In the next few weeks, we have a huge opportunity to influence the future shape of railways, and the economy, in the north.
The government is asking rail passengers in the north what improvements they want for services across the region ahead of reletting the Northern and TransPennine Express franchises in February 2016. It is important that all of us think beyond our own parochial interests and put forward some well-argued, strategic ideas, rather than accept what the government describes as "trade-offs", such as closing booking offices, cutting services and taking conductors off trains. Those are not "trade-offs", they are cuts. Instead, we should be coming up with some ways of running services more innovatively.
Stations as small businesses
There's a suggestion in the consultation documents published by the Department for Transport on 9 June 2014 that booking offices could be closed or their opening hours reduced. That shows a lack of imagination. It would be absurd to imagine petrol stations as being places where you could buy only petrol, so why do station booking officessell only tickets?
If they are going to survive in the internet age, with more and more tickets being purchased by other means, they have to change. Bring on community hubs, where you can enjoy a range of facilities and buy the sort of things you'd get in a convenience store. Safety and security would come naturally with this approach, not enforced by hideous CCTV cameras.
We should also be talking about bringing people back to stations, not de-staffing them. Where there's no station building – no problem! Bring in a prefabricated building, connect it up to services and get a local small business – maybe a social enterprise – to run it.
Instead of letting go of highly-committed staff who run booking offices at smaller stations, give them a chance to do more. Let them sell other products and make the booking office into a local shop. Change the shape of the booking office to allow that. Let the station staff take a portion of the profits on what gets sold. More radical, trial the handing over of the running of some stations to small co-ops of staff who are willing to give it a go. By building up stations as small businesses there is the chance of longer opening hours and more staff employed – not fewer. Involve the community as well – sell local produce, and meet local needs.
Link up train and bus services
We need to get much, much better at integration. Long waits for connections aren't acceptable and depress rail travel. If we just see local train services as a nuisance that get in the way of longer-distance services, they will never prosper. There's lots we can do to promote better bus/rail connections, including ensuring that the new franchises include better links. Some examples could include journeys between Penrith and Keswick, or between Windermere, Ambleside and Grasmere.
New trains
We've got to get new trains for the North, so let's build them in the North. Euskotren, owned by the Basque government, made absolutely sure that the new trains it was procuring for the regionally-owned line would be built in the Basque country. They did it within EU procurement rules and we should do the same.
Rail North is talking about setting up a company to own its own trains. This is great and would give the rolling-stock companies that own the trains a run for their money and bring down costs of train leasing. Don't scrap the old "Pacer" trains – reconfigure them for tourist routes with lots of space for bikes and luggage.
New franchise
The new franchises need to be different and act in a really transformational way. Why don't bidders look at partnerships with smaller entities – co-ops and other social enterprises – which would really add value to a more conventional approach. We need to combine the hard commercial skills which are well-honed by the "usual suspects" with creativity, social responsibility and sheer bloody enthusiasm. Northern is a huge franchise covering a massive area. Decentralise. Give local managers – and all employees – real responsibility to try things, make mistakes, do things differently.
Keep passengers safe
On-train staff could do more and we need to have a debate about what the future role of a conductor should be, with a change of emphasis from operational to commercial. There are all sorts of good reasons for keeping a second person on the train and passenger security is a critical one. I'd be quite happy to hand over responsibility for opening and closing doors to the driver if it can be done safely, allowing the conductor to get on with passenger assistance.
Five top points for the new northern rail franchise:
• Encourage bidders to have social enterprise partners in the actual bid who can help shape the sustainability and community parts of the franchise.
• The invitation to tender should specify that within the first three years of the franchise the operator should have at least 30 new partnerships with small businesses or social enterprises at stations.
• Come up with imaginative proposals for suitable uses for the "Pacer" fleet and build new trains here in the North.
• Suggest ways in which staff at all levels can be given greater responsibility, with local budgets.
• Identify at least 10 train/bus flows that will form a part of the franchise agreement with dedicated connecting services to particular off-rail locations.
Paul Salveson is a board member of Passenger Focus and visiting professor at the University of Huddersfield's department of transport and logistics
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