Great British Railways: Replaces Network Rail & more changes - updates only (non-speculative)

[HSTEd]

What they are likely to mean is ETCS or ERTMS

Note that Network Rail already has plans to introduce these...

On a timetable that seems to recede one year for ever year that passes however!

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

This from Chapter Three

The Secretary of State has begun this work by commissioning a ‘Whole Industry Strategic Plan’ that will become the first 30-year strategy. By starting now, the first strategy can be ready in 2022, with partners across the sector and beyond consulted as it develops.

Crikey long term vision what it will contain will be interesting to see but no doubt Transport Decarbonisation needs ought to be central

 

[coppercapped]

Introduced when UK Conservative Leon Brittan was competition commissioner?

That is a question with the same intention as the better known 'When did you stop beating your wife?'

 

[MasterYoda]

I'm very concerned that the likes of LNwR and some other commuter railways get until 2026 to "coast" until GBR take over everything. They can be safe and secure in the knowledge they will sign off their contracts. They could provide bare minimum customer service and facilities until 2026. They could run their fleet of (in that case, 350/2's) into the ground without refurbishment and just about make them safe.
Over the next five years, I worry that we could see a drastic decline in the quality of commuter, intercity and regional railways, with no major consequences to the TOCs as they now have a fixed "out" date at the end of the current contracts. What might DfT/Government do to prevent a decline in the passenger railways over the next few years and encourage TOCs to keep investing and innovating?

 

[Snow1964]

DfT has now published more reports associated with Williams review
(far too long to quote, so just listing subject names)

Passengers experience of recovery from disruption

Passenger experience of rail disruption handling in Great Britain

Views of rail passengers on unplanned rail disruption handling from research conducted in 2019.

www.gov.uk

passenger Trust in Rail

Passenger trust in rail in Great Britain

Views of rail passengers on trust in the rail industry from research conducted in 2019.

www.gov.uk

Passenger views on rail fares and pricing

Passenger views on rail fares and pricing in Great Britain

Views of rail passengers on rail fares and pricing from research conducted in 2018 and 2019.

www.gov.uk

Unconnected to Williams review, but latest Rail Statistics also in batch published

Rail statistics

Data and statistics about the national rail system in Great Britain.

www.gov.uk

.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I'm very concerned that the likes of LNwR and some other commuter railways get until 2026 to "coast" until GBR take over everything. They can be safe and secure in the knowledge they will sign off their contracts. They could provide bare minimum customer service and facilities until 2026. They could run their fleet of (in that case, 350/2's) into the ground without refurbishment and just about make them safe.
Over the next five years, I worry that we could see a drastic decline in the quality of commuter, intercity and regional railways, with no major consequences to the TOCs as they now have a fixed "out" date at the end of the current contracts. What might DfT/Government do to prevent a decline in the passenger railways over the next few years and encourage TOCs to keep investing and innovating?

As I understand it, only a few franchisees have agreed termination payments with DfT and been offered a direct award on the new national contract terms for 2 years (with DfT options to extend).
These are the FirstGroup franchises - SWR and TPE; GWR was already on a post-Covid new contract, and Avanti has a zero termination payment.
The rest (Govia, Abellio, Arriva etc) are still in negotiation with DfT, so it's not clear if they will do a deal.
Once they sign up, GBR will be in charge within 2 years, probably earlier.
The devolved operations will do whatever WG/SG/TfL/Merseytravel decide is appropriate.
The TOCs will quickly switch to whatever requirements/incentives the government sets them via GBR, or they won't get paid.
I expect some of their staff will transfer to GBR anyway, to work across all TOCs.

 

[Bald Rick]

This from Chapter Three


Crikey long term vision what it will contain will be interesting to see but no doubt Transport Decarbonisation needs ought to be central

That ‘s all been underway for around a year.

 

[Horizon22]

This from Chapter Three


Crikey long term vision what it will contain will be interesting to see but no doubt Transport Decarbonisation needs ought to be central

30 years seems like a bit of an extreme strategy. That’s more of a ‘vision’ which will be broken into manageable chunks. Will the 5 year CPs still exist in some form or other? That’s how Highways England works which seems fairly smooth. Of course rail projects (electrification) can take longer but realistically should be manageable in that time frame. Too much stop-start progress.

 

[BrianW]

DfT has now published more reports associated with Williams review
(far too long to quote, so just listing subject names)

Passengers experience of recovery from disruption

Passenger experience of rail disruption handling in Great Britain

Views of rail passengers on unplanned rail disruption handling from research conducted in 2019.

www.gov.uk

passenger Trust in Rail

Passenger trust in rail in Great Britain

Views of rail passengers on trust in the rail industry from research conducted in 2019.

www.gov.uk

Passenger views on rail fares and pricing

Passenger views on rail fares and pricing in Great Britain

Views of rail passengers on rail fares and pricing from research conducted in 2018 and 2019.

www.gov.uk

Unconnected to Williams review, but latest Rail Statistics also in batch published

Rail statistics

Data and statistics about the national rail system in Great Britain.

www.gov.uk

.

