Transport Select Committee Sixth Report 2016-17

[maniacmartin]

The House of Commons' Transport Select Committee have just published their latest report, dated 14th October 2016. The future of rail: Improving the rail passenger experience; Sixth Report of Session 2016–17 The linked page contains a summary and a link in the top right takes you to a PDF of the full report

I've made a similar post in the Southern DOO thread, and think it is probably best for discussion about the report's coverage of that dispute to be made in that thread. This thread is for all other issues the report covers.

Government must 'get a grip' on monitoring rail franchise agreements

[Southern Railway section snipped]


Poor passenger service

On parts of the rail network, passengers struggle to get the service they deserve on a daily basis. Lack of access for disabled passengers, overcrowding, delays, complex ticketing, poor deals for part-time commuters, a lack of timely information on delays and insufficiently informative updates available through websites and apps – add to the misery of passengers across the rail network.

MPs cast doubt on the value of the official measures of overall passenger satisfaction and call for operator performance measures which reflect the reality of passenger experience.

Chair's comments

The Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Louise Ellman MP, commented:

"Passengers must be furious – and rightly so. While the number of passenger journeys on the railway has more than doubled over the last two decades, the size of the physical network has barely increased at all. Passengers now contribute more than 70% of the industry's real income, but in too many places, passengers are badly served by train operating companies.

The individual voices of customers suffering woeful service on Southern Railway, in particular, came through loud and clear during our inquiry. GTR, RMT and the Government are all culpable to some extent for the prolonged dispute and passengers have borne the brunt.

We welcome Government's decision to launch an enhanced rail compensation scheme on GTR. It's taken ministers some time to acknowledge the difficulties faced by passengers, but the Delay Repay 15 scheme will offer compensation when trains are more than 15 minutes late. Now ministers need to be more hands-on with monitoring franchises, and sort out the Southern Railway mess in particular."

Committee recommendations

The report recommends:

• The Government should immediately put in place an automatic compensation scheme, in which TSGN's passengers are refunded directly, without the necessity to make a claim.
• The current systems of measuring passenger satisfaction should be reviewed and the Public Performance Measure should be abandoned. An alternative, updated 'right-time' measures, should be in place by summer 2017.
• The Department for Transport (DfT) should refine mechanisms to gather information on overcrowding with a view to more clearly identifying train services which operate overcapacity.
• The DfT should develop a more coherent strategy for tackling overcrowding and find better ways to alleviate the worst examples of persistent overcrowding on particular services.
• A coordinated, industry-wide strategy should be prepared in order to provide network-wide smart ticketing by April 2017, and combat the unfairness and complexity of current ticketing arrangements.
• A better deal for part-time rail commuters.
• A detailed plan from ATOC/RDG to provide websites and apps which improve the passenger experience.
• Improved information from National Rail Enquiries on service provision including delays and/or disruptions.
• The Committee welcomes the commitment to identify the best solutions to deliver Wi-Fi to all passengers and recommends a plan is published by summer 2017.

Some of these points are also covered by the thread on Chris Grayling's speech and paperless tickets and the 15 minute Delay Repay thread

 

[AngusH]

My initial impression is that this is an astonishingly critical report.

The use of the phrase "completely unacceptable" appears at least once and amongst other things it describes the DFT as offering evasive and opaque answers to questions asked by the committee.

It also describes PPM as something that does "not reflect the real passenger experience," and that it generates perverse incentives. quote: "This is unacceptable and must stop."

Another really critical quote: "The rail sector’s apparent inability to get its house in order in relation to rail ticketing raises fundamental questions around the governance and financing of the railway."

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Transport Select Committee means well, is well informed, and is led by a good rail-savvy MP (Louise Elllman), but it has no real teeth.
The DfT pays lip-service to the committee, and the TOCs just follow their contracts.

Some of the problems arise from the way franchise contracts are written, and can't be changed until renewal.
Another is that ATOC is a weak body which only goes at the speed the owning groups allow.

I've never understood who really regulates the ticketing system.
The last time I saw something from DfT on the subject, they defended every perverse factor in the system, from dirt cheap advances to draconian peak restrictions.
The holy grail is "no revenue dilution", not simplicity and consistency for the public.

 

[Domh245]

Nothing about Network Rail and the issues that they are facing on electrification schemes, etc?

 

[WatcherZero]

The Transport Select Committee means well, is well informed, and is led by a good rail-savvy MP (Louise Elllman), but it has no real teeth.
The DfT pays lip-service to the committee, and the TOCs just follow their contracts.

I dont know about that, they are usually remarkably nieve and believe everything they are told. If someone tokd them they had a remarkable plan to save money by removing a rail and that trains could easily manage on two wheels then they would publish a report demanding the government invest in this idea and their outrage that such an amazing idea has not been implemened already and was wasting tax payer money building and maintaining unnecessary parallel rails.

 

[Monty]

Some of the problems arise from the way franchise contracts are written, and can't be changed until renewal.

