Alstom cash call Train maker Alston is hoping to raise a billion Euros (£860 million) from its investors in a bid to reduce its debts. Alstom had warned that its factory in Litchurch Lane Derby was facing closure, but it may have been rescued by an order for 10 Elizabeth Line trains which would be used to enlarge the existing Derby-built fleet. Alstom is also planning a bond issue worth €750 million. Underground alarm Anxious passengers broke windows to escape from a tube train stalled at Clapham Common station in south London on 5 May last year, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has reported. The passenger alarm had been used after smoke and a burning smell had been noticed on board the train, only part of which was on the platform. Staff began opening the doors about four and a half minutes after the train had stopped, but a few passengers were slightly hurt during their bid to escape. The RAIB found that ‘they did not receive suitable information or see any effective action from London Underground staff’. HS2 Euston cash Labour has criticised the government following reports that £1 billion in public money could be spent on the HS2 development at London Euston. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: ‘Last year the Prime Minister took to the conference stage and promised Euston would be privately financed – a promise he knew he could not keep. Now, as a result of his dishonesty and delay, even more taxpayers' money is being added to the woefully mismanaged HS2 bill. Ministers urgently need to clarify where this funding will come from, and why they failed to consider this cost when making decisions around HS2.’ Railway 200 website The industry initiative Railway 200 has launched a new website giving more details about next year’s festival, which is timed for the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and will celebrate the railway – past, present and future. An exhibition train is set to tour Britain during 2025, and local organisations around the country are being invited to take part in the event.

The four nationalised train operators in England have joined forces to encourage innovations which could contribute to tomorrow’s railway. LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express, all of which are ultimately owned by the government through the Department for Transport, are seeking the latest technology which could be sent to ‘Future Labs’, a scheme intended to boost the development of ideas about solving present and future problems. Successful applicants will be allowed to see confidential industry data, and they will also be able to consult with the operators and their specialist staff. The inventors will be able to apply, test and demonstrate their ideas on the existing railway over 12 weeks. Applications can be made at at the Future Labs website, and must be submitted by 16 June.  Speaking jointly, the operators said: ‘Future Labs is all about transforming the rail industry through open, pioneering and proven innovation. By giving technology startups access to live environments and expert mentorship they can test their proposed solutions in a real-world environment.’  One previous success is the Artificial Intelligence system Amygda, launched in 2022, which helps fleet engineers to deal with problems on rolling stock as they arise. Chief executive and founder Faizan Patankar said: ‘The rail industry provided us with invaluable access to live environments that allowed us to test and develop our product. ‘The unique opportunity to generate our own insights was instrumental in building an understanding of the nuances of real-world data capture. ‘Given the excellent experience it was to work with rail experts, the expanded scale of the programme with four operators is a really exciting opportunity for innovators.’

Tram engineers and fitters working for Transport for London are set to strike from 20.00 on 5 May to 06.00 on 9 May, after talks over pay differentials had broken down. The two sides have clashed over allegations of ‘bad faith’ made by the engineers’ union Unite, which TfL denies. TfL is advising its passengers to walk, cycle or use buses or the Overground on strike days, when no tram services are expected before 07.00 or after 18.00. During the day reduced frequencies are predicted between Wimbledon and Reeves Corner on the edge of Croydon town centre, and between East Croydon and Beckenham Junction or New Addington. Unite has warned that more industrial action will follow unless there is an agreement in the meantime. The argument concerns about 60 tram, stores and infrastructure engineers, who are angry that their staff on the London Underground who require the same qualifications and perform the same duties, are paid up to £10,000 more a year. Strikes in March were postponed to allow for talks with TfL. Negotiations collapsed, however, with Unite accusing TfL of refusing ‘to be transparent about the process it was using to identify pay disparities and broke its word on how they would be resolved’. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘It is outrageous that TfL somehow thinks it is acceptable to be systemically underpaying highly skilled workers who are essential to keep the tram system functioning. ‘TfL was negotiating in bad faith by breaking its promises and withholding information. Unite’s patience has run out with TfL’s disgraceful double-dealing and lack of transparency.’ According to Unite, TfL has identified five jobs where disparities exist, but has not adjusted the pay of the employees involved. Unite regional officer Bruce Swann said: ‘TfL is entirely responsible for the disruption that will be caused to passengers. If TfL had stuck to its word and engaged openly and honestly, the Tramlink engineers would not be forced to take strike action. TfL has left these issues to fester for years and the strikes will continue until it resolves them to our members’ satisfaction.’ Another cause of the dispute is that the engineers are on office worker contracts despite their technical responsibilities, which has also affected their pay, and there has been no movement from TfL. Transport for London responded: ‘We would never enter conversations in bad faith, and have been open and honest throughout the process. We have agreed to work with union colleagues to identify equivalent roles in London Underground, assess any disparity in overall benefits packages, and where agreed take action where appropriate. This will take time and we have asked that this strike action is suspended to allow this to happen. ‘We remain committed to continued dialogue to reach a conclusion and ask the union to suspend this action, which will only cause unnecessary inconvenience for our customers.’ TfL added that where disparities are identified and it is agreed that an increase in pay is appropriate, TfL will commit to resolving that disparity over the shortest time possible, which will be no more than three years. It also said that the introduction of new contracts which TfL had agreed with Unite in December needs ’complex IT changes’, and that it remains committed to making these changes as quickly as it can.

More than 800 railway improvement projects are planned by Network Rail during the two bank holidays in May, when a total of £135 million will be invested. Most of the work takes the form of ‘normal’ weekend engineering overnight, when few passenger trains are running. Between 4 and 6 May, continuing work on the new station at Cambridge South will cause some disruption on routes around the city. Track renewals in the Coventry area mean no trains will run between Birmingham Airport, Rugby and Leamington Spa. On 5 May there will be no trains between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central, while there will also be no services between London and Glasgow on the West Coast route because of further possessions in various places, including Crewe and Wigan. Track is to be renewed around Liverpool on 5 and 6 May. Network Rail’s system operator director Anit Chandarana said: ‘I’m pleased to say that while we’re continuing our investment in making Britain’s railway more reliable this May, the vast majority of the railway will be open for business as normal. We know people want to travel by train and not replacement bus and we do our best to fit as much work as we can into these closures to minimise the impact on passengers and freight customers.’ Disruption of a different kind will affect various English operators next week, when drivers’ union ASLEF stages further strikes in its continuing pay dispute. As before, this will be a series of ‘rolling’ strikes, affecting different groups of operators each day. A ban on overtime and rest-day working will be in force all week, and this could also cause some delays or cancellations.

Rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook has announced plans to electrify the Long Marston test track in Warwickshire. Porterbrook took over operations at Long Marston in 2021 and completed the purchase in March this year. Porterbrook said its latest upgrade would take its total investment in Long Marston, which has 3.5km of track, to more than £75 million since 2021. The electrification should be ready for use next year. The site has been used to store rolling stock for many years, and it was where the first Vivarail trains were displayed under test in 2015, having been converted from redundant London Underground D78 units. Vivarail has since ceased to exist, but some of its battery units have been acquired by GWR for testing on the Greenford branch in west London. The test site upgrade will involve the installation of 25kV overhead, but Porterbrook told Railnews it has no plans to include conductor rails. Long Marston will also offer ETCS digital signalling and be compatible with other forms of traction, including hydrogen, battery and diesel. The maximum line speed will be 50mph (80km/h). Porterbrook CEO Mary Grant said: ‘With the future of Long Marston now confirmed we’ve wasted no time starting the next phase of the site improvements to reinforce our commitment to being a long-term partner for the rail industry. ‘Substantial replacement of life-expired vehicles is needed over the next decade, and the track upgrades mean that we can deliver the best level of service with our manufacturing partners for new rolling stock entering service.’ Porterbrook has already been improving Long Marston over the past three years, including improved roads, enhanced training services, refurbished offices and the addition of a £3 million Asset Management Facility.

