New Year Honours for Network Rail route managers

[whole diary]

[grahame]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/honours-list/11318338/New-Year-Honours-disappointing-and-inappropriate-as-Fiona-Woolf-and-rail-bosses-recognised.html

New Year Honours 'disappointing and inappropriate' as Fiona Woolf and rail bosses recognised

Other controversial recipients include David Ward and Patrick Hallgate, route managers of Network Rail^s south east and west sectors respectively, who receive OBEs.

I'm quoting from the Daily Telegraph for information.  Please do not assume that I agree with all the views expressed in the article, which reads more like an opinion piece than news!

[grahame]

Also in the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/30/obe-network-rail-new-year-honour?

A Network Rail manager who oversaw serious disruption over the Christmas period has been rewarded in the New Year honours list.

David Ward, route managing director for the south-east, has been given an OBE for services to the rail industry at the same time as there is a public outcry about passengers stranded on Boxing Day due to late-running engineering works.

Days before Christmas Ward was quoted in a Network Rail press release as saying the company^s new technology and working practices meant it could ^keep lines open while our people work safely alongside, causing much less disruption than would otherwise be the case^.

A second Network Rail executive, Patrick Hallgate, who oversees the western routes, received an MBE for services to the south-west economy. Before Christmas he asked passengers to ^bear with us over the Christmas period as we undertake this extensive improvement work to create a better railway for passengers and those living near to the railway line^.

The honours are likely to come in for criticism at a time when Network Rail executives are under intense political pressure over the disruption, particularly the cancellation of services out of London King^s Cross.

[ellendune]

I assume that the Route Managing Director South East does not have Kings Cross on his patch. 

[Electric train]

I assume that the Route Managing Director South East does not have Kings Cross on his patch. 

Correct.   South East are the Kent and Sussex routes.  This routes has been dealing with the upheaval caused by Thameslink especially with the blockades at London Bridge station rebuild.

He has had a long railway career heavily involved in the transport planning and management for the Olympics

[ChrisB]

Dave Ward was Patrick Hallgate's predecessor on the GW^▸ (Great Western) too.

Dave saw the advantages of meeting with the travelling customer & we saw him at our Passenger Panel meetings. Unfortunately, no such luck with Mr Hallgate.

[stuving]

You could look on Network Rail's website for this kind of information - but it does not name names down to Route Managing Director level. And be prepared for a lot of terminological confusion.

There is a page showing a map of "our routes". There are ten, but the accompanying boxes listing TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and managed stations only number eight (plus Freight, which obviously is not a real route). The map has Kent and Sussex, which you can work out make up South East, and the same is true of London North Eastern & East Midlands. So these are both routes made up of two routes. How helpful. I note also that Reading and Bristol do not appear as managed stations.

That use of "managing director" as a job title looks odd for someone who obviously isn't a director of Network Rail Limited. It would make sense if these routes are, legally speaking, subsidiary companies; but I can't see any evidence that they are.

The same confusion over the meaning of "director" and "executive" affects the people they do name. The main board is made up of non-executives (one chairman and six directors) and executives (one chief executive and three called director of something). They do not use the terms CEO^▸ (Chief Executive Officer), managing director, or executive director here.

They also list their Executive Committee, under the heading "our managers". This is made up of the chief executive and three executive directors (here using that as a description) plus six others. These other managers are not on the board, so they are executive non-directors, aren't they? No, they are all given titles with just "director" and their area of responsibility.

This looks like a leakage of French terminology - a main board is the Conseil d'Administration, so its members are Conseillers (but the term is little-used), and the Comit^ Ex^cutif, which runs things, will typically have members called Directeur G^ral and the Pr^sident Directeur G^ral (PDG) who is the only one who is on on both. If so, is it a conscious or unconscious adoption of what is, in English, a nonsense?

[ChrisB]

Managing Director is simply a job title these days - you get them for those in charge of deparments these days, and not just in the City.

[Chris from Nailsea]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/honours-list/11318338/New-Year-Honours-disappointing-and-inappropriate-as-Fiona-Woolf-and-rail-bosses-recognised.html

Other controversial recipients include David Ward and Patrick Hallgate, route managers of Network Rail^s south east and west sectors respectively, who receive OBEs.

I'm quoting from the Daily Telegraph for information.

The Daily Telegraph is wrong:  Patrick Hallgate received an MBE. 

[Electric train]

The RMD's are akin to the old BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Regional GM's

The RMD's have director Ops and director route asset management as direct reports, the RMD has huge responsibility and accountability for safety, budgets and providing the customer (TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s) with a reliable service

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Guardian:

OBE for Network Rail manager after Christmas chaos in London

David Ward gets New Year honour for services to industry despite outcry over Network Rail^s late-running engineering works

A Network Rail manager who oversaw some of the disruption over the Christmas period has been rewarded in the New Year honours list.

David Ward, route managing director for the south-east, has been given an OBE for services to the rail industry at the same time as there is a public outcry about passengers stranded on Boxing Day due to late-running engineering works.

