Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

As to your final suggestion, if all we have to look forward to is the current management teams in a GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) rather than a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) tie then God help us.

If that were case then I would agree.  But other proposed changes are much more far reaching such as an end to the Treasury micro managing costs without a thought to the revenue to one where managers get to manage the services as a business where they can manage both income and expenditure creatively to achieve an agreed bottom line is a major change.  And no I don't mean just putting up fares, but genuinely growing the business. 

[eightonedee]

Two observations-

1 - Even before the pandemic, there was clearly a growing reluctance in the private sector to take on new franchises, with former major players like Stagecoach and National Express leaving the market, and the difficulty that HMG was having obtaining bids in the light of the requirement to take on historic pension liabilities.

2 - I think it is naive to think that the Treasury will not continue to be the real controllers behind the scenes. This will translate into DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) being required to keep a strict eye on what GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) spends, which in turn will mean a great risk of the kind of nonsense micro-management that I have largely found out about from membership of this forum. The main benefit should be that there will be more flexibility in not having the operational elements of the system broken down into units that are independent operating companies - the problems from the collapse of the Crewkerne tunnel with running trains west of it should  be easier to resolve, and hopefully there will be no more procurement of new trains to replace recent ones on some lines while others struggle on with 35 year old stock. BUT - he who pays the piper calls the tune. There will have to be some kind of sectorial or regional operating structure, and some kind of financial control that reflects this, and if old habits die hard it's sadly not difficult to see a world in which we still see pointless micro-management in GBR.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. But what we do not want is a bullying culture from a would-be "strong man" at the helm. Remember Fred Goodwin at Royal Bank of Scotland? He famously flew into a rage because someone did not arrange the two different colours of chairs around a table in the correct order. Look where that ended.

[ellendune]

2 - I think it is naive to think that the Treasury will not continue to be the real controllers behind the scenes.

I am sure they will control capital - but they need to get back to 5 year control periods for improvements. 

However if they can control profit/loss rather than expenditure that would be the revolution.

[ChrisB]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, shadow transport secretary Helen Whately said: "The way to handle whistleblowers is to investigate their concerns. Threatening their employer and getting them sacked is the last thing a government minister should do."

Helen Whately can't really comment as the events being discussed all took part under her party's watch - pre the election!!!
Also, Gareth himself has agreed that he wasn't whistleblowing - as the info was in the public domain. So the laws on that don't apply re job security.

[TaplowGreen]

Two observations-

1 - Even before the pandemic, there was clearly a growing reluctance in the private sector to take on new franchises, with former major players like Stagecoach and National Express leaving the market, and the difficulty that HMG was having obtaining bids in the light of the requirement to take on historic pension liabilities.

2 - I think it is naive to think that the Treasury will not continue to be the real controllers behind the scenes. This will translate into DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) being required to keep a strict eye on what GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) spends, which in turn will mean a great risk of the kind of nonsense micro-management that I have largely found out about from membership of this forum. The main benefit should be that there will be more flexibility in not having the operational elements of the system broken down into units that are independent operating companies - the problems from the collapse of the Crewkerne tunnel with running trains west of it should  be easier to resolve, and hopefully there will be no more procurement of new trains to replace recent ones on some lines while others struggle on with 35 year old stock. BUT - he who pays the piper calls the tune. There will have to be some kind of sectorial or regional operating structure, and some kind of financial control that reflects this, and if old habits die hard it's sadly not difficult to see a world in which we still see pointless micro-management in GBR.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. But what we do not want is a bullying culture from a would-be "strong man" at the helm. Remember Fred Goodwin at Royal Bank of Scotland? He famously flew into a rage because someone did not arrange the two different colours of chairs around a table in the correct order. Look where that ended.

(Applause) Two very astute observations in my opinion.

[anthony215]

Has someone reinstalled the revolving door entrance at DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) Great Minster House? It was to be hoped that the new government might hold on to rail ministers a little longer than the former administration.

I think Peter Hendy might not be long for the job.

My money is him being gone by Friday. Think our PM had better get on the phone to Lord Adonis

[bradshaw]

William Barter posts about it on Twitter are worth reading
He has a great deal if experience as his cv shows

http://www.williambarter.co.uk/expertise-and-credentials.html

[ChrisB]

Agreed - he's talked a lot of sense about this.

Interesting that Nigel Harris has stayed completely out of making any comment.

[Mark A]

For a perspective that presumably has some input from 'Nigel Harris' as well as one other, it's worth looking out the @greensignallers account though.

Mark

[ChrisB]

Yep, nothing there yet. Waiting for their next podcast....

[Western Pathfinder]

Both Nigel and Richard know better than most of us,let's see what comes of Thursdays next edition
Nigel especially knows Gareth of old having had him as a regular contributor when he was at the helm of Rail.

[Mark A]

... but then there's the aphorism bequeathed to the railway by the second of that pair, which I won't repeat here as it's a bit sweary**.

When this broke it gave me an immediate bad taste in my mouth. Something that has not gone away.

Mark

** a lot sweary.

[Western Pathfinder]

The latest edition of the podcast goes into more detail and is worth a listen /watch on YouTube.
More of this is becoming clearer,however I'm not yet sufficiently well informed to pass a comment.

[Mark A]

Also, additional recources for that podcast in the form of links to the various documents.

Thanks, Western Pathfinder, for the link to the relevant Greensignals podcast, indeed a helpful listen, though it's left the uncomfortable impression that the chain of events set in motion by this is currently in an most undesirable stalled state.

Mark

https://www.greensignals.org/green-signals-episode-49-additional-resources/

[TaplowGreen]

Here's an interview with Gareth Dennis giving his account of events re: Hendy.

https://www.railtech.com/all/2024/09/03/appalling-engineer-fired-on-uk-rail-ministers-orders-speaks-out-about-farcical-dismissal/