A lengthy\ninterview with Andrew Haines, Chief Executive of Network Rail, in The Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interesting\nhis choice of example where there ought to be consultation with passenger\ngroups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of\nhis prescription for change is simply to consult more; for example, on the\nbiggest scheme that Network Rail will be tasked with in this period, the\nTransPennine upgrade. Haines says passenger groups should be clearly informed\nabout the years of closures and disruption it will entail on the line between\nManchester and Leeds, and given a choice: \u201cDo we want to get the pain over and\ndone with, very intense pain, or prolong it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have been asking everyone in the railway industry, up to and including the erstwhile Secretary of State in person, what the Transpennine Route Upgrade will involve and what outcomes it will deliver. No-one is prepared to answer what ought to be simple questions. If they are being especially communicative they will say that everyone is sworn to secrecy under pain of death. More often they avoid eye contact and change the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The nearest\nNetwork Rail have got to any consultation with the communities most affected by\nTRU is a letter from their NE Regional Director which was leaked to several\nmedia outlets in Yorkshire (almost certainly leaked to gauge reaction) https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/?p=1780<\/a>,\nfollowed by a year of silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our view, leaking documents to gauge public\nreaction is not a proper form of consultation. Since then, nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Mr Haines is serious about passenger consultation, then the answer is simple. Instruct his managers at regional level to start communicating with passengers\u2019 groups such as ourselves, and start answering the simple and straightforward questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Article from The Guardian, 18th August 2019, follows.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\nyear into the job, chief executive is making cultural changes centred on\nlistening to passengers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [from The Guardian, 18 August 2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Call\nthis a crisis? There may be outrage at ever-rising fares on a railway system\nbeset by problems but the last time Andrew Haines, who has just marked his\nfirst anniversary as chief executive of Network Rail, took on a fresh job,\nhe made front pages as \u201cthe man who closed Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His\ntenure at the Civil Aviation Authority was marked early on by the ash cloud\ncrisis that shut down UK airspace. Haines can still fluently reel off the name\nof the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull, whose eruption stopped\naeroplanes flying over the UK for six days in 2010, briefly causing the\nkind of panic about essential imports that was novel before talk of a no-deal Brexit.Haines\nnow occupies a pivotal role in a sector gripped by stasis of a different kind.\nHe took charge of Network Rail, which manages the railway\u2019s track and\ninfrastructure, at the tail end of a five-year budget term during which its\nfree spending was abruptly reined in, and further projects put on ice.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deaths of two rail workers in south Wales \u2013 \u201ca stark reminder of how, despite big strides in safety, the job is far from done\u201d, Haines told staff \u2013 has put the safety record of Network Rail under fresh scrutiny, and other failings into perspective. Passengers have at least been kept largely safe in the UK, with more than a decade since a fatal train crash.But much rail investment of the last few years appears to have backfired, Haines suggests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat passengers want more than anything else is a punctual, reliable train service, and yet it\u2019s been in decline for the last seven successive years. We\u2019ve turned it round in the last eight months and stopped the rot a bit, but we\u2019ve a long way to go,\u201d he says. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The trouble caused by July\u2019s heatwave, electrical line failures and most recently the National Grid power outages are \u201cpainful reminders\u201d, as Haines puts it. The nadir for rail was the\u00a0disastrous introduction\u00a0of a revised timetable in May 2018, for which Network Rail admitted to\u00a0some blame, though Chris Grayling, then transport secretary,\u00a0admitted to none. It did, however, prompt Grayling to commission an all-encompassing industry review. Figures across the industry have clamoured to affirm the need for change and Grayling\u2019s successor,\u00a0Grant Shapps, has promised to respect the recommendations of the inquiry chairman, Keith Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be a dereliction of duty for me to sit back pending someone else\u2019s view<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Haines, though, isn\u2019t waiting. In June he launched plans to transform Network Rail from \u201ca big, slow, bureaucratic company\u201d into devolved, regional units where local managers have been told to listen to their customers and act as they see fit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggestions that he is pre-empting the inquiry\u2019s recommendations get short shrift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow much of your life savings would you bank on Keith Williams\u2019 review being implemented in a hurry?\u201d Haines asks.\u201cIt would be a dereliction of duty for me to sit back pending someone else\u2019s view. It\u2019s everything I\u2019ve criticised my industry colleagues for, waiting around for other people to solve problems.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Haines, whose reorganisation of the CAA was\u00a0bitterly opposed\u00a0by some staff, insists that the rail shake-up will not affect frontline work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Restructuring, he says, \u201cis often code for cutbacks. But it is absolutely not in this case\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Haines credits a plain-speaking approach to his upbringing in Merthyr Tydfil, where his mother and some family still live, and a graduate rail trainee job working in the left luggage office in London\u2019s Victoria station. Returning after a decade to the railway industry where he spent the first 24 years of his career, Haines makes pithy observations about its failings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve become really introspective,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost sight of why we exist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Plans such as the rebuilding of stations and the introduction of new timetables have been implemented without sufficient concern for passengers, he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn any normal business you wouldn\u2019t even have to think about it \u2013 if you don\u2019t look after your customers, they go somewhere else.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Part of his prescription for change is simply to consult more; for example, on the biggest scheme that Network Rail will be tasked with in this period, the TransPennine upgrade. Haines says passenger groups should be clearly informed about the years of closures and disruption it will entail on the line between Manchester and Leeds, and given a choice: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo we want to get the pain over and done with, very intense pain, or prolong it?\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n That cultural change in decision-making is crucial, he says: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn a corny level, it\u2019s having an empty chair in every meeting and thinking what would a passenger say if they were here; how would they want to be treated.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n However, rail does need structural reform, too, he says. He refuses to spell out a prescription for Williams: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe rest of the industry might automatically disagree if it thought Network Rail was peddling an answer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A structure saying the secretary of state should be accountable for operational decisions on the railway is barking mad<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But, he says, it needs to be simpler, less contractual. The industry is still run on rules drawn up in 1994, pre-privatisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey were only ever meant to be transient. If you\u2019d said to the people that designed the structures and contracts that they\u2019d still be in place 25 years on, they\u2019d have laughed at you.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The fragmented railway they drew up lacks \u201cclarity of accountability\u201d, Haines says, with only the government notionally answerable for the whole system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo we really want a politician accountable for the timetables? Don\u2019t we need some competence?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cA structure that says the secretary of state should be accountable for operational decisions on the railway is barking mad.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Sanity may be some way off, with long-term train operators withdrawing from rail, and franchise competitions alternately scrapped or awarded to firms teetering on the brink. Even on the vexed issue of rail fares \u2013 confirmed last week\u00a0to be about to rise\u00a0by 2.8% in January\u00a0\u2013 a desire for reform has not led to\u00a0industry proposals\u00a0being enacted, Haines says: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re all circling around, but no one really has to get a grip of it. And it contaminates people\u2019s view of the railway.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Link to article is A lengthy interview with Andrew Haines, Chief Executive of Network Rail, in The Guardian. Interesting his choice of example where there ought to be consultation with passenger groups. Part of his prescription for change is simply to consult more; for … Continue reading Network\nRail’s Andrew Haines: ‘We’ve stopped the rot a bit’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2019\/aug\/18\/network-rail-andrew-haines-stop-the-rot-passengers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"