National Rail trains to score heritage first
Scheduled National Rail trains will run on a heritage railway tomorrow for the first time. South Western Railway is launching Saturday services to Corfe Castle on the Swanage Railway, and Corfe Castle has been restored to the national stations database. Although heritage trains run on Network Rail infrastructure to Whitby and between Mallaig and Fort William, and many special charter trains have used heritage routes, previous attempts to extend regular National Rail services over heritage infrastructure have failed, sometimes because technical standards fall short or because paths have not been available.
Services on Northern are being disrupted today by the first of two walkouts by RMT staff this week, in the continuing dispute over train staffing. The second strike is set to take place on Saturday. The franchise is under growing pressure over poor performance, and transport secretary Chris Grayling is now becoming involved. The DfT is investigating whether Northern’s failure to reach targets amounts to a franchise breach. Northern has apologised, and says electrification delays are partly to blame.
A cpnsortium of Amey and Keolis has won the new Wales & Borders franchise, beating the only other surviving contender, Hong Kong-based MTR. Keolis is mainly owned by the French state railway SNCF, while Amey is part of Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure company. Ferrovial manages Heathrow airport, where it is also the main shareholder.
The successor to Mark Carne as chief executive of Network Rail has been named as Andrew Haines, who is returning to the rail industry from his present role as chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority. His appointment has been welcomed around the industry. He will be leading Network Rail during a period of major development for the company, with more devolution set to take place and increased involvement of the private sector in major rail projects.
New timetables have come into operation, but some passengers have been complaining that the launch was less than seamless, with many cancellations reported. Govia Thameslink services have been disrupted, with one passenger tweeting that successive services to Stevenage were cancelled yesterday. Northern, too, is under pressure over its performance following a series of RMT strikes, and there are increasingly strident calls for the Arriva franchise to be terminated.
The failure of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise is set to be scrutinised in depth, while the Department for Transport has launched the task of changing over to a new state-owned operator, to be known as LNER, on 24 June. Transport secretary Chris Grayling said he had considered the competing options of a Direct Award and the alternative Operator of Last Resort, but that 'the analysis suggested the case was very finely balanced'. Meanwhile, the House of Commons Transport Committee will launch an inquiry into rail franchising on Monday. Witnesses will include Lord Adonis, who supervised the previous nationalisation of East Coast in 2009.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling is to take over the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise, Stagecoach said, after talks over a possible new contract with Stagecoach and Virgin failed to reach agreement. Majority East Coast shareholder Stagecoach Group said: “We have now been advised by the Department for Transport that the secretary of state plans to announce today that he intends to appoint the ‘Operator of Last Resort’ to operate InterCity East Coast.” Stagecoach confirmed that negotiations had been under way over a new direct award to replace the present franchise, which began in March 2015 and should have run until 2023.