VIEWPOINT |
23
The Cheek of it Chris Cheek
More public sector control: is it really the answer for our railways? In March 2020, Chris looked at the prospects for a post-Williams rail network in which revenue risk – and therefore the entirety of fares policy – would revert to the Government
W
ith the ‘will he, won’t he?’ question now answered over HS2 and other funding announcements for future transport projects out of the way, attention must once again turn to the outcome of the Williams Review of passenger rail franchising. The report was supposedly imminent in December but postponed because of the General Election, but still had yet to emerge at the time of writing. This doesn’t stop further leaks and speculation about what will be proposed. And the consensus seems to be that a new version of OPRAF/SRA will take over the running of the network from DfT Rail on a more arm’s length basis, letting concessions to run services as opposed to the current franchises. The main difference, it is suggested, being that the contracts will be let on a ‘cost plus’ basis, with revenue risk remaining with the new government body – with heavy emphasis placed on incentives/
penalties for performance. This is similar to the way in which the London Overground and Crossrail contracts are let by Transport for London which, it is argued, have delivered higher levels of performance than the revenue risk model operated on most of the rest of the network. Advocates of the system point out that not having to worry about revenue risk frees the management to focus on quality, since that is the means by the operator can earn additional income or avoid penalties. There are, however, downsides to such a system – both from a customer and a taxpayer point of view. The first is the danger that handing control of all fares to a single, Government-funded body will result in a less flexible, more rigid system promoted on the back of ‘simplicity’ – stifling innovation and increasing the cost of millions of journeys. Secondly, the change could well end the tentative moves towards the introduction of more competition on the network – both between existing train operators but also by
killing off open access operators. This would particularly be the case if, having created a
Between them, the three big regional franchises received £862 million of revenue support in 2018/19 (that’s aside from Network Rail funding).
new public body to manage the train services alongside an infrastructure operator that is
Rail Professional
