Darling unveils radical rail review
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has announced a major review of Britain’s railways in a statement to the Commons.
The new plans include a serious overhaul of the work of the rail regulator, the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA).
Managers at Network Rail, the body that oversees the upkeep of Britain’s trains and bridges, have failed to improve performance since Hatfield and the demise of Railtrack.
Mr Darling said he wanted the network streamlined to improve reliability and insisted that it would operate in the public interest. He told MPs that the current structure was getting in the way of effective decision-making and often led to “unnecessary wrangling and disputes”.
Mr Darling said he would publish proposals in the summer for a new structure and organisation of the railways, but ruled out total re-nationalisation, claiming that it did not offer a solution to the problems faced by the UK’s rail network.
Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa May slammed the plans, claiming they were about “increasing centralisation and political control”.
However, all parties involved in setting policy for the rail industry in Britain agree that action is needed to address performance problems that have dogged the network.
Recent figures show that one in five trains still run late, despite the government’s scrapping of Railtrack and the establishment of the not-for-profit Network Rail, and, despite billions of pounds of extra investment, there has been little improvement in reliability or safety records.
Mr Darling said in his statement to the House today: “It has become very clear that the scale of under investment and inefficiency in our railways, which built-up over decades, was far greater than anyone believed at that time.”
Some £33 billion over 10 years has been set aside for the railways but critics say it is not enough.
The review is expected to reassess the role of the independent Office of the Rail Regulator, which sets track access charges, and reports suggest that Mr Darling may take safety regulation away from the Health and Safety Executive and into his direct control.
Richard Bowker, who receives a quarter of a million pounds a year for his job as the SRA chief, has rejected claims he may be forced to go. A Department of Transport spokesman said: “He has not resigned, we have not asked him to resign and we are not going to ask him to resign.”
