Northern Rail could be renationalised, says Grant Shapps
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Graeme Paton, Transport Correspondent
October 16 2019, 12:00pm, The Times
Only 55.2 per cent of Northern trains reached stations within a minute of their scheduled arrival in the year to the end of June
One of the country’s biggest train operators could be renationalised because of repeated concerns over the number of late-running services, the
transport secretary said today.
Grant Shapps said that the government was considering hauling Northern Rail out of private ownership and placing it in the hands of a state-owned operator.
He told MPs today that Northern, which operates across a vast area of the north of England, “cannot continue” delivering such poor levels of punctuality.
Addressing the cross-party commons transport committee, he said that he had requested proposals from the so-called “operator of last resort” – an arm of the government tasked with replacing failing rail companies – to take over Northern. Northern, which is run by German state-owned Arriva, has also been asked to draw up its own proposals to dramatically improve the service.
Mr Shapps said that writing to both Arriva and the state-owned operator was only the “first phase” of the process and declined to comment further on the next steps.
It is believed that a decision could be made in coming months into whether to replace the private operator.
It would be the second rail franchise to be brought back into state hands after Virgin Trains East Coast was
stripped of its contract last year when the owners over-bid and effectively ran out of money attempting to keep up with payments. Virgin East Coast was replaced by London North Eastern Railway which is also run by the operator of last resort.
Renationalising a second railway line would be a significant step for a Conservative government which backs private operation of the railway. It comes ahead of the publication of a major review of the rail system led by Keith Williams, the former chief executive of British Airways, which is expected to demand the end of the present franchising system.
Train control was privatised in the mid-90s and companies bid for contracts to run particularle lines, usually for seven years.
Northern serves more than 500 stations, covering Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent to the south to Carlisle to the north. It serves big cities including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Northern was among a number of rail operators heavily criticised over the timetable fiasco last summer when hundreds of trains a day were cancelled.
Speaking today, Mr Shapps insisted that while other companies had since improved Northern was
still struggling to deliver high standards.
Latest figures published by the Office of Rail and Road show that only 55.2 per cent of Northern trains reached stations within a minute of their scheduled arrival in the year to the end of June, down by 1.5 percentage points compared with 2018. By comparison, 64.7 per cent of trains nationally were on time, up by 2.5 percentage points year-on-year.
It has also been criticised over delays in the withdrawal of
Pacer trains – 80s-built “buses on rails” which are repeatedly criticised as slow and uncomfortable. They will run into next year despite repeated promises that they would be replaced by the end of 2019.
Transport for the North – the group representing city leaders from the north of England – wrote to the government in the summer calling for the vast franchise to be taken back into state hands.
Mr Shapps confirmed for the first time that the state operator had been approached about a possible takeover of the franchise.
He told MPs: “You may have seen recent speculation in the press about the sustainability of the Northern franchise and I can tell the committee that I have already requested proposals from both Arriva and the operator of last resort because I consider that it cannot continue delivering the in current delivery method. We know the financial pressures have been talked about in recent speculation.”
However, he said: “A request for proposals is to kick that process off. I entirely believe that this cannot go on. As a fellow long-suffering user I entirely believe that we cannot go on just thinking it’s okay for trains to not arrive, for Sunday services to not be in place and so on and so forth. That simply has to change.”
David Brown, the managing director of Northern, said the biggest challenges facing the company were repeated delayed upgrades to the rail infrastructure, which is the responsibility of Network Rail, and strike action by unions. He said that the government had asked the company to prepare a business plan for a short extension of its existing franchise.
“We are well under way with the development of that plan, which will see the completion of our transformation programme,” he said. “Arriva and Northern remain fully committed to delivering the transformation of the North’s railways and improving customers’ experience.
“We are delivering the biggest transformation of local rail for a generation, with 29 of our 101 new trains in service from Monday and driver training taking place on dozens more trains right now. Alongside 2,000 extra services per week, this is part of a £600 million investment in improving customers’ experience; we are continuing to invest in better stations, better offers for customers and more recruitment.
“These discussions have no impact on rail services for customers. Our job is to continue to provide the best service possible for our customers whilst any discussions are taking place.”