How wonderfully ironic, considering the DfT and TOC in question think it's acceptable to forcibly coerce staff on to new contracts with the threat of termination of employment.

 

[Carlisle]

How wonderfully ironic, considering the DfT and TOC in question think it's acceptable to forcibly coerce staff on to new contracts with the threat of termination of employment.

In which case the committee realistically has 1 of 3 main choices to recommend, either
1)Ensure all future franchises contain no commitments thatll foreseeabley inflame the unions too much.
2)Back the TOCs through disputes as they're currently doing with GTR
3)Suggest a change in the law in order to restrict the unions ability to orchestrate these prolonged disputes

 

[Monty]

In which case the committee realistically has 1 of 3 main choices to recommend, either
1)Ensure all future franchises contain no commitments thatll foreseeabley inflame the unions too much.
2)Back the TOCs through disputes as they're currently doing with GTR
3)Suggest a change in the law in order to restrict the unions ability to orchestrate these prolonged disputes

It's a moot point, I was merely highlighting the irony that TOCs and the DfT are expected to keep to the conditions a franchise is let out yet that does not seem to apply to the contracts of its staff.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It's a moot point, I was merely highlighting the irony that TOCs and the DfT are expected to keep to the conditions a franchise is let out yet that does not seem to apply to the contracts of its staff.

Can you give an example in any industry-based franchise where you feel that such "a stated above aspiration" would be the norm?

 

[maniacmartin]

The Committee has now published some their correspondance with the Rail Minister Paul Maynard and Dyan Crowther, formerly of GTR, relating to the GTR franchise problems.

See the PDFs in http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...ons/?type=&session=28&sort=false&inquiry=2710

Apparently without quotes my post violated forum rules, so here are some:

As you know, the Committee was dismayed by the Department’s attitude to our requests for information relating to GTR’s franchise agreement during our inquiry; I raised the issue with the Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary when they gave evidence to the Committee earlier this week. The Department had two opportunities in oral evidence to provide clarity, but each time failed to do so. The follow-up written submission failed to address adequately the questions we posed; the response was unacceptably opaque and evasive.

We were disappointed that the Department chose to provide the crucial data on GTR’s performance against its contractual obligations in a form that it must have known would be problematic for us to publish.

Comparing GTR’s actual performance against the lower benchmarks in the published franchise agreement, shows additional Breaches in periods 7–11, 2015/16. Lack of clarity on these two points might appear to call into question the veracity of the data you have supplied.

I do not accept that it is necessary, or in the public interest, to keep this information confidential. While the information may be commercially embarrassing, and reflect badly on the Department, I do not see that publishing it would confer a commercial advantage on GTR’s competitors.

As you know, I was appalled that the senior officials who appeared alongside you at our evidence session on 20 July were unable to answer our questions

The response from the Department, received on 26 July, was unacceptably opaque and failed to answer any of these questions adequately.

 

[Chrisgr31]

How does "The Government should immediately put in place an automatic compensation scheme, in which TSGN's passengers are refunded directly, without the necessity to make a claim."

How are the TOC meant to know what train you planned to travel in when there are cancellations? Might be possible with late running trains but not cancelled ones. Even with delays it might be difficult beciase how do they know which train you turned up for if the 17:00 runs at 17:20 how do they know you didnt arrive for the 17:30?

 

[maniacmartin]

Well sometimes the TSC can get a bit carried away with the benefits of technology. With 'the key' smartcard the TOC will know when you touch in and could make a good guess at which train you intended to take - don't c2c have something that does this when passengers use their smartcard?

Sadly for me, point to point season tickets between two stations both within London Zones 1-6 aren't available on smartcard, because of politics between the TOCs and TfL. Also, at London Bridge and Victoria, passengers wait behind the gateline until the platform is announced, so I don't know how that would really work.

 

[snowball]

Well sometimes the TSC can get a bit carried away with the benefits of technology.

However their recent Digital Railway report is very realistic.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmtrans/67/67.pdf

8. Over ambitious claims for improvements in capacity must be met with scepticism, and Network Rail should be very cautious about how it uses the 40% claim. The Department should be very clear about the level of capacity improvement likely to be achieved when assessing the business case for the Digital Railway. It should consider alternative ways of achieving the same level of growth in capacity so that it can make an informed decision on the likely cost/benefi ratios and funding for the Digital Railway. Rather than claims of up to 40% we expect to see a more sophisticated assessment of the likely capacity gains that look at diffrent investment scenarios and their associated costs, benefis and risks. It is important that the Department for Transport and Network Rail make a realistic assessment of how much extra capacity each system within the Digital Railway programme can deliver to meet growing demand. Where the Digital Railway offrs the best solution it is important that other work, such as that needed to improve station capacity, is done simultaneously to enable the investment
in the Digital Railway to deliver its full potential. (Paragraph 49)

9. Projections based on ETCS Level 3 should only be considered valid when the Level 3 specifiation is ready for deployment, and Network Rail should avoid using such projections, or the promise of a “moving block” signalling system, in its publicity until such technology is ready to be deployed. (Paragraph 51)