Landslip repaired Network Rail says old mine workings were found during engineering work to repair a landslip between Knottingley and Pontefract Monkhill. The line has now reopened, following seven weeks of round-the-clock work to rebuild the embankment after it slipped in early March. More than 2,000 tonnes of stone were installed along with a new 30-metre retaining wall, and 60 metres of track was also removed and replaced. Wet weather was thought to have been the cause of the slip, but minor voids were discovered beneath the railway embankment that are thought to be connected with old mines. Network Rail said this meant that the work took longer and was more complex. New contract in Wales The Global Centre of Rail Excellence in South Wales has welcomed CAF as the latest international railway manufacturer to sign up to using its testing and innovation services. The deal will see GCRE assist CAF with testing of rolling stock and digital signalling. CAF was recently announced as the supplier of ten tri-mode trains for LNER, and the partnership will also allow CAF to use GCRE for fleet maintenance as well as staff training and development.  Bargain bookings Avanti West Coast has extended its ‘Superfare’ tickets to more destinations, after the discounts were introduced a year ago. Avanti said that since then more than 50,000 of the tickets have been sold. They allow passengers to choose morning, afternoon or evening travel on a named date, although the precise train is allocated by the operator about 24 hours before departure. Stations in the scheme now include Rugby, Coventry, Nuneaton, Birmingham International and Wolverhampton, from where passengers can travel to London for a single fare of £9. Milton Keynes Central, Oxenholme Lake District, Penrith and Carlisle have also been added to the offer. Transpennine tunnels upgrade Engineering consultants COWI have been awarded a design contract by Network Rail for the Transpennine Route Upgrade between Stalybridge and Huddersfield. Three tunnels are being upgraded in this section – Stalybridge, Scout and Standedge. The work will include enlarging the clearance in each tunnel for W12 gauge and electrification by lowering and relaying the track.

Labour’s plans for the passenger railway have received plenty of attention during the past few days, although some of the general media coverage was ill-informed or potentially misleading (writes Sim Harris). The BBC, for example, said ‘private train companies have overseen a boom in rail usage in Britain’. It is right to say that passenger figures have risen sharply since the 1990s (until Covid, anyway), but this sentence could have been taken to imply that the increase in demand was the result of privatisation. In fact, passenger figures had started to rise in the mid-1990s before the franchises could have made any difference to the quality of services, although it is also the case that after privatisation the internal ticketing system tended (and still tends) to inflate the totals because each train used during a journey is counted separately. Leaving the knotty problem of statistics aside, some sources talked about ‘UK Rail’, when Northern Ireland is nothing to do with this, but few commentators seemed to notice the quiet change of the status of Great British Railways from ‘guiding mind’, as suggested in the ‘Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail’ of 2021, to ‘directing mind’ in Labour’s document. Another change was the treatment of the private sector operators who currently have National Rail Contracts, as successors to the former franchises. In the Keith Williams version, Great British Railways was to be a facilitator, not an operator. He had said: ‘Great British Railways will specify the timetables, branding, most fares and other aspects of the service and agree a fee with the competitively-procured passenger service operator to provide the service to this specification. In most contracts, fare revenue will go to Great British Railways, with operators delivering to the specification and managing their costs in doing so.’ In other words, the new train operators would have concessions rather than old-style franchises, similar to those already awarded by bodies like Transport for London for the operation of London Overground and the Docklands Light Railway. Confusingly, the operating contracts for bus routes in London, Manchester and probably other places soon, although under the firm control of the local authority, are now being referred to as ‘franchises’. The Government’s draft Rail Reform Bill, published earlier this year, steered clear of Great British Railways, creating instead an ‘Integrated Rail Body’, which would be ‘the appropriate franchising authority’. Although the Bill is very brief, this did suggest that private sector operators would be eligible to bid for operating franchises, although not necessarily on the previous model. Nothing is said in this Bill about any kind of ‘mind’, guiding or otherwise. Labour has now suggested yet another structure. Under its proposals there would also be a Great British Railways, but this will not be awarding operating contracts. Instead it would be ‘responsible for the day-to-day operational delivery of the railways’. Labour says the reforms set out in Keith Williams’ Rail Review ‘do not go far enough’, because ‘they will not fix the fundamental problems that beset the industry – continuing fragmentation, inefficiency and waste’. Labour says its proposed Railways Act would transfer ‘expiring train operator contracts directly to the new statutory body’ and remove ‘the requirement to return franchises to the private sector’. The word may not appear in Labour’s plans, but this is renationalisation. The result will be a curious hybrid, with most passenger trains and all the infrastucture controlled by a state-owned body, while the private sector will be allowed to continue with train leasing, train building, open access passenger services, most freight services, ticket retailing and, presumably, running charter trains. Great British Railways has already been given a temporary headquarters in Derby. If all this comes to pass, it is going to need a bigger building to get the job done.

