TRAVELWATCH SOUTHWEST CIC
GENERAL MEETING – SATURDAY 5 OCTOBER 2013
CHAIRS REPORT
1. The Great Western Franchise: At the time of writing it appears probable that the Government
will announce that it has concluded the terms of a franchise extension agreement with First
Group, to run until July 2016 when a new longer franchise is scheduled to begin. The signs are
that we will see very few of the costed options, or improvements, identified during the course of
the earlier franchise competition that was aborted in the wake of the West Coast franchising
fiasco. Significant changes will almost certainly have to await the 2016 franchise award (and
possibly the realisation of Great Western Main Line electrification etc.) It is expected that the
Invitation to Tender for that new franchise will be issued in March 2015 with the award to the
successful bidder being announced around a year later. Although this may seem some time away
it does mean that stakeholders will soon need to start the long process of determining what they
want from the future franchise. TravelWatch SouthWest will need to build on the work done in
the context of its Greater Western or Lesser Western? exercise and ensure that the next ITT is fit
for purpose. This activity is likely to dominate much of the Company’s work plan for next year
and will call for even stronger engagement with Local Enterprise Partnerships as well as with
Local Transport Authorities and stakeholder organisations throughout the South West and
beyond. Meanwhile, it remains the view of the directors of TravelWatch SouthWest that
providing additional train capacity to meet the continuing growth in passenger demand must
remain as much of a priority for the new short-term franchise as it is for the longer-term.
2. The challenge to bus services: The South West’s bus network is suffering increasingly from the
combined effect of Government austerity measures and above-inflation increases in the price of
fuel and insurance. The net level of Government support per journey in the English nonmetropolitan areas declined significantly from a peak of 74.4p per journey in 2009-10 to 69.2p
per journey in 2011-12. (Net Government support comprises Public Transport Support through
local authorities, Bus Service Operators’ Grant and Concessionary Travel Reimbursement.) For
comparison, the equivalent figures in London are 36.1p per journey and 52.1p in the English
metropolitan areas. Our bus network is particular dependent on public funding due to much of
the South West’s relatively scattered and sparse settlement patterns. It is therefore of particular
concern to see the emerging pattern of future economies in the more rural local authority areas.
Dorset will be slicing £800k from its current £2.8m public transport budget next year while
Cornwall has plans to reduce bus spending from £4.3m to 2.8m. Cuts are not confined to rural
areas: Swindon Borough Council has announced further cuts of £200k. This is impacting on both
urban and rural services, in the latter case where Swindon was making an important marginal
contribution to the cost of services supported principally by Wiltshire and provided a vital link
for those living in the rural hinterland with education and employment in Swindon itself.
TravelWatch SouthWest’s directors and representatives from the Company’s member
organisations have played an active part in working with the more open-minded local transport
authorities in an attempt jointly to identify was of ameliorating these pressures. The Company
also submitted evidence to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee which is
currently examining passenger transport in isolated communities.
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3. Rail subsidies: The Government has published some interesting data on subsidies in the rail
sector, including the total subsidy paid per passenger mile. This shows an average subsidy of
16.3p per passenger mile for each CrossCountry passenger, 4.5p per passenger mile for Great
Western and a premium payment to the Government of 1.2p per mile for each South West
Trains passenger. The average subsidy figure in 2012-3 for England as a whole is 6.8p per
passenger mile with Northern Rail passengers receiving a subsidy of 40.8p per mile. The series
does not include data for either Wales or Scotland.
4. Bus Performance: The Department for Transport has also released some illuminating
comparative performance data. This analyses comparative performance by local authority of
non-frequent bus services. With 82.1% of South West buses running ‘on time’ (defined as
between one minute early and five minutes and 59 seconds late), the region is very slightly
below the average for England. Last year, Gloucestershire topped the list at 95%, pushing
Swindon (which was plagued by road reconstruction in the centre, thereby losing its longstanding 99% reliability score) from first place. Dorset and Poole vied for bottom place with 74%
‘on time’ ratings, a position only worsened by Southampton at 72% and Darlington at 64%.
