Transport
groups


have
a
long
history,
and
they
are
still
playing
a
major
part
in
the
industry
at
the
moment.
Whether
they
will
still
be
doing
so
in
Britain
in
a
few
years
from
now
is
another
matter.

At
present,
to
take
just
two
examples,
FirstGroup
runs
Great
Western
Railway
and
the
open
access
operators
Hull
Trains
and
Lumo.
It
also
has
majority
stakes
in
Avanti
West
Coast
and
South
Western
Railway.
Transport
UK
has
East
Midlands
Railway
and
the
majority
of
Greater
Anglia,
Merseyrail
and
West
Midlands
Railway.
Both
these
groups
also
run
buses.

FirstGroup’s
last
accounts
show
that
its
revenues
come
from
trains
and
buses
–
in
that
order.
In
the
year
to
30
March
2024
rail
revenue
was
£3,738
million
while
buses
turned
over
£1,012
million.
Adjusted
profits
from
rail
were
£143
million,
and
from
buses
they
were
£84
million.

Open
access
train
services
–
Hull
Trains
and
Lumo
–
made
a
significant
contribution,
because
they
accounted
for
just
over
a
quarter
of
the
rail
profits.
Between
them,
open
access
rail
and
First’s
buses
made
a
profit
of
£121
million,
while
train
operators
with
DfT
contracts
made
a
profit
of
£106
million.
In
other
words,
without
the
DfT
rail
contracts
First’s
profits
would
have
been
almost
halved
last
year.

And
yet
First
will
soon
have
to
manage
without
those
contracts,
because
the
government
intends
to
renationalise
the
remaining
former
franchises
within
the
next
couple
of
years,
so
transport
groups
like
First
have
been
concentrating
–
hard
–
on
open
access,
particularly
since
the
election
and
the
Labour
landslide.

No
wonder,
then,
that
the
Group’s
chief
executive
Graham
Sutherland
said
in
December:
‘Growing
our
open
access
rail
portfolio
is
a
key
priority
for
FirstGroup.’

He
is
not
the
only
one.
Apart
from
First’s
ambitions
to
extend
Lumo
to
Glasgow
and
also
provide
new
services
to
Paignton
and
Rochdale,
there
are
also
outstanding
applications
for
more
open
access
routes
from
Virgin
and,
rather
remarkably,
Alstom,
which
is
better
known
for
building
trains
than
operating
them.

It
is
almost
a
year
since
Alstom
unveiled
its
vision
for
new
open
access
train
services
between
London
and
Wrexham,
echoing
the
old
Wrexham
&
Shropshire
operation
owned
by
Arriva
which
ceased
trading
in
January
2011.

Alstom,
which
is
working
in
partnership
with
SLC
Rail,
sees
its
Wrexham
services
using
part
of
the
West
Coast
Main
Line
and
arriving
at
London
Euston
rather
than
Marylebone,
five
times
a
day.

Virgin,
meanwhile,
is
proposing
as
many
as
five
open
access
routes,
also
starting
from
its
old
home
at
London
Euston,
to
places
such
as
Manchester,
Rochdale
(or
Preston),
Liverpool,
Birmingham
and
Glasgow.

If
Virgin
and
Alstom
both
gained
approval
for
their
separate
schemes,
they
would
need
something
like
80
paths
a
day
between
them
on
the
West
Coast
Main
Line
between
London
and
Rugby.

This
could
mean
a
veritable
capacity
crunch,
and
the
possibility
seems
to
be
worrying
transport
secretary
Heidi
Alexander,
who
wrote
to
the
Office
of
Rail
and
Road
on
6
January
this
year
voicing
some
reservations
about
the
sudden
boom
in
open
access
applications.

She
is
concerned
about
the
lower
track
access
charges
paid
by
open
access
operators
(bearing
in
mind
that
the
infrastructure
is
funded
by
taxpayers)
and
also
the
capacity
of
the
network.

That
was
in
early
January.
Since
then,
FirstGroup
has
hosted
an
event
at
which
it
highlighted
the
merits
of
open
access,
but
it
has
just
emerged
that
the
Department
for
Transport
wrote
to
the
Office
of
Rail
and
Road
a
week
ago,
setting
out
its
updated
views
of
more
open
access.

Basically,
the
verdict
from
Horseferry
Road
is
thumbs
down.
Applications
are
mostly
not
being
supported,
mainly
on
the
familiar
grounds
of
lack
of
capacity
and
revenue
abstraction.

In
some
cases
(Virgin’s,
in
particular)
applications
seek
to
use
unoccupied
paths
which
currently
belong
to
contracted
operators.

Such
operators
are
set
to
be
steadily
renationalised,
starting
with
South
Western
Railway
in
May,
so
Virgin
is
not
really
up
against
the
First/Trenitalia
operator
Avanti
West
Coast,
but
the
future
state
railway
manager
Great
British
Railways,
and
the
DfT
is
having
none
of
it,
saying:
‘We
do
not
believe
that
the
quantum
of
paths
sought
is
feasible
or
realistic
and
note
that
the
WCML
already
operates
at
close
to
capacity,
particularly
into/out
of
London
Euston.’

It
goes
on
to
add:
‘This
application
is
also
at
odds
with
work
already
underway
as
part
of
the
Transpennine
Route
Upgrade
and
Manchester-focused
projects
included
as
part
of
the
Rail
Network
Enhancement
Pipeline.
The
business
cases
for
these
projects,
which
have
been
agreed
to
and
announced
by
Ministers,
are
predicated
on
the
efficient
delivery
of
financial
and
passenger
benefits
by
DfT-procured
services.’

‘DfT-procured
services’
will,
of
course,
soon
be
Great
British
Railways
services.

Only
one
of
the
current
open
access
applications
has
managed
to
survive
the
bleak
stare
of
the
DfT,
which
says
it
is
‘supportive
in
principle
of
WSMR’s
proposals
to
operate
new
Open Access
services
between
Wrexham
General
and
London
Euston,
subject
to
further
assessment
by
Network
Rail
of
performance
impacts.’
As
for
the
rest,
we
don’t
think
so.

The
ORR
makes
the
final
decision,
but
the
DfT’s
views
surely
cannot
be
disregarded.

The
result
is
that
transport
groups
may
look
increasingly
overseas,
and
particularly
to
mainland
Europe,
where
some
of
them
are
already
running
local
train
and
bus
routes.
First
Rail’s
Steve
Montgomery
hinted
that
First
could
be
poised
to
cross
the
Channel
at
FirstGroup’s
open
access
presentation.
National
Express
went
abroad
after
selling
the
c2c
franchise
in
2017,
and
it
now
runs
a
number
of
train
services
on
the
continent.

Will
Virgin
run
from
Euston
again?
The
odds
against
it
seem
to
be
all
but
overwhelming
now.


(A
full,
illustrated
version
of
this
essay
forms
the
feature
in
the
February
print
edition
of
Railnews,
published
Thursday.)

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