Robert Hampton

Rail franchising! Does any topic get people more excited? In pubs and saloons up and down the country, people are clustered around tables, excitedly discussing Invitations to Tender, Passenger Service Requirements and non-compliant bids!

No? Just me, then.

The government yesterday announced that the Northern franchise had been won by Arriva (owned by German state railway operator Deutsche Bahn). They had beaten out Abellio (owned by Dutch state railway operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and Govia (70% owned by French state railway operator SNCF). Remember, state ownership of railways is bad, unless it’s a foreign state.

Arriva have a long shopping list of improvements, and it’s long overdue. The north’s rail services have suffered ever since the boneheaded decision by the Department for Transport, back in 2004 under Labour, to let the Northern franchise on a “zero-growth” basis. In other words, the civil servants assumed there would be little or no growth in passengers and revenue, so no additional rolling stock or services were planned.

In fact, it seems that the DfT at the time wanted to perpetuate the “managed decline” of the railway. A report was even commissioned to look for possible cost savings, and speculation mounted that lines or stations could be closed. Much to the disappointment, I’m sure, of some DfT mandarins, the report concluded that the franchise was efficiently run, and even closing the famed “limited service” routes like Ellesmere Port to Helsby (four trains a day), Stockport to Staybridge (one train a week) and Chester to Runcorn (eight trains a year) would save almost no money.

Contrary to expectations, passenger numbers have boomed over the past decade, and the service has struggled to cope. Northern has been forced to beg, borrow and steal whatever trains it can find. A load of Sprinter trains were blagged from London Midland, and pressed into service still adorned with Network West Midlands logos. More recently, some electric trains were procured from Thameslink (and this time, at least, overhauled and repainted) for the newly-electrified routes from Liverpool to Manchester and Blackpool Preston.

It’s still very common, however, to find commuters crammed into too-short trains, many of which are essentially the same as those which worked these lines back in the 1980s and 1990s under British Rail. Worst of all are the “Pacers”, Leyland National bus bodies bolted onto a 4-wheeled chassis, which have all the comfort and ambience of a shopping trolley. It’s clear that things needed to change, and the Government franchise documents made it clear that maintaining the status quo was not an option.

Enter Arriva – or should that be “re-enter”? They did, after all, run a previous incarnation of the franchise, covering mainly the North East of England, back in the early noughts.

We are promised 281 new carriages and new routes connecting destinations were previously a change of train was needed. It remains to be seen whether this will come to pass as advertised. Arriva’s previous form on railway operations is… ahem, varied. It ranges from the good (Chiltern Railways) to the bad (CrossCountry) to the very, very ugly (the original Arriva Trains Northern).

The press release on Wednesday was full of optimism. Is there bad news buried that we have yet to find? Will there be fare increases or staff cuts? Will this be a bold new start for the Northern Powerhouse (ugh) or will we be knocking on Serco’s door, begging for our Pacers back? Time will tell.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of Lime Street station, something new was lurking. Northern Rail’s latest toy, a Class 319 electric, decked out in sleek shades of pastel purple, stood at the buffer stops. In contrast to the burbling engines of the diesel trains on the adjacent tracks, this one sat in dignified silence, pantograph raised, ready for action. The future is electric, and it’s finally here.

I have been waiting years for this moment. It was way back in July 2009 that Labour’s Lord Adonis announced the Liverpool-Manchester electrification would go ahead. A year later, in 2010, it looked like the scheme could be cancelled, as the new Tory government seemed to believe that no money spent by the Labour party could possibly have been spent wisely.

Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed, and the plan, although delayed, finally went ahead. Electrification masts stated sprouting at the lineside between Newton-le-Wilows and Manchester. Then, tangible signs of progress started to appear at the Liverpool end of the line, including the total remodelling of Roby station, to allow express trains to overtake the stopping services.

Then, there were further delays. First with the transfer of the trains, held up because their replacements on Thameslink were not ready. Then with the electrification itself, which was supposed to be finished by the December 2014 timetable change. A rush of last-minute Sunday engineering closures enabled Network Rail to get the last bits of wires in place, with the first passenger trains running on Thursday 5th March.

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Do you travel by train in the north of England? Specifically, the Northern Rail or Transpennine Express franchises?

Both franchises are up for renewal in 2016, and the Department for Transport is seeking views from “stakeholders” on the future of the service. The consultation document (PDF file) sets out the Government’s view.

The good news:

6.12 We are not considering line or station closures within this review of the franchise design.

However, there are lots of other ideas discussed, some of which are slightly worrying. It’s no secret that the Northern franchise attracts a huge subsidy, and “efficiency” is the watchword to try and drive costs down. Fare rises, ticket office closures and reductions in lightly-used services could be on the cards.

On a more positive note, the document also mentions the possibility of changes to TPE’s Scottish services and maybe bringing back a direct Liverpool-Scotland service. This would be a big improvement on the current situation where connections from Liverpool to anywhere north of Preston are quite poor.

We are also asked for views on which services, in particular, are underperforming and could be improved. If you think Teesside Airport deserves a train every 10 minutes, now is the time to speak up!

Of course, the cynical view is that the DfT have already made up their minds, and this is a sham consultation before they rubber-stamp the changes. But the opportunity is there to make your views heard.

You have until 18th August to make your views known. The future of your local railway station could be at stake, so view the consultation document and find out how to respond on the Department for Transport web site.

This whole post is without prejudice to my strongly-held view that the best structure for Britain’s railways is a state-owned not-for-profit organisation running services with the best interests of passengers and taxpayers at heart.

Sort-of exciting news reported by the Chester Chronicle:-

A NEW specialised rail link service could be introduced between Ellesmere Port and Helsby.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has commissioned a report looking into the feasibility of a new shuttle-type service called a Parry People Mover, which would make use of one of the existing railway lines between the two locations.

For the uninitiated, the Ellesmere Port to Helsby line is a short branch line linking the aforementioned Cheshire towns. At Ellesmere Port, connections are made with the Merseyrail service to Liverpool. At Helsby, services to North Wales, Warrington and Manchester are available. En route, the train calls at Stanlow & Thornton, situated inside the huge Stanlow Oil Refinery complex, and Ince & Elton, serving two small commuter villages.

For further background, you might want to read my friend Scott’s blog, all about the time he and I visited the line and got accosted by a security guard at Stanlow.

For many years, the line was effectively treated as part of the Merseyrail network, with system maps showing it in the same green colour as the electric routes. Until 1985, the railway electrification only reached the edge of Birkenhead, so at Rock Ferry passengers from Liverpool were decanted into a diesel train to continue onwards to either Chester or Helsby. Not an ideal set-up, but a fairly slick cross-platform connection meant that it was not too inconvenient.

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You know when there’s lots of snow and the authorities only advise you to travel if its absolutely necessary? I wish I’d heeded that advice last night.

It was our office Christmas party last night. Despite the heavy snow forecast, I headed into town. The weather was clear when I left home, but I emerged from Central station at 7.30pm to discover that the snow had started coming down heavily.

Most of the Christmas party was spent anxiously checking various transport operators’ web sites on my mobile phone. At 11pm, with the weather worsening and rumours spreading about serious disruption on the railways, I decided to head for the station and get home.

Central station was in a scene of chaos: the departure board listing a lot of obviously fictitious trains (one train shown as “Expected 22:36” despite it being 23:05 by now). The man on the ticket barrier, besieged by inebriated people, could only explain that there was nothing moving on the Northern Line at all.

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