Labour’s detailed proposals for railway reform are ambitious (writes Sim Harris). They take the plans set out in Keith Williams’ Rail Review and build on them, with the result that a new railway industry emerges. This will still be a hybrid industry, financially speaking, although it will hardly deserve the label ‘privatised’ any longer. In a nutshell, if Labour gains power, the infrastructure and core passenger services (those operated by the former franchises) will be state-owned, and administered by ‘Great British Railways’. During the first five-year term of a Labour Government the core periods of the existing (passenger) contracts will have expired, and they can then be ‘folded in’ to GBR. Current National Rail Contracts are heavyweight documents, following in the footsteps of franchise agreements, and they would not have been cheap. The main contract for East Midlands Railway alone runs to 527 pages, or roughly 263,000 words. There are ten such contracts in force (excluding those operators which have already been nationalised), which means the private sector passenger railway, not including open access, needs around two and a half million words to describe it to the lawyers’ satisfaction. Abolition of such documents will go some way towards the £2 billion-plus which Labour says will be saved as the result of its railway reforms. Railfreight will continue to be carried in the main by private operators, with the single exception of Direct Rail Services, which has been nationalised since it was set up in 1995 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Open access passenger services are also to be allowed to continue, but capacity limits on principal routes may eventually impose a natural barrier to their further expansion unless the state-owned services are trimmed. Third party ticket retailers are also set to survive, but much will depend on the attractivemess and ease of the website which GBR is apparently going to create. At the moment, some of the 19 third-party retailers have evolved far better ‘purchasing experiences’ than the mess which is the present National Rail portal. Although recently redesigned, it is still the website from hell, and has also become keen to make enquirers choose specific trains before they are allowed to know the fares, even in the case of those such as off-peak returns, which are the same price all the time outside peak periods and do not require any form of advance booking. The National Rail website may indeed have contributed to the popularity of third party retailers, simply because their websites are superior, although seven of those retailers were rebuked at the end of last year by the ORR for ‘drip pricing’, which is when an online seller does not make the full price clear at the start of a transaction. It should be added that all seven have promised to do better. A number of well-known railway organisations are set to be absorbed by GBR, including the Rail Delivery Group and (of course) Network Rail, while a new Passenger Standards Authority will replace Transport Focus (although not, apparently, London TravelWatch) and the Rail Ombudsman, and also take on some of the functions of the ORR. Well-known names which will continue in the new world include BTP, HMRI, ROSCOs, the RAIB and (probably) the RSSB, although this last would be reviewed, ‘to ensure it is able to fulfil a similar role within the new model’. Labour’s document itself might have gained from a closer review. It refers (on page 20) to a mythical body called the Office of Road and Rail, while the final photograph (on page 25) is a fine image of a train apparently destined for, er, Portrush. In reality, County Antrim, like the rest of Northern Ireland, is neither in Britain nor within the scope of the proposed Great British Railways. One claim received in the Railnews inbox after Labour’s document had been published came from an ‘expert’ academic commentator, who alleged: ‘There is common ground about the creation of a guiding mind covering track and train’. Oh no, there isn’t. The phrase ‘guiding mind’ is not used once by Labour. However, its document does refer (eight times) to GBR being the ‘directing mind’. There is a difference in meaning here, since ‘to guide’ implies advice or assistance, while ‘to direct’ is more like an instruction – as in ‘directive’. This difference could be important if tomorrow’s railway takes shape as Labour would like to see it.