Expression 'Good day to bury bad news' is coming to mind. I've not read any of these documents but hope someone will! Government may be hoping otherwise?

 

[AdamWW]

30 years seems like a bit of an extreme strategy. That’s more of a ‘vision’ which will be broken into manageable chunks. Will the 5 year CPs still exist in some form or other?

I think so.

"Great British Railways wil.....develop a 30-year strategy and 5-year business plans"

And they point out that BR suffered from a lack of stable funding and the CPs were a big improvement.

"The government will at least maintain the current infrastructure settlement, which runs until 2024, and will provide subsequent fve-year infrastructure funding deals from 2024 onwards — including for Great British Railways, once it is established."

 

[Purple Orange]

I'm sure I read a reference to a 30 year plan somewhere, so those projects may not be happening soon.

Well it depends on what you call ‘soon’. HS2 won’t be operating fully for 15-20 years but us under construction now, NPR will be a multi-decade project, Trans Pennine Route Upgrade is underway now and will probably be on going throughout the 2020s. A 30 year plan doesn’t mean nothing happening soon.

 

[Ianno87]

Well it depends on what you call ‘soon’. HS2 won’t be operating fully for 15-20 years but us under construction now, NPR will be a multi-decade project, Trans Pennine Route Upgrade is underway now and will probably be on going throughout the 2020s. A 30 year plan doesn’t mean nothing happening soon.

Precisely the point. For big stuff to be delivered in 30 years time, planning of it needs to start now (that'll be pretty much the duration of HS2 from conception in the late 2000s to delivery, for example)

 

[Purple Orange]

Precisely the point. For big stuff to be delivered in 30 years time, planning of it needs to start now (that'll be pretty much the duration of HS2 from conception in the late 2000s to delivery, for example)

Indeed. No doubt there will be projects that come along with much shorter time frames too.

 

[Mikey C]

A 30 year plan for electrification sounds reasonable, creating a rolling programme, whether fast or slow

 

[physics34]

Wednesday at 9.30 on Parliament TV (online) is the Transport select committee meeting which should go deeping into GBR

 

[Taunton]

But NR is years behind the rest of Europe rolling it out.
France, Japan and Germany have all had cab signalling and ATC for decades.

USA since the 1920s, obviously at first on steam locos. Compulsory since then for over 79mph. A number of lines which have lost their passenger service have had it removed, but it's still standard on Amtrak routes.

 

[topydre]

I note that they already have from (almost) Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli, which is what the report was talking about. Hence my amusement.

AIUI, the "state of the art signalling" is a glorified software upgrade to the existing ERTMS. The best summary I've heard is that BR never made this much fuss when they refurbished the rodding at Caersws Signal Box!! I'd view it more as a renewal rather than an enhancement...
Having said that, the present system still has problems sometimes, so any upgrade should be good.

 

[AdamWW]

AIUI, the "state of the art signalling" is a glorified software upgrade to the existing ERTMS. The best summary I've heard is that BR never made this much fuss when they refurbished the rodding at Caersws Signal Box!! I'd view it more as a renewal rather than an enhancement...

Exactly!

It already has a signalling system that is more advanced than most of the rest of the network.

 

[Annetts key]

It already has a signalling system that is more advanced than most of the rest of the network.

Oi! There’s nothing wrong with the fixed distant reflective sign I cleaned the other month!

 

[swt_passenger]

Expression 'Good day to bury bad news' is coming to mind. I've not read any of these documents but hope someone will! Government may be hoping otherwise?

Wasn’t buried that well, the disruption report is already covered in its own thread started yesterday:

New Government research on disruption handling

There is new research by the government about passenger views on disruptions: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/passenger-experience-of-rail-disruption-handling-in-great-britain Some of the results are obvious (passengers dislike disruption, etc), but I thought other details were...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Bald Rick]

Wasn’t buried that well, the disruption report is already covered in its own thread started yesterday:

New Government research on disruption handling

There is new research by the government about passenger views on disruptions: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/passenger-experience-of-rail-disruption-handling-in-great-britain Some of the results are obvious (passengers dislike disruption, etc), but I thought other details were...

www.railforums.co.uk

The documents were scheduled for this release date about 2 weeks ago...

 

[AdamWW]

Wasn’t buried that well, the disruption report is already covered in its own thread started yesterday:

New Government research on disruption handling

There is new research by the government about passenger views on disruptions: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/passenger-experience-of-rail-disruption-handling-in-great-britain Some of the results are obvious (passengers dislike disruption, etc), but I thought other details were...

www.railforums.co.uk

I imagine that if governments intend to bury bad news, they're thinking more of the mainstream media than forums like this.