move over freightliner, we want to get into ... - Rail Professional

NEWS
Putting rail on the political agenda
The Conservatives have just unveiled
their plans for the railways (see page 9)
and, with a change in leadership
imminent for the Labour party, it will
soon be time for Tony Blair’s successor
to start thinking about whether a
change in rail policy is needed.
The Liberal Democrats have also
been dipping their toes into the murky
pool of railway costings, with a survey
of European countries, that shows ours
to have the most expensive fares (see
page 6).
Other countries tend to achieve their
low fares through government subsidy,
of course. But no UK party is likely to
offer increased subsidy to the railways,
given that today’s network costs the
taxpayer almost five times what it did
in British Rail’s day.
Yet exorbitant rail fares ought to be a
consideration when it
comes to rail policy –
with the environment
being such a hot topic,
future governments need PROFESSIONAL
On the freight side,
upgrades are
desperately needed in
order for rail to keep its
share of the container
to provide an alternative
market.The port of
to the car and that COMMENT Felixstowe is likely to
alternative needs to be affordable.
Could franchise bidders be
encouraged to consider how they can
keep fares down in their submissions?
Increasing capacity should be high
up every party’s agenda. Extra brownie
points go to the party which can find
ways to persuade the private sector to
fund its share of this, instead of letting
precious opportunities slip away. BAA,
for example, offered to fund an extra
platform at Gatwick when it was
worried about losing the Gatwick
Express, but this was never taken up.
fund some of the enhancements, but
cash needs to be found for other key
upgrades, such as gauge enhancement
out of Southampton.
Electrification could be another vote
winner but, given the steep cost of
putting up the powerlines, only the
most heavily used routes would be
serious contenders.
A commitment to cleaner diesel
engines and new less polluting fuels
would tick the right boxes too.Work on
this is already well underway, as each
new generation of diesel engine is
typically only half as polluting as the
last. So promising support for this
would seem obvious for any party.
To really up the environmental
credentials of the railway, longer faster
trains are a must, but this would not be
cheap.
The other, more controversial,
possibility is the Conservatives’ interest
in vertical integration – a real headlinegrabber,
but not all that practical. For a
start, vertical integration is prohibited,
in principle, under EU law, so it would
take some creative thinking to find a
way to get around Brussels.
Plus Network Rail has undeniably
been doing a good job for the most part,
which is more than can be said for some
of the Tocs, so why take the infrastructure
away from them if your intention is to
improve the railways?
Scottish elections spark rail debates
The imminent elections north of
the border have sharpened the
focus on railways.
The Times ran a front-page story
in April, claiming that Labour
was having ‘secret talks’ with
Network Rail about renationalising
the network, writes
Katie Silvester.
Indeed Labour’s Scottish
election manifesto states: ‘The
case for running the Scottish
franchise on a not-for-profit basis
needs to be fully examined as
part of the preparation for the
next franchise.’
However, first minister Jack
McConnell denied the rumours,
saying: ‘There have been no
secret talks – there are no plans
whatsoever to re-nationalise the
railways in Scotland.’
The wording of Labour’s
manifesto, however, suggests
that some changes might be
afoot, if the Labour-Liberal
alliance is maintained after the
elections.
Meanwhile the SNP’s
First minister Jack McConnell denies
having ‘secret talks’ about nationalisation.
manifesto also indicated a change
of heart towards Scotland’s
railways. Where previously it had
pledged to re-nationalise them,
there was no mention of this in
the latest manifesto.
Rail union RMT accused the
SNP of putting funding before
principles, after Stagecoach chief
Brian Souter donated the
£500,000 to the party.
RMT general secretary Bob
Crow said: ‘It would be
interesting to see if these
privateers would have given
money to the SNP if it had
retained a commitment to a
publicly-owned railway.
‘In 2003, the SNP said that
passenger train services across
Scotland should be taken under
public control through a not-forprofit
trust.’
But the SNP’s promise to put
‘substantial investment’ into
infrastructure to reduce journey
times won praise from
environmental group
TRANSform Scotland.
Colin Howden, director of
TRANSform Scotland, said:
‘While the other major parties
have got lost in fantasies about
bullet trains, the SNP have set out
some practical suggestions about
improving journey times on our
inter-city rail network.’
But he added that the party
would need to ‘get over their illconsidered
opposition to the
Edinburgh tram scheme’.
EUROSTAR WILL ‘REDUCE
CARBON EMISSIONS’
International train operator Eurostar has
pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide
emissions by 25 per cent per traveller by
2012.
The operator claims that one of its rail
journeys already generates 10 times less
CO 2 than an equivalent flight.
Eurostar plans to improve its
environmental footprint by reducing the
power consumption of its rolling stock,
improving train capacity and sourcing
more electricity from lower emission
generators.
Chief executive Richard Brown said:‘It
is time for the transport industry to do
more to tackle climate change.’
Meanwhile, freight operators are also
trying to up their environmental
credentials.The Rail Freight Operators
Association has laid out 16 railway
enhancements which would reduce the
size of transport’s carbon footprint.
The wish-list includes capacity
enhancements on the rail routes from the
South Humberside ports; capacity and
gauge enhancement to accommodate 9-
foot 6-inch containers in north London;
and a chord line near Liverpool, that
would provide a direct route to the docks.
4 RAIL PROFESSIONAL : MAY 2007