The Labour Party has published its proposal for creating Great British Railways, which is called ‘Getting Britain moving’ and runs to 28 pages. Speaking in London this morning, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: ‘If I am secretary of state, I won’t be running the railways day-to-day, but I will act as ‘passenger-in-chief’ – setting the strategy and objectives for Great British Railways, and holding it to account. ‘But, unlike current Ministers, I will trust the experts. Experts who don’t just come from the rail sector – because we all know that it can sometimes be a little too inward-looking. But external experts in providing exceptional customer service.’ Instructions She revealed that if Labour is elected, instructions will be given immediately to the Department for Transport, Network Rail, the Rail Delivery Group and the Operator of Last Resort ‘to work together from day one to create a “shadow” Great British Railways’. She continued: ‘This will fire the starting gun on reform and make sure we don’t lose valuable time. Step Two will see us pass the primary legislation needed to formally establish Great British Railways as an arm’s length body, ensuring that it is structured around the needs of passengers and freight. ‘Every five years, the Secretary of State will issue a long-term strategy, which will set out how the railway should deliver against clear passenger objectives. And Great British Railways will be incentivised to grow the number of people using rail and the revenues from it. And importantly, it will provide the clarity and certainty of outlook the sector has been missing for so long.’ Open access passenger and freight Labour says open access passenger and freight operators will not be nationalised. Labour’s document ‘Getting Britain Moving’ says: ‘The Secretary of State will impose a duty on Great British Railways to enable the growth of rail freight alongside passenger services, setting clear and meaningful targets for rail freight growth’.  Labour also wants third-party ticket retailers to continue, and held its event at the offices of Trainline. RoSCOs Rolling stock leasing companies will continue to exist. Labour says: ‘We will develop a long-term industrial strategy for rolling stock which supports British manufacturing, innovation and interoperability and aligns with the wider objectives of the industry. This will seek to end the current boom-and-bust cycle, ensure a strong pipeline of work, and consider the best financing structures for future orders, in partnership with private capital.’ Stations Great British Railways would take over the management of National Rail stations, and the creation of GBR as a ‘single directing mind and brand’.which is in contrast to Keith Williams’ description of Great British Railways in the 2021 Rail Review as a ‘guiding mind’. Watchdog Although answerable to the transport secretary, GBR would be held to account in the first instance by a ‘tough new passenger watchdog’, to be called the Passenger Standards Authority. The PSA would absorb Transport Focus and the Rail Ombudsman, and also inherit some of the ORR’s functions – passenger assistance, passenger information, complaints and compensation codes of practice, monitoring and compliance, and consumer law, investigation and enforcement. The future status of London TravelWatch is not mentioned, perhaps because it is sponsored and funded by the Greater London Authority. ORR, HMRI, RSSB, RAIB, BTP His Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate would continue as the safety regulator, and the ORR would also continue to decide such things as open access applications, although ‘on the basis of an updated framework and guidance’ from the transport secretary.  The status of the Rail Safety and Standards Board would be reviewed, ‘to ensure it is able to fulfil a similar role within the new model’. Organisations which would keep their present functions and responsibilities include the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and British Transport Police.  Reactions The plans have received a cool reaction from the Government. Rail minister Huw Merriman said: ‘They don't have a plan to pay for the bill attached to their rail nationalisation. Without a plan to pay for this, it means one thing: taxes will rise on hard working people.’ However, Labour is claiming that re-uniting track and train, along with abolishing contracted passenger operators, could save more than £2 billion a year. There has been a broad welcome for the proposals from many railway industry figures, including GB Railfreight chief executive officer John Smith, who said: ‘We welcome Labour’s plans to seize the huge economic potential of rail freight – an industry which already contributes £2.45 billion to the UK economy. We look forward to the opportunities Labour’s plans may present to our industry in the future.’ Paul Tuohy of the Campaign for Better Transport said: ‘We’re pleased to see that Labour’s plans for the railways aim to deliver much-needed reforms and promise to put passengers and freight first. Rail reform is long overdue, and passengers have waited long enough, so we particularly welcome the commitment to fares and ticketing reforms and to establishing Great British Railways. ‘We are also pleased that many of our own recommendations for improving the rail network – including a best price ticket guarantee, a commitment to move more freight by rail and nationwide digital season tickets – have been taken on board. ‘However, we are concerned that these plans may not strike the right balance between the government’s strategic direction for the railways and the benefits of private sector delivery. Our preferred model for the railways would be a franchising model, similar to Labour's plan for buses, with a role for open access operators.’

