CPS Backs Nationalised Railway

The right-wing Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), formerly Margaret Thatcher’s favourite “think tank”, has been pushing the idea of “competition” in passenger rail services, with “research fellow” Tony Lodge being given airtime on the BBC to promote his views, which mean pointing at Open Access operators on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) and saying that they are doing very wonderful things.

A Virgin Pendolino train passes Tamworth

Actual facts are thin on the ground here, but Lodge contends that the presence of Hull Trains and Grand Central means lower fares and better services. What he does not tell is that, all other things being equal, this suggests that taxpayers - mainly those who do not travel by rail - are contributing more to the upkeep of the ECML as a result. But the Lodge “competition” meme has just suffered a setback, and he’s not happy about it.

Given a platform by Conservative Home, he tells “The government quango in charge of deciding whether to allow more rail competition and choice has decided to refuse new competitive high speed services on Britain’s biggest rail network”, which will be news to all those who believed that there was only one rail network in the UK, the one managed by Network Rail (NR). So what’s the story?

“These new high speed non-franchised ‘open access’ services were to have run between London Euston and the North West and Yorkshire, in direct competition with Virgin and other franchised services.  They would have become a staple benefit to the Government’s so called ‘Northern Powerhouse’ ambitions”. Ho yus. So where is the cost-benefit analysis to illustrate the “Northern Powerhouse” pay-off? There isn’t one - no surprise there.

But he is clearly concerned about too many franchises falling under control of the same operator: “Last month, the Government awarded the … East Coast Main Line franchise to Virgin Trains and Stagecoach.  Stagecoach already runs the Midland Main Line into and out of St Pancras, while trains on the UK’s biggest rail network, the West Coast Main Line, are run by a … joint venture between Virgin and Stagecoach.  The new East Coast ‘Virgin’ franchise will start in March, when the consortium’s grip on long distance high speed rail travel north of London will be complete”. And to that I call bullshit.

The Department for Transport (DfT) specifies what trains are used, what services are run, where they will stop, and even regulates many fares. Franchises are little more than management contracts. And there is something about that Open Access operator that the man from the CPS is not telling his readers.

And that is that the proposed services were to be run by a subsidiary of … a nationalised railway company! A German nationalised rail company: Great North Western Railway would have been part of Deutsche Bahn. So Tony Lodge is in favour of foreign state operators, providing he can spin it as meeting his ideological purity standard.

Try explaining that to the Daily Mail, CPS people. Then get with the real world.