He adds: “Mark Carne is 100% behind it, and it has executive support from the Secretary of State and by extension the DfT. But I think more important than that is the TOCs, and in particular those on the Western Route, are fully behind it.
“There are particular benefits to smaller TOCs such as Heathrow Express, because the beauty of having an independent board is that the small TOCs get a shout, in a way that without this opportunity they might not. They operate for just a few miles at the London end of the GWML, and the whole route is dominated by GWR, but to them the whole operation of Paddington is critically important. So the answer is a route board, which gives an equal voice at the table to all players.
“I’ve got to bring my experience to the party, because I’ve had experience managing railways in the UK and Ireland in times of great change. All the players bring something different, and the big thing for me is getting to know the individual MDs well and then steering the ship. The biggest thing of all for me is that I’m completely independent, and I’ve seen things from an operational view and vice-versa. Everyone around the table is equal to me - I’m not putting anyone above anyone else, and they all fully understand that.”
With no formal decision-making power or ability to mandate change in the way that the Western Route is run or how major improvements are being delivered, Fearn will be relying on his powers of persuasion to achieve unanimity and mutual understanding.
Ultimately successful outcomes can only be achieved with continued stakeholder engagement, and a continued faith that the value of collective decision-making is greater than the sum total of the board’s parts.
In the absence of executive clout, Fearn’s tools will be in the promotion of constructive discussion, and in his ability to guide all participants into ‘speaking each other’s language’.
He explains: “I’m an independent, non-executive chairman, so I can’t summon anybody to anything. But what I can do is encourage them that this is a useful avenue for them. This is not just a board with token representatives, this is about MDs and their influence being discussed under an independent chair.
“If I’m getting lots of apologies, then I’m not winning. On the other hand, if the MDs are routinely coming then there’s obviously value in it. So attendance is a key measure.
“People may ask ‘how can you do anything when you don’t have any executive powers?’ I certainly don’t have that power, but the other people around the table have a huge amount of executive power, so winning on this board is also to channel their efforts through their executive power in a co-ordinated way.
“It is a mechanism by which we can co-ordinate the efforts of those who do have power to make things happen. Most people come to work to do a good job and make a difference, but sometimes their efforts are not co-ordinated with the next person who is trying to do the same thing. If you asked Mark Hopwood or Mark Langman what we are trying to do, they would both probably say ‘trying to deliver a better railway’, but sometimes while railway organisations share that objective their actions don’t always co-ordinate to achieve that. Through this board and other route boards we can aspire to co-ordinate everyone’s efforts to that end result.
“How can we do that? One way is to look at the same numbers, as one of the problems with looking at performance reviews and objectives is that we’re all looking at different numbers. On this board, everyone will have a shared route scorecard and everybody’s committed to having an open agenda.”
Should the board’s members deem the pilot a success, then Network Rail is likely to call for rollout across each of its routes from early next year. The Western Route Supervisory Board will also welcome two new members in the run-up to the first phase of the Western Section of the Elizabeth Line opening between Paddington main line station and Heathrow Airport in May 2018. Crossrail Operations Director Howard Smith and MTR Crossrail MD Steve Murphy will then attend meetings as and when discussions require their presence.
The board will also be joined from time to time by operators without full membership status, but which run across route boundaries - for example, freight carriers and CrossCountry.
Fearn is acutely aware of the diplomatic role he must play in balancing the needs of these secondary operators with those of other board members, while at the same time finding a way to effectively address other operational issues that may affect not only his route, but also neighbouring routes that lie outside of his jurisdiction.
“We will meet every four weeks at Paddington, and out and about on the route, and everyone’s agreed that we’ve got to give ourselves the rest of the year to demonstrate how this will work. What we’ll almost certainly do when we visit a location is take the opportunity to bring someone in from that area.
“I have a few things to think about, as in the same way that the GWML runs into the Wales route , there are operators who run over the Western route but who are not the primary operators - like CrossCountry or freight, for example. One of the things we’ve already said is that from time to time we will want to hear from those operators who are not the primary ones, but who have a very important interest.
“If CrossCountry represented themselves on every route board then they’d never do anything else, because their trains go across all the routes. What we’ll do with those players where Western is only part of their business is periodically encourage them to come. I’ve already said there’s an open door if they want to.”
Speaking to RailReview shortly before the board’s first meeting in April, Fearn outlines what he feels will be the key talking points in his first months at the helm, while at the same time deliberately not trying to pre-empt the outcome of those discussions.
He concludes with an interesting insight into his progressive and forward-thinking style of leadership, while offering a glimpse of what can be expected from his chairmanship as the faults of the past are given no room to cloud the board’s collective decisions on future matters.
“Current performance is probably top priority, and asking ourselves if there are any things we can do jointly now to get it on an upward trajectory. The number two item is, of course, the implementation phases of the various investment programmes. Yes, that means electrification, but it’s not the only one - there’s lots of other work going on the infrastructure side, but there’s also brand new IEP trains. And Crossrail is coming.
“There’s no point crying all night about the fact that electrification is not going as far as we thought it would. What we should be saying is ‘hang on, we have electrification in the first stage , and we have new trains coming, so let’s get on with that’.
“I’m not a whinger who says ‘we should’ve done that’ - let’s just get the best for the passenger. I don’t want the board to get too hung up about very long-term aims that they may or may not be able to affect when there’s loads of things we can do on the work that is being done.
“Don’t lose sleep over something we might not be able to do because it’s not in our gift, focus on the things we can influence. We can’t afford to let fighting fires affect our strategic thinking.”
