Conservative
proposals unveiled to improve Britain's railways
Bob Blackman, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Harrow East, added his backing to new Conservative plans to make rail services across London and Britain better. The proposals include giving the Mayor of London the power to work in partnership with train firms to help deliver local rail improvements, and practical steps to increase investment in new trains and services.
The proposals,
unveiled in a Conservative rail review, call for:
·
Longer,
better franchises: Short franchises discourage private sector investment in
better trains. Instead, 15-20 year franchises should be the norm to give
greater certainty and encourage investment in new and better trains.
·
Innovation
in local rail improvements: Funding for smaller scale capacity
enhancements, currently dealt with by Network Rail, should be contestable and
open to other providers, including train operating companies, local councils
and Community Rail Partnerships.
·
A
moratorium on building on disused rail paths: Any disused railway lines
still in public ownership should be conserved for the moment, to keep alive the
possibility of reopening them to rail travel in the future. Protecting these
corridors will also allow their use by pedestrians and cyclists in the interim.
·
Setting
the pace on high speed rail: There should be a new high speed line
connecting Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Heathrow. This would be
the first step in a national high speed network which would see the line
extended to Newcastle and Scotland with further new lines linking up major
cities across the UK.
·
A new
Passenger Champion: Passengers should have a one-stop-shop to complain to
when things go wrong and to represent their interests; it would have the power
to bang heads together to ensure that performance is improved, regardless of
where the fault lies.
Bob Blackman said:
"The Government
now has more control over the railways than in the days of British Rail. But
after a decade of Labour, our railways are becoming more and more overcrowded
and increasingly expensive, with fares soaring this year.
"We desperately
need new capacity with longer trains, longer platforms and additional lines. These
practical proposals would give a greater say for local people and less for Whitehall
bureaucrats.''
Notes to Editors
PLANS TO IMPROVE BRITAIN'S
RAILWAYS
On
11 February, Conservatives launched a detailed plan to improve Britain's rail
network.
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/02/Getting_the_best_for_rail_passengers.aspx
The
recommendations include:
Longer,
better franchises.
Short franchises discourage private sector
investment. We will make 15-20 year franchises the norm to give greater
certainty and encourage investment in new capacity. We will also assess
franchise bids more qualitatively - looking at what they will deliver for the
passenger, and not simply on how much money they will pay to the Government.
Promoting
innovation in delivering rail improvements.
We will make funding for smaller scale capacity
enhancements, currently dealt with by Network Rail, contestable and open to
other providers, including train operating companies, local authorities and
Community Rail Partnerships. This will improve efficiency and help provide an
important benchmark for Network Rail's performance. Community Rail Partnership
are designed to involve local people in the development and running of local
and rural routes, services and stations, and tend to be made up of a railway
operator and local councils.
A
moratorium on building on disused rail paths.
This will last for at least our first term in
Government and will conserve any disused railway lines still in public
ownership. As well as keeping alive the possibility of reopening them to rail
travel in the future, protecting these corridors will also facilitate their use
by pedestrians and cyclists in the interim.
Setting
the pace on high speed rail.
A Conservative Government will give the go ahead for
a new high speed line connecting Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, London and
Heathrow. We see this as the first step in a national high speed network which
will see our line extended to Newcastle and Scotland with further new lines
linking up major cities across the UK.
Increasing
the powers of the regulator to create a Passenger Champion.
Passengers should have a one-stop-shop to complain
to when things go wrong and to represent their interests; so we will expand the
remit of the Office of Rail Regulation to create a powerful consumer-focussed
regulator with the power to bang heads together to ensure that performance is improved,
regardless of where the fault lies. We would give the regulator stronger powers
to ensure Network Rail delivers what passengers want, and we would
introduce tougher and more effective penalties for failure,
including strengthening the power of the regulator to block the bonuses of
senior management where appropriate.
Reforming
Network Rail to make it more accountable to passengers and train operators.
We will create a new supervisory board with a
stronger voice for passengers and train operators. It will have the power to
hold the Network Rail management to account and to set the overall strategy for
the company.
Ending
Whitehall meddling.
Micromanagement from Whitehall is getting in the way
of innovation and making it harder to deliver the new capacity that passengers
want. We would put an end to this by radically scaling back the involvement of
the Government in areas such as timetabling and the purchasing of new rolling
stock.
Better
co-operation between the management of track and train.
We will strengthen and extend the duties imposed on
Network Rail to co-operate with train and freight operators and keep them
properly informed on matters relevant to the efficient running of services. We
will seek to align Network Rail's regulatory incentives as closely as possible
with the concerns of train and freight operators and the passengers and
businesses they serve. We will promote collaborative working practices across
the rail industry. We will create a unified regulatory structure for the industry
and give train and freight operators a stronger say in the governance of
Network Rail. We also propose to run 2 pilot schemes to assess the impact of
unified management of track and train.
RISING
FARES UNDER LABOUR
By contrast, this comes as the Government is letting
the train companies push up rail fares by above inflation, with season tickets
rising by 6% and leisure fares by 7%.
Figures by rail company are listed at Association of Train Operating Companies, press
release, 21 November 2008. http://www.atoc-comms.org/dynamic/atocpress-story.php?atoc=997885
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