UK - The new age of the train

[John Ashworth]

1. The new age of the train

A historic boom on the railways – but can network take the strain?

By Jerome Taylor
Friday, 11 April 2008

Britain is witnessing the dawn of a new era of rail travel as an unprecedented demand for environmentally friendly transport encourages people to take more train journeys than at any time since the Second World War.

Figures released yesterday revealed that the number of miles travelled on the rail network reached a record-breaking peacetime high of 30.1 billion during 2007, capping a huge rise in popularity in which passenger numbers have increased every year for the past 13 years.

The rise in passenger miles, documented by the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc), indicates a boom in demand for rail transport at a time when the threat of climate change is encouraging more people to find greener ways of moving around.

George Muir, director general of Atoc, described the resurgence of train use as astonishing. "We knew that we were growing but it was only when we looked at the graph that we realised how sudden that growth was," he said. "If you take out the war years, for much of the past 80 years passenger miles have hovered around the 20 billion mark, but within the past 10 years it has grown dramatically."

The only time that train passenger miles – calculated as the number of journeys taken multiplied by the distance travelled – has been higher was during the Second World War when the rail network was twice the size it is now and large numbers of troops were being transported around the country. The previous peacetime record was set in 1946 – when vast numbers of soldiers were being demobilised.

Atoc's figures represent one of the most detailed attempts to gauge the popularity of Britain's railways over the past 170 years and show how demand for rail travel has reached unprecedented levels over the past decade since privatisation. Last year the network handled 1.21 billion rail journeys, the equivalent of 20 journeys for every citizen and a 7 per cent rise on 2006. Traffic on the railways, meanwhile, has increased by 67.6 per cent since 1994 when just 17.9 billion passenger miles were travelled.

Tim Leunig, a historian from the London School of Economics who helped compile the figures, said current trends meant passenger miles were likely to continue breaking records "time and time and time again" as demand increases. A White Paper last year estimated that Britain would need to double its rail capacity by 2030 to meet demand.

Passenger groups voiced concerns that the cost of expanding the overstretched rail network will be paid for by yet more above-inflation ticket price rises. The most recent, which came into effect in January, saw some rail operators put up the cost of fares on some routes up by as much as 15 per cent.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, said: "We need a fares policy that encourages rail and bus use, and that means cheaper tickets, not more expensive ones. If just 5 per cent of people travelling by car turn to rail it would require a 50 per cent increase in rail capacity, so the task is huge and it needs dramatic action."

Environmental groups also warned that rising ticket prices could remove the incentive to travel by train at a time when car use and short-haul flights are also at record highs. "We're delighted that the demand for rail travel is increasing and that more and more people are choosing to use this greener form of transport but we do have concerns about the rising costs of using our railways," said Cat Hobbs from the Campaign for Better Transport.

"We're also not convinced that the Government has adequate long-term plans to expand and fund a railway network that will meet future demand."

Concern was also expressed yesterday that, as demand for rail travel grows, the already chronic overcrowding on some sections of the network will only get worse. Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, the independent national rail consumer watchdog, said: "These figures graphically underline the urgent need for more and longer trains. Passengers left standing on a crowded peak service will find this announcement hard to believe."

A Department for Transport spokesperson rejected any suggestion that the Government would fail to meet future demand. "We are ahead of the curve and planning for growth," she said.

"On top of the opening of the UK's first high-speed line and securing funding for Crossrail last year we announced £10bn investment focused on increasing capacity.

"We are planning a rail network which can carry 180 million more passengers over the next six years, growth of 22 per cent."

The Independent

2. Leading article: On the right track – shame about the service

Friday, 11 April 2008


The railways want to draw our attention to some good news. According to figures published by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), the use of Britain's rail network, as measured by passenger miles, is at its highest level recorded since the 1950s. According to ATOC's director general, George Muir, "the railway brings people together and 2007 was a record year".

