Steve Banaghan, Managing director London Midland
It's an old name, but for the first time in more than 80 years London Midland truly reflects the area it serves. Managing director STEVE BANAGHAN tells MALCOLM PARSONS why he thinks the geography works and why new franchisee GoVia has the right plans for the future.
Steve Banaghan arrived at Central Trains just months before the announcement that it was being split up.
“Central had a lot of good people and their plans were beginning to come through, but I think the break-up was the right thing. The West Midlands franchise, linking the western side of Central’s operations with Silverlink County, offered a coherent geographical operation,” he says.
GoVia, a partnership between the UK’s Go-Ahead group and French-run Keolis, won the franchise and, in an unusual move for a new franchise operator, asked Steve and most of
the Central team to stay on.
“I think we were all impressed by GoVia’s plans,” Steve says. “They were well thought through and we were impressed with the level of investment.”
Growing revenue and delivering for the shareholder is important, he says, but adds that, “it’s great to be growing the railway and getting people out of their cars.”
His vision is a new dynamic railway for everyone throughout the heart of England but he admits that, while its good to have visions, the real job is to make them come alive. “Our business planning process has clear milestones to make things happen. It’s not just sitting in a room writing things down, but getting out there and living the business.”
Two months on, Steve was doing just that when Railnews caught up with him at Euston – he had just spent the morning talking to commuters.
“Meet the Manager sessions aren’t a PR exercise,” he says. “They give an opportunity to listen to the customer. Surveys show if we are meeting targets, but we are keen to hear directly about how things affect customers.”
A major aim is to attract people off the M6, rather than pushing them on to it. “We have the exciting opportunity of complementing the West Coast upgrade with an hourly service serving stations along the Trent Valley. We can open up the railway to people who have had to drive from the area to get a decent service.”
Later this year, the December timetable will double Liverpool to Birmingham services – “a real business solution. We can grow the market, getting people out of their cars.”
He expects the southern end of the patch to grow, too, with house building at Rugby and Milton Keynes. “There’s a lot of home building stimulating economic growth, and that needs a good train service. We’re experiencing growth and it will continue; the challenge is to meet the demand.”
The new franchise is investing in new trains but, paradoxically, there’s a big investment on behalf of motorists, too, in the form of car parking.
“Car parking is a challenge. Car parks are often full, we need more spaces to attract motorists on to trains to grow the railway.” That’s not the end of it: Steve recognises that cars aren’t the only way of getting to the station, so planning caters for bikes and bus links, too.
Part of GoVia’s franchise plan is two new train fleets: more Desiro 350s for the long-distance electric services and Class 172 diesels – a variation on the Bombardier Turbostars – for the Snow Hill routes, mainly to the west of Birmingham.
Before the franchise change, Central and Silverlink shared a fleet of 350s and Steve says they are the best fleet he has been involved in introducing. Siemens built the trains and continues to maintain them at the new “21st century depot” at Northampton.
But the new fleet will also bring changes and challenges. It will replace the 321s which have topped reliability charts and mean the closure of their Bletchley depot.
“We have to grow the reliability of the 350s but already there’s a marginal improvement over the 321s. But moving from Bletchley will be difficult – the people there have invested a lot into the depot and the fleet.”
While the Class 172 diesels for Birmingham will continue to keep the link with Tyseley depot, they will replace older Class 150s on which Central – and largely the people at Tyseley – have done a lot of work.
“The 172s will transform the travel experience in 2010,” says Steve. “We hadn’t anticipated a new Snow Hill fleet, so its inclusion in GoVia’s plans was the icing on the cake.”
There’s already been an important change for engineering staff at Tyseley, and at the smaller depots in Birmingham and Worcester. Central’s fleet was maintained by Maintrain, run in partnership with Midland Mainline. Maintrain finished in November and maintenance moved in-house.
London Midland’s three big termini – Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street and Euston – are run by Network Rail, while others such as Stafford and Rugby are Virgin-operated. “So it’s important we invest in the stations we own across the West Midlands and along the line to Euston to make them our shop window. They have to be pleasant, safe and comfortable,” says Steve.
Of the £11.6 million London Midland is investing in stations, about a third is going on security issues, from cameras and help points to setting up a joint task force of LM’s own security team and revenue protection staff and British Transport Police.
Steve says: “Stations are a lot safer than some people perceive but we have to reduce the fear of crime and we want people to have a good experience.”
The Meet the Manager sessions have already pinpointed potential improvements the company can put into action.
London Midland is one of the first new franchises operating in a Passenger Transport Executive area not to have the Executive as a co-signatory to the franchise agreement.
“We have to work out new ways of working with them,” says Steve. “We have to plan for the future and optimise service levels.”
That means balancing lightly-used services with those with potential, such as introducing a half-hourly Rugeley-Walsall-Birmingham link.
While there are exciting plans for the future, there’s the ‘day-job’, too – especially safety and performance.
“Performance is holding and we can improve on it,” says Steve.
The run-up to Christmas was busy for the new operator, but then came the extended closure at Rugby into the New Year.
Compared with Virgin or the freight operators, London Midland was least disrupted, but Steve says: “Network Rail went badly wrong and we will participate in the regulator’s review.
“But the most important focus for the moment is completion of the West Coast route work. A lot hinges on the December 2008 timetable. Network Rail has to ensure delivery of infrastructure in a robust operating state for good performance.”
Having started as a clerk himself, Steve believes the railway can still be a meritocracy. “I always believe in giving people the chance to deliver, both in their career and as people. We want people who are competent and well trained, confident and positive, and friendly and approachable.
“People make the difference. I genuinely want staff to embrace a positive situation and engage with our customers. I see London Midland, which has 2,600 staff, as a company we all enjoy working for.”
Steve says holding company GoVia sets high standards but gives its operations a lot of autonomy.
“I’m keen to pick up good practice, whether it’s from Central or Silverlink or from our GoVia colleagues at Southern and Southeastern.
“The railway is important to me; it’s the only job I’ve ever done and I want to make it better. London Midland is an exciting bit of the railway, with massive opportunities – it’s up to us to deliver, and we will.