RAIL FRANCHISING ‘BROKEN’

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may 2018 :: RMTnews 6 Britain’s rail franchising system is “broken” leading to “ludicrous, Alice-in- Wonderland” situations, the head of a public spending watchdog has said. A hard-hitting House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) report criticised the Department of Transport’s “completely inadequate” management of two important franchises Govia Thameslink and Virgin Trains East Coast. The committee, made up of seven Tory and seven Labour MPs and one each from the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, also criticised infrastructure operator Network Rail. Meg Hillier, the MP who chairs the committee, said that the market for franchises was not functioning properly, with contracts tending to go to incumbents and very few parties bidding. “The government needs to go back to the drawing board and put passengers at the forefront. “If taxpayers are to have any faith in government’s ability to deliver an effective passenger rail network then it must conduct and act on a thorough review before any further franchises are awarded,” she said. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that when such a cross party committee says that the franchising model is broken and that this government is to blame for both the Southern and East Coast fiascos that have cost the economy and tax payer billions, Chris Grayling must resign. “He is a specialist in failure of the highest order and is not fit to run a whelk stall let alone our railways. “The committee's call for a review before any further private rail passenger contracts are awarded makes it impossible to see how the East Coast contact can be handed back to Virgin and both that franchise and GTR should now be taken into public ownership. “The MPs also rightly blame the government for the prolonged industrial action on Southern Rail and RMT is repeating the call for an urgent summit to resolve the current disputes over guards and safety,” he said. The DfT responded angrily to the report claiming that MPs had failed to understand “the complexity of the situation”. However Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne agreed with the PAC and said that the priorities and incentives of Network Rail and franchise operators need to be aligned. The committee examined the failure of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise, run by a Virgin Group-Stagecoach consortium. Back in February Chris Grayling announced that the franchise would end “in a very small number of months” after VTEC breached a contractual financial covenant. The DfT is now considering options for who might run it, including VTEC on a not-for- profit basis. Ms Hillier said that she found it fantastical “where an operator says, ‘We can’t deliver what we promise but we’ll still run the railway with taxpayers’ money’. “We were amazed at the chutzpah,” she said. The committee also looked at the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, run by Govia Thameslink (GTR). The report said that the department had “turned a blind eye to the potential level of industrial action”. “The Department failed to see, or chose not to see, the perfect storm of an ambitious upgrade programme coupled with plans to increase driver controlled operation of trains. “Whilst the Department seeks to heap blame on the unions, it must acknowledge that its own decisions and lack of constructive engagement have played a large part in the dismal service for passengers,” MPs concluded. The watchdog singled out the design of the franchise, which it said did not include incentives for GTR to maintain performance levels. The committee also recommended that the company engage with RMT to settle the dispute. Ms Hillier said that GTR had expected to “ride out” a parcel of problems but that approach was “reckless for passengers, who have suffered”. She said that although it was not the committee’s role to propose a new model for franchising, it was clear that the current one was not working. “You want a market of choice and there isn’t much choice out there. Mostly it’s been the incumbent that’s won, so why would you bother?” she said. RAIL FRANCHISING ‘BROKEN’ RMT calls for Grayling to resign as cross party committee slams rail franchising scandal