Great Western Coffee Shop

Oh dear..... http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/39042/inquiry-into-may-2018-timetable-disruption-september-2018-findings.pdf

The summer railway chaos which resulted in hundreds of trains being cancelled and frustrated commuters left waiting for trains that never arrived across the North of England has concluded that the main reason for the failures was that nobody took charge.

The three-month Inquiry has found that Network Rail, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), Northern, the Department for Transport (DfT), and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) all made mistakes, which contributed to the collapse of services, particularly on the GTR and Northern routes.

The Inquiry found problems caused by delays to completing the North West Electrification Programmw were worsened by Network Rail, which wrongly believed it could make up the time.

The Inquiry has determined that during the planning stages the industry placed engineering and planning concerns ahead of serving its passengers, and that was made worse by the poor information train operators provided when disruption happened.

A key issue, found by the Inquiry, is that there is an apparent gap in industry responsibility and accountability for managing systemic risks, and that needs to change.

The System Operator (SO) function within Network Rail  was in the best position to understand and manage the risks, but did not take sufficient action, especially in the critical period of autumn 2017.

Events and decisions taken before January meant it was “probably unavoidable” that the launch would fail, according to the report. If there was a final go/no-go decision point it was in autumn 2017.

Neither GTR nor Northern were properly aware of or prepared for the problems in delivering the timetable and they did not do enough to provide accurate information to passengers when disruption occurred.

Article continues

Chris Grayling admits he was wrong to believe rail bosses over timetable shake-up but 'won't resign'

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has admitted he was wrong to accept assurances from rail industry bosses about the timetable shake-up that caused a meltdown in train services.

But he said he would not resign despite a damning report blaming lack of industry leadership for the chaos that engulfed much of the railways in May , and insisted: “My job is to get this sorted.”

In a round of media interviews, Mr Grayling conceded he did not do enough to scrutinise promises given by rail chiefs that the botched programme of timetable reform was on track.

“The whole situation was entirely unacceptable. We were clearly wrong to take on trust what the industry said to us, that it was going to be ready for the changes due in May,” he told Sky News.

“My conclusion is that we’ve got an industry today where decision-making is too fragmented, we need a more joined up industry, we need an industry that moves on from the model set up at the time of privatisation.”

It follows the release today of the re-port by regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). It said track owner Network Rail; train operators Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Northern; the Department for Transport and the ORR itself all made mistakes that contributed to the timetable disaster.

The programme, which involved changes to 46 per cent of train times, brought misery to tens of thousands of passengers. Over several weeks, GTR and Northern cancelled up to 470 and 310 scheduled trains respectively each weekday. The report concludes “nobody took charge”, even when it became clear the programme was in trouble months before it was due to come into effect.

In the wake of the report Mr Grayling announced a “root and branch” review of the structure of the railways.
 
He said the priority was  to “make sure this can never happen again” rather than to “point fingers”. The review will be led by former British Airways chief executive Keith Williams and will report next year, with recommendations starting to be implemented in 2020.

But Mr Grayling ruled out the “simple panacea” of renationalisation, a quarter of a century after British Rail was split up and privatised by John Major’s government. The Transport Secretary said: “It’s not about who owns the railways, it’s about how it works.”

TUC General Secretary Frances O’ Grady said: “There’s a clear problem of where responsibility lies when you have a patchwork of private companies running a national rail network. It would make it easier to avoid the chaos passengers have suffered if the railways were brought back into public ownership as a properly integrated network.”

“The whole situation was entirely unacceptable. We were clearly wrong to take on trust what the industry said to us..."

Yet more "Failing Grayling".  Everywhere he's been - DWP, MoJ and now DoT - things have gone wrong on his watch and in his two previous offices were reversed by his successors.  But he appears to be Teflon-coated.

Doesn't 'the industry' include the DfT ...

The report is kind of interesting because those supporting nationalisation can point to the communication and fragmentation issue, whereas those that don't can point at the culpability of the nationalised parts of 'the railway industry' and the dead hand of the DfT on NR finances and operations.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has today opened an investigation into whether Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Northern breached its requirements to do everything reasonably practicable to provide appropriate, accurate and timely information to passengers in the run-up to the May 2018 timetable and during the disruption that followed.

The action comes after the ORR’s timetable Inquiry last month identified concerns with information provided to passengers who use Northern and GTR’s Thameslink and Great Northern services.

The ORR is investigating whether GTR and Northern breached Condition 4 of their ‘Statement of National Regulatory Provisions’ which requires train companies to provide “appropriate, accurate and timely information to enable railway passengers and prospective passengers to plan and make their journeys with a reasonable degree of assurance, including when there is disruption.”