Strachan "quits" DfT after rail bid blunder

[HH]

Story here

Transport chief Peter Strachan quits after rail bid blunder

The West Coast rail bid fiasco has claimed its biggest civil service casualty with the departure from the Department for Transport of Peter Strachan, its head of major projects.

Mr Strachan, who was one of the senior officers responsible for the bid, left as part of a restructuring that also saw Kate Mingay moved to a different job and a new division created to oversee future rail franchise competitions.

Ms Mingay was one of the three officials temporarily suspended on October 3 after Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin pulled the auction for the London-to-Scotland line after finding "unacceptable mistakes" in the DfT's handling of the bid.

Questions had been raised over Mr Strachan's position after the department's permanent secretary Philip Rutnam announced earlier this month that the DfT was seeking to appoint a new director general of rail, combining both "policy" and "delivery" of rail projects. That covered some of Mr Strachan's current job.

Clare Moriarty, currently director general, corporate at the DfT, will head up the new rail franchising division from the new year.

Mr Strachan's major projects wing employed 193 staff and had a budget for 2012/13 of £3.88bn, according to a DfT organisational chart published earlier this year.

Mr Strachan also played a pivotal role in liaising with the train operators, though he raised eyebrows in the industry when he pre-empted the report by Centrica boss Sam Laidlaw into the West Coast shambles by sending bidders detailed accounts of his own version of events.

Letters running to more than 10 pages sent to FirstGroup and Virgin Rail put the June 27 meeting of the Contract Awards Committee at the centre of events and complained of "stark inconsistencies" in the accounts of officials.
The meeting, chaired by Ms Mingay, determined the size of the subordinated loan facility (SLF) – the amount bidders pledged against the risk of them walking out on the contract – with "winning" bidder FirstGroup putting up £190m.

Mr Strachan wrote in his letter: "As a result of our investigations, it became apparent that the Department departed from its stated procedures ... in establishing the level of the SLF. The amount of SLF sought from at least some bidders was substantially too low as a result."

While many of his findings were backed by the Laidlaw investigation, his motivation for writing a letter that largely exonerated himself from any blame was questioned in the industry. A DfT spokesman said the letter had been written as a "matter of courtesy" to bidders.

Ms Mingay, who went to the High Court following her suspension in an attempt to be reinstated, was the DfT's director, commercial and technical services. She is understood to have been moved to the Crossrail project team.

A DfT spokesman said: "As a consequence of restructuring, Peter Strachan has decided to move on from the DfT. We wish Peter all the best in his next role."

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

And one-time head of Railtrack Midlands, First North Western and Arriva Trains Wales.
Within the DfT he would also have been key to major projects like Northern Hub and electrification.
I suppose he might reappear within the industry on a major NR project or HS2.

I guess we know nothing about the new head of rail at DfT, Clare Moriarty - looks like a corporate appointment, not a rail professional.

 

[HH]

I guess we know nothing about the new head of rail at DfT, Clare Moriarty - looks like a corporate appointment, not a rail professional.

That seems to be the case. It won't help in re-starting the franchising process.

 

[Oswyntail]

That seems to be the case. It won't help in re-starting the franchising process.

The failure of the franchising was one of corporate
process, so having someone in charge who is from that side is a good thing, IMHO. Franchising is, in itself, little to do with railway matters.

 

[HH]

The failure of the franchising was one of corporate
process, so having someone in charge who is from that side is a good thing, IMHO. Franchising is, in itself, little to do with railway matters.

Let's hope that DfT don't think the same thing. Failure to understand key rail issues was part of the failed WCML process.

 

[Oswyntail]

Let's hope that DfT don't think the same thing. Failure to understand key rail issues was part of the failed WCML process.

I know what you mean. But the process of setting, analysing and evaluating is what went wrong, not anything specifically railway-related. As an illustration from elsewhere, in the Department of Health, large numbers of experts from the NHS have been drafted in over the years, particularly in the late 90s early 00s. They knew an awful lot about eg surgery or the daily running of hospitals, but absolutely tiddley squit about how legislation was produced or implemented - and the result was poor legislation poorly implemented, which screwed everything. There has also been a similar history within the railway industry itself, with struggles between engineering and operational departments producing mega cock-ups.
By all means draw in people from the relevant industry to advise, or produce and evaluate the industry-specific material. But never, ever let them control the overall process, because they generally have no idea what they are doing!

 

[AndrewP]

I am pleased that responsibility appears to have been taken for this.

This was the last of a string of bad decisions by the DfT which suggested that there was something seriously wrong there (National Express for EC, Northern on zero growth, undersized trains for Trans Pennine for example).

With regard to the need for rail expertise - this is of course essential but not the only skill required. For example as a procurement specialist I am happy to source anything, and my track record suggests I do it well - but only if I have the right technical input e.g. if I was procuring in the rail industry I would need rail specialists, the retail sector store mangers and so on, legal support for the Ts & Cs and a buyer to manage the day to day stuff I need lower level (and therefore cheaper) help with. Sourcing of any large contract - which is all a rail franchise is - needs the right team with the right balance of skills.

 

[bluenoxid]

And one-time head of Railtrack Midlands, First North Western and Arriva Trains Wales.
Within the DfT he would also have been key to major projects like Northern Hub and electrification.
I suppose he might reappear within the industry on a major NR project or HS2.

I guess we know nothing about the new head of rail at DfT, Clare Moriarty - looks like a corporate appointment, not a rail professional.

Quick look at her Linkedin profile shows some experience in the Civil Service. However, it has been known for the unexpected to be the railways best friends.

 

[HH]

She might be a railway friend, we can but hope. However, other things went wrong with the WCML than the analysis and evaluation. DfT couldn't make their minds up on what to do with stations; they failed to come up with a residual value mechanism which would have encouraged investment; the GDP mechanism showed a failure of understanding of what drives WCML revenue. It's not so much Operational nous that I'm talking about here as Commercial; but it's commercial at a detailed level. I'm not convinced that anyone in DfT understands these issues properly.

 

[Stats]

I guess we know nothing about the new head of rail at DfT, Clare Moriarty - looks like a corporate appointment, not a rail professional.

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