Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail / Great British Railways

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

As a customer, how will I notice the difference?

As yet, largely guesswork?  Depends on what the new setup does and how it does it.

"Until we get the answers to these questions,  we can’t tell whether the reality matches the rhetoric.”

[grahame]

From https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/williams-shapps-plan-ten-outcomes-laid-out-in-the-white-paper/ - I am quoting the headlines only; there's an explanatory sentence in the article with each of them.

The ten outcomes laid out in the White Paper are:
1. Modern passenger experience 
2. Retail revolution
3. New ways of working with the private sector
4. Economic recovery and financially sustainable railways
5. Greater control for local people and places 
6. Cleaner, greener railways
7. New opportunities for freight
8. Increased speed of delivery and efficient enhancements
9. Skilled, innovative workforce
10. Simpler industry structure

[Lee]

I do hope that GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) will have some autonomy from Whitehall and won't be micromanaged by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

Indeed - but there's also the massive question of their strategies and approaches

What will be interesting to watch is the reaction of the current operators' parent companies. Will they all still be keen to be involved in running services? Will this actually see new entrants bidding for concessions?

The Press Release says

Local communities will work closely with GBR on designing services, with local leaders given greater control over local ticketing, timetables and stations. The new model will encourage innovative bidders, such as community rail partnerships who want to bid for the GBR contract to operate their local branch lines.

I'm noting "such as" within the text I have bolded - also seeing a potential option for Open Access operators to run services, with the difference being that they might bid for and run GBR specified services as a whole rather than [just?] filling in the gaps left by the service specifiers.

Also raises the questions of "what is a branch line service, and how should such services be run and developed?"

EXAMPLE 1 - The Devon & Cornwall branch lines might well be run superbly by a standalone organisation led by someone like RichardB, but equally, they may be also be better off as part of a county led and specified Devon Metro or One Cornwall that fully integrates them with modes such as bus and active travel.

EXAMPLE 2 - The TransWilts could well be seen by those in charge of Great British Railways as a  branch line-style type of local service, and is specified and often described by the rail industry as such, who may also see the technical knowhow and track record of, and effective partnerships with local figures like grahame as perfect for a self-contained micro-contract. However, if this then sets "Westbury-Swindon and no further" in aspic, how will wider ambitions of extensions to eg Southampton or Oxford/Birmingham be realised?

Also, how does one ensure that such locally-run services are truly locally accountable? For example, some CRPs^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) such as Devon & Cornwall and Severnside on our patch are brilliant at involving local communities in all aspects of their activities and overall strategy, while others tend to take the view that such decisions largely begin and end at board level.

What if an organisation such as Go-op talks a good game and gets contracts as a result, but is ultimately not up to it and/or advances a service vision that isnt really what "locals" want?

And if the Network Rail-arm of Great British Railways can ultimately put the "stability of the overall network" first and use its powers to "change timetables and even out services", will there be any point to any of it?

[grahame]

As a customer, how will I notice the difference?

Are you a graphic designer?  ...

Great British Railways will introduce Rail Alphabet 2 across the rail network, replacing the many different fonts used on railway signage

[grahame]

Full report

White paper (6 Mb, 116 pages) via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-british-railways-williams-shapps-plan-for-rail at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987752/gbr-williams-shapps-plan-for-rail.pdf

Edit to add ... member mirror at http://www.passenger.chat/gbr-williams-shapps-plan-for-rail.pdf and text therein included in our searches.

[grahame]

From the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) Rail Reform Briefing Hub (via email) - what's being said to partners ...

Dear Colleague,

As you will be aware, the government is committed to bringing forward vital sector-wide reforms and commissioned Keith Williams to carry out the first root and branch review of the rail industry in a generation.  The contributions you and others made to the Call for Evidence, helped to provide the picture of where change is needed and why.  Thank you for engaging with the process to date.

The Secretary of State has been clear, that his ambition is to get trains running on time, have a railway that works in the interests of passengers and freight customers – and to create a more financially sustainable railway, saving money for the taxpayer.

Today, the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail is published, and details the plans for rail reform can be found here see links in this thread.

The Plan sets out the Governments promise to passengers and freight customers:
 
* To end three decades of fragmentation by bringing the railways back together under a new public body. Great British Railways will be a single, familiar brand with accountable leadership, and a new identity, built on the famous double arrow. Great British Railways (GBR^▸ (Great British Railways)) will run and plan the network, own the infrastructure, and collect most fare revenue. It will procure passenger services and set most fares and timetables.
 