Ward is responsible for services running into and out of London Bridge, Cannon Street, Blackfriars, Charing Cross and Victoria which saw some disruption over Christmas, but not the worst which affected the King^s Cross lines.

Days before Christmas Ward was quoted in a Network Rail press release as saying the company^s new technology and working practices meant it could ^keep lines open while our people work safely alongside, causing much less disruption than would otherwise be the case^.

A second Network Rail executive, Patrick Hallgate, who oversees the western routes, received an MBE for services to the south-west economy. Before Christmas he asked passengers to ^bear with us over the Christmas period as we undertake this extensive improvement work to create a better railway for passengers and those living near to the railway line^.

The honours are likely to come in for criticism at a time when Network Rail executives are under intense political pressure over the disruption, particularly the cancellation of services out of London King^s Cross.

Mark Carne, the company^s chief executive, said on Tuesday that he would not take his bonus, having previously refused to say whether he would accept it.

Carne, who earns ^675,000 a year, had been in line for a ^30,000 bonus this year but came under fire for being on holiday in Cornwall during the disruption on the network.

^I am accountable for the railways and the performance [over Christmas] was not acceptable so I have decided that I should not take my bonus this year,^ he told Sky News.

He added that when he took over at Network Rail in January 2014 he recognised the railways faced enormous challenges and said these challenges remained.

Other top executives at Network Rail are entitled to annual performance-related bonuses of up to 20% of salaries.

Manuel Cortes, the leader of the TSSA^» (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association - about) rail union, said: ^We welcome this decision by Mark Carne but, like many of his trains, it is running late ^ 72 hours late in this case. He should have announced it on Sunday when the level of chaos suffered by tens of thousands of passengers caught up in the King^s Cross shutdown became clear. We hope that his fellow executives will now follow suit and announce they will also be giving up their large bonuses as well.^

Robin Gisby, Network Rail^s managing director of operations, who was responsible for the overrunning engineering work that caused the cancellation of all trains in and out King^s Cross on Saturday, is to forfeit a golden goodbye. Gisby had been due to receive a bonus of up to ^371,000, but Network Rail said he would be leaving in February without any additional payment beyond that stipulated in his contract, in a deal agreed prior to the Christmas travel problems.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said Carne had made a personal decision. On Monday Carne said he would probably be entitled to only about 5% but he refused to say whether he would be taking any bonus, despite being repeatedly pressed on the matter.

Passengers continued to face disruption to rail and tube services . An overhead wire problem at Dunbar in Scotland meant disruption all day for those travelling with the CrossCountry, East Coast and ScotRail train companies. East Coast had a reduced service from Edinburgh to Newcastle, with possible delays. Services from London terminated at either Newcastle or Berwick-upon-Tweed, with replacement buses running from Newcastle to Edinburgh.

Carne said he agreed with the transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, that the industry should conduct a wider review into whether it is wise to undertake so much engineering work in the Christmas or Easter period on the basis that fewer people travel during those times.

McLoughlin came under pressure from Labour on Tuesday to explain whether he had properly examined Network Rail^s plans for closures.

In a letter, Michael Dugher, the shadow transport secretary, asked him: ^Did you or other ministers at the Department for Transport properly scrutinise the planned level of maintenance work over the Christmas period and raise any concerns? Were any assurances sought by ministers that the plans were robust enough and that there was sufficient resilience in the system to ensure that there would not be continued disruption into the weekend? Did ministers demand that adequate contingency plans be set in place for when failures like this occur?^

Adding to the row, passengers will this week suffer an annual rise in fares that means some season ticket holders will have endured increases of more than 20% in the life of this parliament, according to figures from the Campaign for Better Transport.

The latest rise takes effect on Friday and will see regulated fares, which include season tickets, increasing by up to 2.5% and fares overall going up by an average of 2.2%.

^ This article was amended on 31 December 2014 to make clear that David Ward was not responsible for the worst-affected services at King^s Cross during the Christmas travel problems. We have also been asked to make clear that Robin Gisby^s departure and severance package was agreed in November, and did not relate to the problems experienced at Christmas.

My highlighting. CfN.

[ChrisB]

Typical Grauniad....

Also ignored Tom Winsor, ex-Rail Regulator. Received a knighthood, I think

[ellendune]

Typical Grauniad....

Also ignored Tom Winsor, ex-Rail Regulator. Received a knighthood, I think

Presumably because the list did not say he was ex ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) and the journalist did not have the time to do a background check on everyone on the list.

[Electric train]

Interesting that the press are now correcting their articles .............   I am shocked the press could make such errors they are after holier than thou  

There will also be much political boxing in the House of Commons, now that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are a Government Agency it is the Sectary of State for Transport one McLoughlin Esq who is ultimately accountable.   In the lead up to the Treasury implementing the EU^» (European Union - about) requirement that an organisation that receives as much Government funding as NR must be accountable to the funder ie the Government needless to say the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) were not overly keen as the buck stops with them.

So quite rightly McLoughlin needs to make a statement in the House as to why his department got it so wrong ........... its going to be an interesting few weeks.