KEY POINTS:
- Passenger/taxpayer funding
- Service quality is key
- Having a say in the franchise process
- Passenger power
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To Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport:
Imagine. Peter Fahy commutes every day from Fleet in Hampshire to London Waterloo. Peter travels with South West Trains ten times a week. Assuming he works around 45 weeks a year, allowing for leave and sickness, he uses the service about 450 times a year. His rail-only annual season ticket now costs £3,520.
Peter has just taken part in an online poll about the possible extension of the franchise for another three years. Who could be better placed to judge whether or not the train company should keep the franchise?
Far-fetched? Perhaps, but in the current debates about the future of rail franchising, one thing is clear: the voice of the passenger should get a boost.
Any new system has to work for passengers, taxpayers, the Government and the private sector. Keeping all parties happy is going to be difficult unless the new system is radically refocused on the needs and voice of what is now the rail industry’s principal source of funding… the passenger.
For too long rail and bus passengers have been the passive recipients of major decisions made on their behalf behind closed doors. The voice of the user and main funder of Britain’s railways should be radically boosted in a process that needs to be opened up to scrutiny. The shift in funding of the railway from the taxpayer to the passenger makes this a priority.
While you can argue about what financing is included and what is not, it is clear that the journey towards the railways becoming funded principally by its users has moved quickly.
The stated intention to shift to a 75% passenger/25% taxpayer split started in 2007. Mainly due to spiralling revenues, fuelled by continuing increases in passenger numbers, we are already at a position where the passengers are putting in nearly two pounds for every taxpayer pound.
So why is central government still taking most of the major decisions about the railway? Why do devolved governments aspire to take over much of this role?
As Local Economic Partnerships are given increasing responsibilities, alliances between train companies and Network Rail areas take root, and the Rail Delivery Group (which brings together Network Rail and the main transport groups) assumes more leadership, it is clear that the ‘passenger universe’ is changing. Old assumptions about who controls the power and the purse strings are changing fast.
This is, in itself, not a bad thing. Long gone are the days when a decision at HQ led to change across the country. However, how the passenger voice is heard and represented becomes more fractured and (potentially) weaker.
Just when passenger power should be growing, is the producer interest in danger of getting back in control? Surely it is we passengers (not the proxies of elected representatives) who should be driving this industry, and the private sector and Network Rail responding?
Should the franchising authority include a minimum number of passenger representatives and/or be formally required to seek and heed the views of users of the services?
Some large-scale strategic decisions will always need to be made by Government because of the political ramifications - HS2 and international links, for example. But many other decisions could be better made in a different place.
However, the current situation is so far from this. Transport Focus has just finished research on what (if any) involvement passengers want in the decision-making processes in the rail and bus industries. The results are fascinating, and are available on our website (http://www.transportfocus.org.uk/research/publications/june-2013-passenger-transport-giving-passengers-a-greater-say).
The media coverage of the West Coast franchise problems has clearly sensitised rail passengers to a degree not seen before. Totally understandably, most passengers do not think about this day-to-day… but they are clearly now thinking about it a bit more.
