At Transport for the North, Rail Director David Hoggarth takes a similar view of the Plan for Rail: “We’ve broadly welcomed the review. There’s a lot in it that we were looking for - particularly joining up track and train, which is absolutely fundamental and one of the key issues following privatisation and over the years as things have become more fragmented.”
Hoggarth praises the plan’s introduction of a guiding mind and more accountability, arguing that despite the passionate commitment from many rail people, they work in a system that blunts their effect and makes it hard to see where decisions are taken and strategies made.
“There’s a recognition that there’s a role for sub-national transport bodies such as Transport for the North, but I think that isn’t as clearly defined at this stage as we would have expected. It’s an opportunity for us to engage with the transition team as we’re doing with Network Rail and the DfT to try and develop that role.”
He argues that TfN can help GBR: “It’s about cementing our role and our partners’ role in the North, now that we’ve established a track record of working with the industry. In a way, we’re a ready-made partner for GBR. I think the other side of it is that we are multi-modal because we have a strategic transport plan that looks 30 years ahead, and that’s a good link with the GBR strategy. We can bring that multi-modal strategy, underpinned by really strong evidence. We’re doing rail in the real world.”
For Holmes, much depends on the shape of future relationships. At the moment, he has a good relationship with Network Rail’s route that runs the tracks around the West Midlands. And TfWM helped form the West Midlands Trains franchise that runs his local services.
“It will be interesting to see where that balance of influence and power goes in the future. I’m optimistic we’ll find a way to get that balance right, but there’s a lot unknown,” he says.
Of course, Birmingham and its surrounding area has more than one rail operator, and this calls for more co-operation. There was some interest in one passage in the Plan for Rail which said: “Local teams will be well placed to improve co-operation with local communities and local leaders. A pilot of integrated local teams will be undertaken as a priority.”
Holmes tells RailReview that he thinks that’s more about rail industry partnerships rather than devolution. But if he’s wrong, he has a decent contender for a pilot of integrated local teams… and that is the West Midlands Grand Railway Collaboration.
He says: “It started off life as a supervisory board, but it was always intended to be more than that in the West Midlands. It is gaining a life of its own, particularly in this new environment, in bringing Network Rail and train operators with us together in the region to make the rail network function better for passengers. So, we’re already a bit ahead of the game in this space.
“That’s important in a region like the West Midlands because we have five train operators, with Great Western Railway on the edge in Worcestershire as well. That’s six operators that come together to create our network of services.
“If you have six operators, certainly in the current model, you have six different means of accessing ticketing and information, six different cycle policies, six different sets of peak-time ticket restrictions, and so on. From a customer perspective, it doesn’t feel much like one network, so the Grand Railway Collaboration is designed to take a whole industry approach to how we manage the rail network in the West Midlands.”
That variation is something that GBR should be ideally placed to remove, but there’s a risk that GBR pushes too far and re-creates the era of Rail Blue. The double-arrow symbol of that era endures and features on every UK station and on tickets. The only place you don’t see it is on rolling stock. Perhaps that will change.
This is a tricky area. Privatisation receives criticism for fragmenting the network with too many operators and too many brands. But there are strong brands out there: ScotRail is one whose name dates back decades, while more recently LNER and GWR have established very strong brands.
Holmes acknowledges the influence of Transport for London’s brand in the one the West Midlands developed. It now adorns trains and stations, and the organisation’s website includes the line: “When you see the diamonds, you’re near transport in the West Midlands.” More widely, the logo decorates 12,500 bus stops, so it’s not something that GBR could - or should - dismiss lightly.
Holmes tells RailReview: “I do support GBR having a national brand and the retention of the BR double-arrow symbol. Having said that, I think there is opportunity. Even under BR, there was opportunity for local branding within that, so the question is not ‘if’ but ‘how’ we join the two together.
“There has to be a state where the two live in harmony and complement one another. When I was at London Overground, every station had the double-arrow symbol outside it as well because it was part of the national rail network, and all the suburban stations in the West Midlands will remain part of the national rail network.
“They all have the double-arrow symbol on them today, and they all have the West Midlands Railway symbol because it’s the symbol of our local rail network. That model works, so something that looks like that will be good.”
If it has the brand, does it have the money to invest in the way that Centro once did? The short answer is no. There is a transport levy that TfWM could raise from local authorities, but Holmes argues that its taxation powers are limited.
“So, money has to flow from central government. In fact, it did that back in Centro days - there was a rail grant that let them decide how they were going to fund in terms of local rail services. That rail grant disappeared in 2007.”
Should it come back?
“Well, it depends on the model you choose for the partnership. If some of the money could be channelled through local bodies to pay for rail services, I think that makes a huge difference. Organisations respond to who’s paying them. So, if there’s opportunity to give us power in the future by passing through funding to us, that’s a huge opportunity and would reflect the importance of the rail network to the region. There would certainly be opportunities there.”
