New ‘independent’ rail report has “nothing new to offer”
The Rail Freight Group (RFG) has criticised a new report on the ‘lessons
of rail privatisation’ saying it has “nothing new to offer”.
‘Public procurement – the
lessons of rail privatisation’, a new paper from
Baroness Sally Greengross’s Transport Forum, was published to draw together
lessons from the privatisation process of British Rail and the UK rail sector,
clearly seeking to set some principles
ahead of this year’s General Election.
However, chairman of the RFG Tony Berkeley, said the
paper published on 21 January was a missed opportunity, lacked clarity of
purpose and offered nothing for the future of rail freight in the UK.
He said: “Privatisation does not come into the debate
at all, apart from in the title of the report.
“It is actually about the rail passenger franchising
process and, for this, offers some interesting suggestions. However, it
offers nothing about freight, perhaps unsurprising since no member of the panel
has any freight experience.
“It also offers no views on infrastructure management
and, while stating that the passenger franchising model 'has proved to be
flawed in several ways' (page 22), only offers ideas for changing the franchise
contracts rather than commenting on whether it is better to have state or
privately-owned franchises.”
He went on to say that the report failed to mention
the positive growth and development of the freight sector since British Rail
was split up.
“The real issue is that the railways were restructured into a number of
separate companies, infrastructure manager (Railtrack and the Network Rail),
passenger operators and freight operators, ROSCOs etc, some in the public
sector and some in the private sector,” he added.
“The report speaks about growth in passenger traffic
but suggests that this may largely be due to growth in the economy, but fails
to mention the 60% growth in freight traffic over the same period.
“It omits completely the role of the ORR, in dealing
with access to the network, appeals, and setting Network Rail's efficiency
targets and other outputs of the Periodic Reviews, apart from commenting
on international benchmarking. One wonders whether the panel knows what
the ORR does!
“Competition is dismissed as 'some on-rail competition
has emerged in the rail freight sector.' Surely the existence of six
freight operators competing against each other for service quality, prices and
innovations, and significantly increasing its market share deserves more than
this?”
The report states that 'all train operators are
subject to a licensing regime that is increasingly governed by
decisions taken at a European level', which said inferred that this is impeded
the railways' management freedom.
“Do the author's want interoperability of rolling
stock or do they want to return to the era of boat trains to Folkestone,
ferries to
He added that the Irish rail system, which has always
been held up as a shining example of growth in rail passenger traffic within
the public sector, was doing what British Rail did 20 years ago, closing lines
and connections and doing its best to discourage continuing rail freight that
it does not want.
“Customers in the Republic are now beginning to fight
back and telling the Irish government and the European Union that enough is
enough; they had better allow fair competition onto the tracks and quickly,
implement the EU Directives requiring open access, competition, with a
compliant charging regime, and stop behaving like a latter day Dr. Beeching
when it comes to freight.
Berkeley added: “On page 8, the report asks for an independent
supervisory board to 'represent each side to each other' and to 'attempt to
broker a deal and act as referee.' It names Network Rail, ATOC etc and
again forgets freight, but what is the point of this Board 'within the
structure of privatisation?' All the parties already talk to each other
and generally work out solutions acceptable to all. In the few occasions
when they do not, then the ORR acts as an effective appeal
body.
“So the RFG concludes that the report is not about
privatisation of the railways at all, but about restructuring of the passenger
franchising process. For the wider railway businesses, it has nothing to
offer.”
