FGW sends Laira fitters to London
First Great Western’s Old Oak Common on Sunday February 9 was a busy place. That morning Production Manager Colin Jeffery welcomed extra staff in the form of a team from Laira.
The Plymouth men had volunteered to come to London to help their colleages cope with the extra work load that resulted from Laira being cut from the rest of FGW’s network by the sea wall collapse at Dawlish.
FGW Engineering Director Andy Mellors explained that Dawlish had trapped eight HSTs in the west, of which four had been in service and four under maintenance. East of the block he had 44 sets. Another was due back from a C6 major overhaul at Kilmarnock and would come to OOC while one of the trapped sets would be taken north in its place.
He added that there were 13 units west of Dawlish and they would be worked on by Exeter Depot staff relocating to Laira as and when exams were due.
Laira Team Leader Al Trevorrow told RAIL he was looking forward to some real work. Pulling a pen from the top pocket of his overalls, he joked: “This is usually the only tool I use!”
Working at OOC was similar Laira, team members told RAIL, but the depot was much bigger. The London depot also has the ability to put an entire HST rake of coaches through the wheel lathe during a night shift if faults are found during a daytime exam. And it was a C-Exam the men were here to perform. It would take most of the four days they expected to be in London, they reckoned.
They normally work four days on and four days off. Their last Laira shift had finished on Friday morning and they’d driven to London on Saturday. The team throught they might be back at Laira on Tuesday but for now they were keen to crack on with their C-Exam.
Laira’s OOC team in their temporary depot on February 9. From left to right: Malcolm Blank, Paul McGowan, Bill Wanrer, Jim Sharpe, Al Trevorrow, Andy Harbutt and Dave Williams. PHILIP HAIGH.
Road and rail spending in Scotland
There’s something wrong in Scotland. After several years prevaricating about Edinburgh-Glasgow electrification – chopping bits from the project and pushing it towards the right – Transport Scotland is now proposing to spend £3,000 million on a single road project.
That project will upgrade the A9 Perth-Inverness road to dual carriageway. It’s certainly an important road and, having driven it several times, I know it is frustrating to be stuck behind lorries. However, the bill seems enormous for 80 miles of road.
That’s not what’s worrying the Rail Freight Group. It’s more concerned with the way that Transport Scotland decided on the project. RFG Scottish representative David Spaven explains: “Transport Scotland have insisted that their 2009 Strategic Transport Projects Review looked at all the options, but we’ve been through the STPR document several times and it’s quite clear that it did not examine cross-modal packages of road and rail investment to see which mix of interventions would best met policy objectives for safety, connectivity, the economy, environment and climate change – and provide best value for money for the taxpayer.
“The Perth-Inverness railway is still two thirds single-track, and proposed rail enhancements are capped at £600 million, yet Transport Scotland plans to spend £3 billion on full A9 dualling. This huge imbalance of investment will lead to freight traffic switching from rail to road, which of course is contrary to Government policy.”
Of course, there’s a referendum about Scottish independence later this year. Surely there’s no link between the Scottish government’s lurch towards roads over rail and the vote?
Open Access on British railways
I had never heard of the Guild of Travel Management Companies until its email popped up in mid-January extolling the virtues of ‘open access’ railway companies.
Open access refers to those companies that run services as independents rather than under government franchises. They were an important part of John Major’s privatisation in the 1990s yet have never really gained more than a foothold on today’s railway.
Indeed, it’s only on the East Coast Main Line that you will see them with Hull Trains running to Hull and Grand Central to Sunderland and Bradford (although strictly speaking Heathrow Express is an open access operator). A third company, the eponymous Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway disappeared a few years ago.
GTMC chief Paul Wait argues: “We firmly believe that greater competition within the UK rail network will make a positive contribution to rail ticket prices, the connectivity of towns not currently served by mainline services and the ability of business travellers to work through their journey, In turn this will support business efficiency and productivity thereby directly supporting business and economic growth across the country, particularly in the regions.”
OA operators apply for paths to run trains from Network Rail and their applications are ultimately approved, or not, by the Office of Rail Regulation. ORR has long preached open access but, citing congestion, rarely grants paths. Government and franchised operators argue against them, usually claiming that they will take money that should go to government. Yet government has not, on the East Coast at least, specified that franchises directly link London with Hull, Bradford or Sunderland.
Since WSMR’s demise, there are no direct London-Shrewsbury trains. Virgin made much play of introducing such trains as it successfully overturned a government decision to award a West Coast franchise to a competitor. Despite the promise, Virgin has now abandoned the plans and, with it, the town.
DB is applying to run West Coast open access under its Alliance Rail subsidiary. Its plan would provide direct London trains for places such as Rochdale. If the East Coast is anything to go by, its fares will undercut those from Virgin – one reason why OA operators are so well-liked by passengers.
I don’t rate DB’s chances. We hear all too often that the West Coast Main Line is full. Solve the capacity problem and OA may flourish. High Speed 2 anyone?