My personal view is that the top priority should be root and branch reform of Network Rail, as a fit for purpose NR» could facilitate a number of positive options, either in a private or nationalised system. However, the way Network Rail currently operates acts as a dead weight on the entire industry, which is why change there first is so crucial in order to enable change elsewhere.
Do you think Andrew Haines is up to the job of achieving that Lee?
Yes and no.
I have watched with interest you debate
Climate Change with other forum members, particularly with regard to the view of some that we've done the easy stuff so far, and now we need to do the hard stuff.
I think a similar situation exists with Andrew Haines and Network Rail. So far, he has overseen some small but newsworthy measures designed to build confidence with the public, such as
scrapping toilet charges at busy stations. However, now he really needs to tackle the hard stuff.
First of all, I dont really have a problem with Haines himself. I felt he was a good
CEO▸ for
FGW▸ , and I welcomed his appointment at Network Rail. I have expressed some irritation at the slow speed he appears to be moving at times, but this is Network Rail, and there are far worse people you could have at the helm.
Similarly, I dont have a problem with those at the business end building, fixing and maintaining things - the "Electric train"'s of the world - the vast majority of whom do excellent work day in, day out and tend to be happy to explain what they do to the likes of us as well.
In my view, the real problem lies with those management types in the middle who take regular decisions that have a huge impact on rail users with seemingly very little scrutiny being applied, like a modern day rail version of The Untouchables. These people very rarely break cover and face the public, but when they do, the results can be very illuminating. I remember one First Great Western (FGW) Stakeholder Conference around a decade ago, after a sustained campaigning effort to put the case for a station at Corsham had taken place, when some such NR middle management type started his presentation to a stunned crowd with the words "I am here to tell you that a station at Corsham will never open". Another, after receiving a carefully-crafted and well-written case outline for why Pilning should retain its footbridge, wrote a very short reply along the lines of "We are not interested in discussing Pilning, you people are just a nuisance and should stop harrassing us".
Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. These people are very firmly of the view that they are always right, everyone else is wrong, and having decided so, then that is the end of the matter. "And who are you to question us anyway, you are just mere passengers, we are the professionals".
One of the consequences of this is that the failure of Network Rail to step up in this regard has given an excuse to other key rail industry players not to step up either - So a
TOC▸ can say "We cant provide a station at x because Network Rail..." and the
DfT» can say "We cant finish off electrification to y because Network Rail...", and on it goes.
It wasnt always like that. The early 1980s example of when passengers and supporters of newly-reopened Templecombe station who knew what was needed service and infrastructure-wise to build growth came up against a similar culture and attitude in
BR▸ middle management is a case in point - but the difference is that both sides worked to build trust successfully to build that growth and together enabled the station to go from strength to strength, as shown in this
YouTube Video.One of the key reasons we are where we are is that successive governments have focussed on ineffective piecemeal reforms of the franchising system, and seemingly just hoped Network Rail was capable of reforming itself, when it clearly isnt in the areas that matter - ie in how to deliver what we, the passengers and customers, want and need. The time has now come for Network Rail (NR) to be physically shown what needs to be done - and I have
suggested elsewhere how respected passenger/community representatives such as grahame and RichardB, along with similar representatives from the Railfreight sector, who have a proven track record in suggesting solutions that work for everyone, and have demonstrated they have the required knowledge of how things work operationally, could be brought into the process to help reform how Network Rail works with passengers and customers in this respect.
Those Network Rail (NR) middle managers who are happy to take on board and take forward those inputs should be encouraged to do so, and those who are unwilling to change should be politely told that their future lies elsewhere.
Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym
