Colin Wheeler considers the impact of the Labour Government’s plans to re-nationalise the railways.
In the run up to this year’s General Election, the Labour Party announced its intention to once again nationalise our railways, with Sir Keir Starmer making it clear that the aim is to reunite train operation with the provision of rail infrastructure.
Both the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and Network Rail have been developing how this may best be achieved. The ORR has pointed out that, in 2023, 1 in 25 trains were cancelled compared to just 1 in 50 a decade earlier. Rising costs and fares are also an immediate concern. Annual fare rises were 5.9% in 2023 followed this year by another 4.9%.
The average age of the railway workforce also continues to rise. By 2030 it has been estimated that there will be around 50,000 retirements. The potential loss of skills is a major issue and concerns have been expressed by the National Skills Academy for Rail.
ROSCOs and train operation
The previous nationalisation had both good and less good features which were revealed over recent years. Train operation by commercial companies has had its problems resulting in the ORR having to intervene and become “the operator of last resort”. Conversely the creation of Rolling Stock Leasing Companies (ROSCO’s) has been instrumental in updating and improving the quality and comfort of our passenger rolling stock. Arguably this has generated good, if not excessive, profits for those who invested in ROSCO’s.
New Transport Secretary
The new Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh is the youngest ever to be appointed as a member of the Government Cabinet. One Sunday paper described her as “Passenger in Chief”. I certainly hope this is not the case.
When the new Derby-based Great British Railways (GBR) is set up, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is committed to re-uniting train operation and rail infrastructure. The political agenda needs to include developing cooperative relationships with the relevant trade unions, presumably building on the use of the ‘operators of last resort’ format which has grown over recent times.
In a complementary move, Lord Peter Hendy has stepped down as the chairman of Network Rail and is taking up a new role as Transport Minister within the new Labour Government. High on the political agenda must be the speedy resolution of existing industrial disputes. Hopefully, the election of the Labour Government will make this easier.
Safety and freight
India’s railways do not enjoy the best of safety records, but I suggest some of their initiatives might be considered for our own. Maybe there will be relevant proposals in the Rail and Urban Transport Review’ which is due to be published soon. Indian Railways has been considering detailed proposals for new high speed passenger trains but has now taken the decision to build them itself using its own workshops. Even more interestingly, it has decided to build a network of freight-only electrified lines as part of its initiative to reduce carbon emissions.
Looking ahead
Our future railway’s new organisation will be well positioned to contribute to the achievement of global warming targets. The creation of dedicated freight only railway routes, updating the procurement, maintenance and operation of electric freight trains, and radically improving both train and wagon load freight with simplified and cost cutting timetabling, are all obvious areas for improvement.
In addition, the use of artificial intelligence to drive and control traffic movements are worthy of detailed development now. Inspection and maintenance of freight wagons needs improvement now. Also reducing if not eliminating segmented long freight driver shifts is an obvious area for improvement to reduce the RAIB’s future workload.
Image credit: keir.starmer.mp (Flickr)