5. Rail Performance: As if to keep pace with Government, Network Rail has started to publish a
new set of performance data – this time recording the percentage of each operator’s trains that
arrive early or within 59 seconds of schedule. In contrast to the Public Performance Measure which defines a train as on time if it arrives at the destination within five minutes (i.e. 4 minutes
59 seconds or less) of the planned arrival time for London and South East or regional services, or
10 minutes (i.e. 9 minutes 59 seconds or less) for long distance services and currently scores First
Great Western with a moving annual average figure of 89% - the ‘right-time’ measure currently
gives First Great Western a score of 68.9%. Interestingly, this is better than its main
comparators. CrossCountry records 44.9% while South West Trains achieves 68%. Nevertheless,
First Great Western has attracted what seems to be increasing opprobrium for some high-profile
performance failures recently. One particularly notorious event occurred when almost 500
passengers were stranded in a broken-down HST from Cornwall for almost six hours in the
summer heat on a relatively inaccessible stretch of track to the east of Pewsey. The experience
highlighted the importance of maintaining appropriate contingency plans and also of ensuring
that all train staff are kept refreshed with training in how best to manage passenger distress in
such circumstances. Press interest was justifiably intense and TravelWatch SouthWest found
itself under considerable pressure to explain a situation that most journalists inevitably found
difficult to comprehend. We subsequently emphasised to the operator the need to address
these issues, not least since the frustrations of passengers are likely to be heightened by the
continuing disruption associated with route modernisation and the declining train equipment
liability that may be a consequence of the aging Great Western fleet.
6. Ticketing: The Government has announced a range of ticketing and fares’ initiatives which, it
claims, will deliver passengers with a better deal. They cover fares’ capping, ensuring greater
consistency in the management of those without the appropriate ticket, improvements to the
National Rail web-site to provide improved information on ticket products, the introduction of
smart ticketing and a greater focus on customer service in franchise arrangements. First
impressions are that the Government may be thought to have over-claimed for the benefits of
its package. For example, it has focused on its proposal to cap standard class fares at a
maximum for £250 a single and £500 for a return. Leaving aside the affordability of even these
capped fares for most passengers, it is telling that an Anytime return from Penzance to Thurso is
£440, whilst the most expensive standard-class single is £268. Likewise, the National Conditions
of Carriage, Rail Settlement Plan and Penalty Fare bye-laws should seemingly ensure now some
consistency in dealing with those without the correct ticket. Problems usually stem from be
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staff unfamiliarity with the detailed ticketing rules – and passenger incomprehension at their
complexities - and enforcement practices that are often inconsistent between companies and
even train staff.
7. HS2: The national transport debate is dominated increasingly by the enormity of the projected
costs of HS2 and its likely cost benefit ratios. The Government has set an upper limit for phase 1
of the project (from London to Birmingham) of £24.1 billion (with a target price of £17.1 billion
(which includes a relatively small contingency fund). £21.2 billion is earmarked for Phase 2, the
longer-term part of the route which will link Birmingham with Manchester and Leeds. The
overall indicative cost for the project is £42.6 billion, which includes £14.4 billion for
contingencies – the ‘optimism bias’. Rolling stock is expected to cost another £7.5 billion. Last
year the Government published estimates that show a Benefit : Cost Ratio of 1.9:1, meaning
that, for each pound invested, almost £2 will be generated. The international accountancy firm,
KPMG, recently completed a study for the Government that suggests that within 5 years of
completion the line will be adding an extra 0.8% to the GDP annually. There is little informed
opinion that challenges Network Rail’s assertion that the existing West Coast line will be at
capacity by 2020 and few believe that it would be practical to upgrade it significantly – it is after
all already a heavily used working railway. The scheme should be seen as primarily about
capacity rather than journey times.
In the South West there seems to be widespread and politically understandable resentment
that, once again, we are losing out and this has also been implied by the author of the KPMG
study who openly acknowledged that places far away from the route of HS2 – he cited Wales as
an example – will probably lose out economically. (Indeed, the Financial Times has reported
that, under the Barnett formula, which is used to ensure ‘fairness’ in central Government
spending for the devolved national administrations, Wales will be seeking up to £2 billion as
‘compensation’ for just the phase 1 work. The UK Government was forced to ‘compensate’ the
devolved administrations for the £16 billion spend on Crossrail.) We need to see this translated
this into positive remedy for our transport network.
In my personal view we will get some benefits for us from HS2 – greater national prosperity and
less North-South regional inequality, a more central role for public transport and realisation of
the prospect trailed by the DfT of a faster connection into the HS2 from the Bristol area. As we
noted in Greater Western or Lesser Western?, the connectivity of the South West, both with the
Midlands and further north and with the continent, will be transformed by realisation of the
proposed interchange at Old Oak Common in west London and the direct link there with both
HS2 and HS1. It would be a disaster for the region is this were to be dropped in the search for
economies in delivering HS2.
It is worth noting that, in their search for economies, the French has switched from further
investment in Grands Projets instead shifting some of the money to strengthening the run-down
‘classic’ railway. New High Speed lines (LGVs) are postponed indefinitely (i.e. beyond 2030).
Deferred schemes include those for LGVs between Marseille-Nice, Bordeaux-Spain, ParisNormandie, Paris-Orleans-Clermont-Lyon, Poitiers, Limoges, Montpellier, Perpignan, completion
of the Rhine-Rhône lines, etc.. Of the existing LGV schemes, only the LGV Bordeaux-Toulouse
might now be built by 2030, even this decision being subject to further cost benefit analysis.