* To make the railways easier to use by simplifying fares and ticketing, providing more convenient ways to pay with contactless, smartphone and online, and protecting affordable walk-on fares and season tickets. Rail services will be better coordinated with each other, and better integrated with other transport services such as trams, buses and bikes.
 
* To keep the best elements of the private sector that have helped to drive growth. GBR will contract private partners to operate the trains to the timetable it sets. These contracts will include strong incentives for operators to run high-quality services and increase passenger demand. The contracts are not one-size-fits-all, so as demand recovers long-distance routes will have more commercial freedom to attract new passengers. Freight is already a nimble, largely private sector market and will remain so, while benefitting from the national coordination, new safeguards, and rules-based access system that will help it thrive.
 
* To grow, not shrink, the network, continuing to invest tens of billions of pounds in new lines, trains, services and electrification.
 
* To make the railways more efficient. Simpler structures and clear leadership will make decision making easier and more transparent, reduce costs and make it cheaper to invest in modern ways to pay, upgrade the network and deliver new lines. The adversarial blame culture will end, and everyone across the sector, including train operators, will be incentivised to work towards common goals, not least managing costs.

The Department will continue to engage with stakeholders  - including through further public consultations – as we implement the transformation programme set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.

Kind regards

[rower40]

(Great) British Rail(ways) needs a world-renowned Research division, based somewhere central - say, the East Midlands - to spearhead the technological challenges of the decades ahead.
This might, erm... RESONATE ... with certain developments in the 1960s.

[ellendune]

(Great) British Rail(ways) needs a world-renowned Research division, based somewhere central - say, the East Midlands - to spearhead the technological challenges of the decades ahead.
This might, erm... RESONATE ... with certain developments in the 1960s.

You mean somewhere like London Road in Derby.  Wasn't there one a place there that did that.  I seem to remember working there for a short time in the 1970's. 

[jamestheredengine]

The best bit:

Great British Railways will introduce new design and ride standards that will make sure all new trains are more comfortable than their predecessors. Subject to negotiations with suppliers and business case approval, Great British Railways will bring forward the normal replacement cycles on existing trains equipped with "ironing-board"-like seats, beginning with long-distance trains, in order to make the seats signifcantly more comfortable, or to replace and eventually remove them altogether.

Can we have buffet cars and drop-sash windows you have to lean out of to open the doors back as well, please?

[rower40]

Can we have buffet cars and drop-sash windows you have to lean out of to open the doors back as well, please?

Sorry for off-topic...

The rot set in with the removal of the internal door-handles on Mk3 coaches. (Does anyone else remember the "Tamworth Triangle" falls-from-trains tragedies?)  On a crush-loaded Mk3, these door handles would look invitingly like a perch-seat, with awful consequences if the hinge of that door was nearer the rear of the train.

When these coaches were retro-fitted with Central Locking, it was a travesty that the door-handles weren't then re-installed, as it would have saved having to open the windows at each station where anyone was leaving the train.

+1 for Buffet cars!

[JayMac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57184564

Shares in online rail and bus ticket firm Trainline have plunged after news that a new state-owned body is to sell rail tickets.

[Lee]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57184564

Shares in online rail and bus ticket firm Trainline have plunged after news that a new state-owned body is to sell rail tickets.

Under a shake-up of the rail sector, Great British Railways will sell tickets via a website and app, in competition with multiple companies.

[broadgage]

As a customer, how will I notice the difference?

I doubt that you will notice any difference for say the rest of this calendar year. We will still have the same trains, the same staff, and the same infrastructure.

In the longer term I expect that changes will be fairly gradual, but hopefully we will see some improvements.

[broadgage]

I suspect that a significant minority of TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) staff are fearful about their futures.
Not OPERATIONAL staff, drivers, train managers, ticket inspectors and the like will still be needed and in broadly similar numbers.

With a new "national identity" many TOC publicity and design staff may no longer be needed. Some of course will find work with the new national organisation, but we wont need the present number of
Livery designers.
Staff uniform designers.
Poster designers.
And related jobs.

[ChrisB]

Also no TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) timetable staff & no staff required to determine cause and attribution of every delay. No fares staff either. Slimmed down TOCs will result in cost reduction and potentially cheaper contracts to run trains.