for Bid Teams

This from Virginia Water...

Seems like the civil service cuts are finally biting at Daft as half of Great Monster House is apparently being cleared and let out to commercial tenants.

Hopefully this might raise a bit of extra cash for filling in potholes and the like.

Unclear if all 4 ministers will be required to share an office...

Special Adviser pay-scales published

So the Cabinet Office has published the list of Special Advisers and their salary ranges.

The Secretary of State for Transport's SpAds are:

• Sian Jones
• Paul Stephenson

As might be expected Petrol-head has driven a hard bargain when recruiting these titans of the political world.

Sian and Paul's salary ranges are in Civil Service Pay Band 2 (£52,215 - £69,266) but presumably, as no further details of their income are given, below £58,200 (other less penny-wise ministers may care to take note).

Railway Eye readers not versed in the Machiavellian world of Westminster and Whitehall may wonder why Special Advisers, of whatever political hue, are known as SpAds.

Eye suspects it has something to do with an inability to acknowledge clear danger signals...

Announcement on electrification?

Exciting news from the Lobby...

According to the Downing Street spokesman Petrol-head will be making an announcement on electrification today.

Eye wonders what that could be about, what with it being St David's day and all...

UPDATE: This courtesy of Dodds...

At approximately 4:15pm, the transport secretary, Philip Hammond will make a statement on the Intercity Express programme and rail electrification. [the statement will be repeated in the House of Lords].

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

I'm texting this from Wheeler's, which is a bit infra dig, and has earned me a supercilious sneer from the sommelier who has just poured a perfectly chilled pouilly fuisse to accompany... (get on with it! Ed)

My DfT mandarin guest has just remarked cryptically that at the SoS' four o'clock follies this afternoon we may learn that the IEP situation has developed 'not necessarily to Japan's advantage'.

Curious.

UPDATE: This from Sir Mycroft Beeching...

I suspect that my younger brother texted his note after his third bottle of pouilly fuisse!

I have it on the highest authority that in Tokyo bottles of saki are being gently warmed at this very moment.

Truly a triumph of non-compliant bidding!

UPDATE: This from Marsham Street Watcher

Look forward to electrification to Cardiff - Hurrah!

And the IEP going ahead in both electric and bi-mode forms - Boo!

NR restructuring - let them eat cake!

This from BR Old Timer...

Having just read the latest edition of Modern Railways I am intrigued by Roger Ford's reference to the possible privatisation of the Anglia Route by July 2014 -- conveniently just ahead of a general election (if the Coalition holds together).

After all, is not Anglia where it all began!

BR had plans for a new business-led vertically-integrated structure, and put them to the test by creating a new Anglia Region (in 1987/88, I think), bringing together the engineering functions with InterCity Anglia and NSE Anglia and LT&S — bringing together the passenger businesses and, of course, the Railfreight and RfD businesses, too, as they then were, to determine their engineering requirements and oversee the engineers' budgets.

John Edmonds was made Anglia's General Manager and Graham Eccles the Regional Operating Manager.

When the Tories won in 1992 they dismissed BR Chairman Sir Bob Reid II's 'Future Rail' proposals, proceeding instead to develop their privatisation plans. J Edmonds then became CEO of Railtrack, overseeing the concept that the company merely outsourced management and maintenance of the infrastructure, which started to go belly-up with the Southall and Ladbroke Grove collisions, then the Hatfield crash, and ultimately the Potters Bar derailment.

Strange to relate, the latest announcements on future restructuring of Network Rail were made just before NR indicated they would submit a guilty plea (as the successor to Railtrack) at the Crown Court to Health & Safety charges arising from the Potters Bar crash, following last year's much-delayed inquest.

Graham Eccles went on to become Divisional Manager on BR's South Central Division and then, after privatisation, was appointed MD of SWT, which has long argued for a return to vertical integration.

Now we are told the Wessex Route is to be one of the first two to be subjected to the new structure proposed by Network Rail, whose board now includes Graham Eccles as a Non-Executive Director — while brother Richard is employed by NR to mastermind the Route Utilisation Strategies.