Plans for autoroute expansion have suffered similarly. Some of the savings will be focussed on
better maintenance of the existing rail and road networks, easing bottle-necks and road-safety
improvements to notorious trouble-spots. Amongst the rail investments, a new classic route is
planned Paris-Mantes la Jolie (to improve flows at Paris, Gare St Lazare, and to Normandy),
capacity enhancements between Roissy (Charles de Gaulle airport) and Picardie, electrification
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between Gisors and Sequeux (currently out of use), together with improvements to congestion
hot-spots around major conurbations of national importance (Paris Gare de Lyon, Lyon PartDieu, Marseille) as well as at key points regionally (Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Rennes,
Creil, Nîmes, Metz, Nancy, Mulhouse, Saint-Pierre des Corps and Paris Gare du Nord), complete
rolling stock renewal on the classic lines from Paris-Clermont-Ferrand, Paris-Orléans-LimogesToulouse, Paris-Caen-Cherbourg and Bordeaux-Marseille-Nice. In an echo of McNultyism, they
will seek improved organisation and working-methods and are likely to review of the relevance
of less-frequented lines and the possible replacement of more services by buses. Spain is on the
way to announcing a 40% budget cut in its plans for further extensions to its extensive highspeed network while a debate is raging in Germany about whether to complete the High Speed
network in south and south-east of the country.
There is a strong case for thinking through our own priorities, not least to have a list of regional
priorities ready should the plans for HS2 come under further challenge. Although TravelWatch
SouthWest is well-placed to do the analysis the impact of such a list will depend on rallying wide
support from LEPs, LTAs and key stakeholder organisations. Even should HS2 proceed in its
present form, the South West needs to articulate a clear position on what is needed to off-set
the likelihood of losing out to the HS2-route cities in comparative terms.
8. TravelWatch national network: A meeting of the chairs of the five TravelWatch organisations
that are in different phases of their existence was scheduled for the end of September. The
important thing is that we do have network arrangements and that we are generally aware of
one another’s’ activities. In time there is potential to develop the network into an effective
voice nationally. It is worth recording that our slightly younger ‘sister’, TravelWatch NorthWest,
which is celebrating its tenth birthday at its Liverpool meeting on 10th October, holds the CILT
award for best practice in passenger transport.
9. Website: I have referred in a succession of these reports to the problems that we have had in
up-dating our website. The delays are beyond the point at which apologies are appropriate. I
can record only that I am assured that the beta version is up and working and that, in the
absence of unexpected glitches, the revamped site should be working smoothly by the end of
October.
10. Directors: Stuart Walker, the company’s Finance Director since its inception, has taken up new
employment as a local authority officer in Suffolk after many years as a bastion of Cornwall’s
changing finance departments and as a key figure in Railfuture Devon & Cornwall. We will be
seeking a new Finance Director at the Annual General Meeting on Saturday 9 November. I
would like to take this opportunity to record my personal thanks to Stuart for all he has done
both for TravelWatch SouthWest and for its predecessor, the South West Public Transport Users’
Forum, which preceded it under the aegis of the old Rail Passengers’ Committee for Western
England. We wouldn’t have got the venture onto its present stable financial footing without
him.
11. Chair of TravelWatch SouthWest: Finally, I need to report that I will be relinquishing the Chair of
TravelWatch SouthWest at the Annual General Meeting on Saturday 9 November, but will be
standing for re-election as a director. I have been involved in passenger advocacy in the South
West for twenty-five years, for half of which I have been chair, either of the RPC or of the
company. It is well past the time for someone else to bring new skills and perspectives to the
leadership role. As many of you are aware, my commitments on the European level mean that I
spend an increasing amount of time on European business. Our involvement with the European
Passengers’ Federation, of which I am Vice-President, has led last year to my election by the EU’s
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Member States as Chair of the European Railway Agency, to my appointment as co-chair of the
Franco-British Intergovernmental Commission that regulates the operation of the Channel
Tunnel, to various pro bono board positions in Brussels concerned with the EU’s research and
innovation activities in the transport sector and as an adviser of EU rail policy to the EU’s
Transport Commissioner, Vice-President Kallas. I also continue to advise Passenger Focus and
the DfT on European matters. TravelWatch SouthWest has provided a sound foundation for this
pyramid of European activity and I intend that it should remain so. TravelWatch SouthWest now
deserves a new Chair who can inject fresh thinking and give more time to it than is possible with
an average of my existing four Eurostar trips a week. And the great personal reward of
Travelwatch SouthWest is that we have drawn some very good people into discussion of public
transport policy issues in the region.
Christopher Irwin
Chair, TravelWatch SouthWest CIC
25th September 2013
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