Network Rail and Great Western Railway alliance signed

[whole diary]

[stuving]

This was announced today by Network Rail:

Network Rail and Great Western Railway alliance to deliver a better passenger experience
04 March 2016

Network Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) have today (Friday 4 March) signed a formal alliance with the aim of delivering a better travelling experience for passengers by working more closely together.


Network Rail's Mark Langman (left, front) and GWR's Mark Hopwood (right, front) sign the agreement

The agreement, which was signed at Swindon station, covers five key areas of working and commits both companies to a more aligned approach to further improve performance and increase efficiencies.

It also covers improved joint planning for major upgrade projects such as the electrification of the Great Western Main Line, to help minimise disruption for passengers as much as possible.

"As part of our national ^40bn Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers, the railway through the Thames Valley and south west is undergoing the biggest modernisation programme since the Victorian era, including electrification, a new signalling system, new tracks and upgraded stations.

To deliver these extensive improvements and minimise disruption as much as possible, it^s essential we formalise a number of the good things we are already doing and set joint targets for improvement.

For many years we have been working as partners and this has been borne out in recent months by improvements to punctuality and in the delivery of major upgrade work. This formal agreement will now mean that we work more closely together to deliver the improvements we know passengers want to see."
             Mark Langman, Network Rail^s managing director for the Western route

"Our railway is going through the biggest investment since Brunel, and between us it is our job to make sure customers see the full benefit of that work as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This agreement formalises many arrangements that have been in place for some time, while also identifying new ways of working together to deliver value for passengers."
             Mark Hopwood, GWR^s managing director

GWR have also posted this (I think the words are identical, but the picture is different).

[IndustryInsider]

Not a very impressive alliance if they can't even share the same picture... 

[AMLAG]

I hope this (Deep ?) Alliance is more successful than that introduced between SWT^▸ (South West Trains) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page) which was disbanded last year.

[Billhere]

According to a friend at Guildford the NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/SWT^▸ (South West Trains) Alliance made operating so much easier, problems were dealt with more quickly, planning made by both sides came to fruition to the advantage of all and he couldn't understand why it was dropped.

He said all the senior Managers above his own were SWT staff rather than NR and the results showed.

[TaplowGreen]

As they have been working together "as partners for many years" one might ask why it's taken so long to dream this up?

[JayMac]

Well in the past 18 months GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have been trading on Network Rail's improvement works, claiming them as their own. So I suppose the next step was always going to be a formal alliance.

[readytostart]

These alliances are all well and good when accompanying the main operator but less so for the others.
During the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) closure due to repairs on the Lamington viaduct updates were coming from the ScotRail Alliance (who have no services running over the viaduct, an update from Network Rail Scotland would have seemed more appropriate!

[simonw]

Will this improve Monday morning travel?

Regularly the 0657@BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) (to Taunton) is late Monday morning, with frequent hints of weekend work overruns being the cause.

[ellendune]

These alliances are all well and good when accompanying the main operator but less so for the others.
During the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) closure due to repairs on the Lamington viaduct updates were coming from the ScotRail Alliance (who have no services running over the viaduct, an update from Network Rail Scotland would have seemed more appropriate!

But ScotRail's services were badly affected as they had to do bus replacements so that Virgin could use the alternative route!