So should we be celebrating? Don't expect street parties any time soon. Few regular passengers will be fooled by these headline figures. Behind the talk of "record years" lies the uncomfortable fact that we have a third-rate rail system in this country. Consider the extended disruption over the Christmas holiday, thanks to engineering works by Network Rail. Consider the shambles of a service operated by First Great Western, which has provoked a passenger revolt. Consider the ridiculously complicated fare structure, which penalises anyone who fails to book their ticket months in advance. Certainly, there are some routes that are offering an improved service. But, overall, the network is a mess.

Rail networks on the Continent are almost universally cheaper, quicker and less congested than in Britain. And more people use the trains in Europe too.

There is a good reason why there are so few city-to-city air routes in France, and that is because the trains are so much more attractive. To some extent, the projected growth of regional airports in the UK represents a failure of our rail service to provide decent competition for inter-city travel.

Another pointer to the true state of affairs is the sharp fare hikes announced this year by the rail franchises. This is a pretty transparent attempt by the train operators to choke off greater demand. What sort of business responds to an influx of customers by trying to price them out? The answer is an inefficient and cosy cartel.

There have been huge subsidies for the rail industry in recent years. In fact, it has received more public money than in the days of British Rail. But even this has been insufficient to break through the obstacles of a botched post-privatisation structure, poorly-run and greedy train operators, a weak regulator and a legacy of chronic underinvestment.

People are travelling more frequently by train because of economic growth, greater commuting distances and congestion on the roads. That is no bad thing.

And we should be encouraged to the extent that train transport is considerably less polluting than car or plane. But we should not for a moment be persuaded into believing that rail passengers are getting anything like a satisfactory service.

The Independent

3. Christian Wolmar: Fragile industry with a difficult journey ahead

Friday, 11 April 2008

Despite delays, weekend closures and overcrowding, Britain's love affair with the railways seems to grow stronger every year. Passenger numbers have risen by 50 per cent since the mid 1990s and, so far, the rate of increase shows no sign of abating.

The reasons for the boom are fairly straightforward. Railways have always done well at times of economic growth and the big driver is commuting, as passengers with season tickets now account for half of all journeys. In particular, the economy of London and the South-east, where rail has a captive market, is rising at a far faster rate than the rest of the country.

Moreover, while trains are often late and heaving with people, the alternatives – such as congested motorways or domestic flights made nightmarish by rigid security and crowded skies – are worse. Surveys show that most rail travellers are generally satisfied with their journey, thanks to an influx of new rolling stock in the past decade and a gradual improvement in punctuality since the low point of the Hatfield crash in 2000 when the system nearly came to a halt as a result of Railtrack's incompetence. Oddly, though, despite the recovery, this is not the story of a booming industry happy with itself and confident of its future.

First, the railways are absorbing far more subsidy than ever before, some £5bn per year, and the Government wants to reduce this figure by forcing up fares and extracting large premium payments from the train operators. Operators are already feeling the squeeze and one, GNER, has already been forced to hand in its franchise because its forecasts proved over optimistic.

Second, any downturn in the economy would have an immediate impact, with reductions first in discretionary leisure travel and then commuting. This has not happened since the railways were privatised and would put unprecedented pressure on the industry and government. With several recently signed franchise contracts having been based on continued growth, a recession would pose problems both for the operators, who would lose money, and the Government, which could find its franchising policy in tatters if too many operators sought to throw in the towel.

In fact, the Government faces problems on the railways either way. If a recession is avoided and passenger numbers continue to grow at the present rate, the long- term plan for the railways published last year made clear that ministers are not prepared to invest the substantial sums needed to ease capacity constraints.

If the Government's tactic of trying to damp down demand through above-inflation fares increases fails (an old BR trick adopted by Labour), then pressure will build from passengers for the major increase in investment that is needed to relieve congestion. The railways may be on a high today, but as the engineering overruns at Christmas and Easter caused by Network Rail showed, public confidence in the system can easily be lost.

Christian Wolmar's latest book is Fire & Steam, a history of the railways, published by Atlantic Books, £19.99

http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk

The Independent