Hendy review: Stephen Joseph
Chief Executive, Campaign for Better Transport
Peter Hendy’s interview typically gets lots of things right. He is absolutely right to highlight the need for a long-term
national plan for the railways, about the ability this gives for proper scoping of projects, and about the need for devolution within this plan so that people on the ground are empowered to make sensible decisions.
However, I think he and Mark Carne have yet to get to grips with the culture within Network Rail itself. It comes across at present as quite bureaucratic and inward looking and also ultra-cautious and conservative, looking to find reasons for rejecting things or inflating costs rather than helping people who want to invest in and support the railway.
I say this as someone who wants Network Rail to succeed. We need a strong national infrastructure operator that works for passengers and freight users as well as for the wider communities the railway serves. Breaking it up and selling it off, as some are now proposing, won’t help users or the wider world - if anything such fragmentation is likely to make things worse.
Sadly NR doesn’t help itself, and there is a real danger of a spiral whereby critical and negative public reaction makes NR even more cautious and withdrawn, and it loses some good people fed up with being criticised or with extensive bureaucracy… hence making the organisation even more likely to manage things badly and face even more criticism.
NR needs to lead the rail industry into outgoing, active partnerships with the wider world - with local authorities (see my column on page 22), with operators and with rail users.
This is not an easy cultural change to make, but it is essential if NR, and the industry as a whole, is to take advantage of the growth in rail use and the investment flowing into the railways that Peter rightly welcomes.
Read the original interview: Hendy means business at Network Rail.