Is the railways' future now to be Eccles' shaped?

Get ready for the new Railways Act

This from Louise Ellman at Thursday's Westminster Hall debate on Investment Priorities for the Railways:

The Select Committee takes rail investment extremely seriously and will give the McNulty report full consideration in due course, along with the Government's White Paper on the future of rail.

So. Petrol-head has managed to create time in the legislative timetable for a Railways Bill.

In ye olden days the convention was that a Green Paper would be issued in advance of a White Paper.

For those under the age of forty, a Green Paper was a clearly announced consultation document containing policy proposals for debate and discussion before the Government made a decision on the contents of a White Paper (a White Paper, of course, contains detailed proposals for legislation).

Eye assumes that the endeavours of McNulty and LEK constitute such a consultation.

Meanwhile the industry had better brace itself for another Tory legislative restructuring of our industry. Let us hope it is more succesful than that of 1993?

With places on Petrol-head's High Level Group as yet unfilled it will be interesting to see who will be invited to sup with the devil.

Not only will these exalted ones help shape Hammond's exciting new Railway's Bill, they will also create a structure for the industry that could last for the next twenty years.

Meanwhile, those who care about the railways, but left out in the cold by McNulty's 'industry consultation' and adrift from Hammond's HLG may take comfort from the 'Yew-turn' the ConDems were forced to execute over Forest policy this week.

After all, it's not just woodland that has branches.

Rail privatisation has failed - Official (again)

Oh how we laughed!

The last time the current lot were in power we were assured that Nationalised industries were woefully inefficient at running railways and that what was required was the sharp suits and shouty braces of the private sector.

And lo, so it came to pass, the railways were flogged off and costs trebled (shurely the tax payer achieved better value for money? Ed)

So what are we to make of this information briefed to most of the Sunday papers?

Deutsche Bahn, Renfe, Albellio and Trenitalia are interested in bidding for the InterCity West Coast franchise.

DafT - have you no shame?

Perhaps Cameron, Petrol-head or Cruella might care to apologise, on behalf of the "back to basics" adulterer Major, for having got it so terribly, terribly wrong?

Philip Hammond delivers a Curate's Egg?

Cautious congratulations to the Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP for today's announcement on restructuring the industry.

In particular his decision to chair the new High Level Group tasked with examining:

"...the options for getting those responsible for track and train to work together to drive down the cost of the railway for the benefit of passengers and taxpayers, while improving the quality of services."

Two wins here.

Philip Hammond has put his personal reputation for delivery on the line. It will not be an easy task corralling and refocusing all the vested interests that benefit so much from today's bloated industry structure.

Secondly, and no less importantly, Mr Hammond has decided not to entrust leadership of the HLG to a civil servant.

Mandarins, by their nature, like to accrue power.

By taking political leadership of the HLG Mr Hammond appears to believe it will have a finite life.

Once it has delivered the industry's new structure it can cease to exist. Allowing the railway to manage its own affairs, within parameters, but without micromanagement.

So far, so good.

However, it is worth remembering that when the Tories were last in power they gifted the country the dysfunctional and costly railway we have today.



Whilst applauding the future direction outlined by the Secretary of State, Eye hopes he is able to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Tories forced to clear up the mess they made

From Thursday we can expect to hear a series of announcements outlining how much railway the country can afford.

Amusing of course that it is a Tory Government that is being forced to make these difficult decisions.

Perhaps if they had listened in the first place then we wouldn't be in this mess?

Here a siren voice from August 1993:

"I get the feeling from talking to Government ministers that they see the post-privatisation British Rail as the same public service we have today, but with a Marks & Spencers private enterprise gloss.

"They seem to forget that private enterprise also gave us Maxwell, Barlow Clowes, BCCI et al.

"The scope for making a lot of money out of running railways, to the ultimate disbenefit of the traveller, is I suspect, considerable."

How prescient of Captain Deltic, for it was he.

Meanwhile, as the axe comes down, don't forget who got us into this mess.