One of the pleasures of Informed Sources is that you can never be sure what you will be writing about next. Of course, there’s a running notional contents list, but, quite often, by the time it comes to write the column, something has happened, or a brown paper envelope has arrived, resulting in a totally unexpected new lead story. Which was the case this month with Network Rail’s series of project over runs which leads off a packed column.
About the only railway people who come out of the Christmas/New Year period well are the operators - the passenger and freight companies and
But otherwise it is a gloomy start to the New Year, in contrast to the halo effect from the successful completion of HS1 which brought the old year to an optimistic end in railway terms.
Not that some people didn’t see it coming. Virgin were certainly unhappy about
And the theme running through all the overruns is that Network Rail didn’t know what was happening. TOC MDs were told at the last minute that their railway wouldn’t open after all. At
On the ground contractors were also hit by Christmas blockade fatigue. Too many key workers, such as signalling testers and overhead line sub-contract labour, have been working every bank holiday for years. This year families rebelled and fewer people were available over Christmas.
The results at
Also in firing line is the Office of Rail Regulation. After the
When Network Rail brought maintenance in house it included OHLE and at
As a result, Network Rail announced a number of moves on 18 January including increasing its in-house capability in overhead line engineering. Contractors will also have to reduce ‘significantly’ their reliance on agency staff for the big projects which could increase labour costs. Network Rail will also ‘oversee nationally’ specialist engineering resources, such as overhead line staff.
We have to be careful here because people use the term ‘engineer’ indiscriminately to describe what I would call technicians and fitters. But moving OHLE in-house could increase the current maintenance workforce from 400 to 600 and provide the basis for an electrification department, with its own specialist work force in addition to engineers and planners.
This orgsanisation could cut its teeth on the in-fill projects which are starting to look likely in Control Period 4 (2009-2014) and then oversee the return of wiring main contractors to a competitively-tendered market when the rolling programme, with its steady workload starts.
Something I knew I would be writing about this month was ORR’s initial analysis of the HLOS, SoFA and Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plan. ORR’s conclusion is that the money in the SoFA pretty well matches the aspirations in the HLOS – but not at Network Rail’s current prices.
ORR’s estimates gap between the costs in Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plan (
ORR also indicates where some of the cuts will come to fit the
Everything happened in the week before Christmas including publication of the Competition Commission’s progress report on its investigation of the ROSCOs. This ‘emerging thinking’ was accompanied by no fewer than eight ‘working papers’ covering specific subjects within the investigation.
What emerges from this mass of material is that the Commission is trying to analyse a non-existent market, what this column calls an artificial construct. The market can’t work for various reasons – all considered by the Commission in excruciating detail.
The ROSCOs are arguing that in the absence of a market the only measure that counts is whether the lease rentals of the ex-BR fleets, which are now the focus of the investigation, represent a fair return on the valuations at which the present owners bought the businesses. Such simplicity is rejected by the Commission which has identified nine areas of further work to support its work on profitability. Ho hum.
Finally the column updates a number of running stories, starting with what on earth the Intercity Express Project EMUs will do on the West Coast Main Line. I publish the official DfT Rail explanation.
Then there’s the latest non-development in the Pendolino lengthening saga where DfT Rail has rejected Virgin’s latest proposal. Virgin now wants to start the lengthening in 2010, because the current rate of ridership growth means that the extra capacity will be needed three years earlier than DfT Rail predicts.
DfT Rail has told Virgin that its proposal, based on a two year franchise extension, would not be value for money compared with waiting to lengthen the Class 390s until the franchise is re-let in 2012. Virgin reckons that, since it would rebase the subsidy for the extra two years on actual revenue at the time, subsidy would be cut by £100 million.
Meanwhile Alstom and Angel are continuing to develop their offer with DfT Rail. But the big question is this; having rejected Virgin’s Plan ‘A’, does DfT have a Plan ‘B’? Watch this space.
The Competition Commission’s working papers included the news that DfT Rail expects the Persons with Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability (
This is potentially very important for one of this column’s running stories, the 2020 deadline for all rail vehicles to be RVAR compliant. For example, the RVAR specifies a minimum door width of 850mm but the
DfT Rail also says that in the case of vehicles which cannot be made compliant and for which non-compliance ‘is marginal or of little material effect’, it intends to seek agreement with Disabled Users Committees for ‘adaptations’ which would allow vehicles ‘pass beyond 2020’. That’s brave!
My new year’s resolution is to get away from the desk more often. January started well with an appearance before the Transport Committee giving evidence as part of its inquiry into last year’s Sustainable Railways White Paper. When the inquiry was announced I submitted a paper on the White Paper’s treatment of electrification which is why I was sitting there on 9 December in front of Gwyneth Dunwoody and her fellow inquisitors.
Gwyneth is the queen of the acid aside and she came up with some corkers. If you want to see the Committee in action, including me in by best suit, try this link. http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=769
The next hearing is on 23 January when the opening attraction will be Network Rail and Bechtel being quizzed by the Committee on the
From the committee I went along to
With a packed lecture theatre, it was a lively meeting. Towards the end
Next morning I was up just after five to catch the 07.00 Eurostar to
It was an interesting day. It brought home how much we miss BR Research. The French are about to start running a converted shunter fitted with a fuel cell. They are realistic about the potential, but realise that you need practical experience to make informed judgements. I bet BR Research would have had a hydrogen powered Pacer running on Old Dalby by now.
Overall, fuel cell traction is a long way off – if ever, but, space permitting, I’ll provide an update next month as a corrective to some of the over-optimism in certain quarters.
Last week Transport Secretary stood me up for the second time – well, me and the rest of the transport press. Last year we were all invited to a get to know you reception, only for the event to be cancelled at the last minute. On Tuesday morning I was wondering what on earth I could say that wouldn’t get me thrown out for being old railway when the party was cancelled again.
This week we have the first Fourth Friday Club meeting of the new year at our new venue – the New Connaught Rooms. The speaker is Brian Raven of Heathrow Express.
February is pretty quiet, largely because I am trying to keep my diary clear for research visits for new articles. There are a couple of conferences on fleet reliability and driver management which look interesting, but, as I said at the start, who knows what will happen between now and the next e-Preview?
Oh yes, the winner of last month’s prize quiz was Alastair Holmes who worked out that the unit of measurement was route miles of electrification per year. Yes, Mrs Thatcher put up more miles of OHLE than any other prime minister.
Roger