► Publicly owned GBR to be run by experts, ‘not Whitehall’ ► Remaining passenger contracts will be allowed to expire ► Open access passenger and freight operators to continue ► New Passenger Standards Authority to become watchdog The Labour Party has unveiled the first details of its plans for Great British Railways, if it wins the General Election. The idea of a ‘guiding mind’ for the rail industry, as recommended by Keith Williams, would be confirmed by the passing of a new Railways Act. Labour is also announcing plans to ‘seize on the huge economic potential of rail freight’ and ‘deliver a new long-term strategy for train manufacturing’ as part of the party’s commitment to a comprehensive industrial strategy. Speaking at a launch event, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh is set to say that Labour’s plans will ‘put the passsenger first’ with a best-price ticket guarantee, automatic delay repay and digital season tickets. It would also establish a powerful new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to hold Great British Railways to account and also make significant savings for the taxpayer by eliminating fragmentation, waste, bureaucracy and by stopping profits ‘leaking’ to private sector companies. GBR itself would be ‘unified, publicly owned, accountable and arm’s length, led by rail experts, not Whitehall’. The transition to public ownership should be completed within the government’s first term by ‘folding existing passenger contracts into the new body as they expire, without the taxpayer paying a penny in compensation costs’. Devolved leaders, including Mayoral Combined Authorities, would have a statutory part to play, allowing decisions about the railways to be taken ‘closer to the communities they serve’. Labour would also ‘support successful open access and freight operators to continue to deliver, and set clear objectives and targets for passenger services and freight growth’. Louise Haigh said: ‘Labour will deliver the biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation. Whilst the Conservatives are content to let Britain’s broken railways fail passengers, Labour will deliver root and branch reform. ‘After years of dysfunction and waste our broken railways are unfit to meet the needs of modern Britain. Passengers and taxpayers alike are being failed, and our economy is being held back. Doing nothing is simply not an option.’ Andy Bagnall, who is chief executive of the private sector lobby group Rail Partners, has expressed reservations about Labour’s plan.. He said: ‘Train companies agree that change is needed for the railways, but nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution which will increase costs over time. Creating a thriving railway for customers and taxpayers does not have to be an ideological choice between a monopoly railway in public hands and one that delivers private investment and innovation through franchising. ‘There is an alternative plan which gives the best of both worlds and is already being used by Labour Mayors and increasingly across Europe. ‘To change the railway for the better, we must correctly understand the causes of the current situation to get the right solutions. Since the pandemic, train companies have been effectively renationalised and subject to a level of micromanagement by government not even seen under British Rail. Exclusively blaming train companies for all the challenges facing the railway doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.’ Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan said: ‘We welcome the pledge to make rail reform a priority early in the next parliament, which would give certainty to our members about the future structure of the railway industry, and also the commitment to a long-term strategy, which RIA has been calling for in recent years. It is also positive that rail is recognised as essential to economic growth, integrated transport connectivity, levelling up the nations and regions of the country, and in helping to deliver Net Zero; and that there is a need to deliver value for money for the taxpayer in rail. ‘We now look forward to hearing others’ contributions to the debate.’