20 July 2001
The Strategic Rail Authority must set 'more demanding' targets for improvements when its strategic plan for the railways is published in the autumn, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has demanded.
In a report published on July 18, the committee also urges the SRA to speed up its target of 15 out of 16 trains running on time, which the authority says may take 20 years to achieve.
'The authority needs to move with greater urgency in bringing about improvements in services,' says the report. 'It should set more demanding timescales… and interim targets for progress.'
Tougher new franchise agreements with train operating companies are the key to improving the service, the MPs believe. 'The authority plans to spend some £28bn of public money on the railway over the next ten years, almost half the total investment in the railways over that period,' they say. 'Existing franchises have not so far provided the authority with the leverage necessary to deliver a good service for passengers.'
The committee also recommends that the SRA introduce more accurate mechanisms for measuring and tackling overcrowding. 'New agreements should provide penalties to ensure that companies actually deliver the agreed capacity levels,' it says.
An SRA spokesperson told Public Finance that punctuality targets for trains by 2020 were 'realistic' and that new franchise agreements would monitor overcrowding more accurately than the current hand count.
The PAC report was published as Transport, Local Government and the Regions Secretary Stephen Byers announced a complete review of the government's ten-year transport plan, with an emphasis on shorter franchises for train operating companies. It also coincided with the SRA's annual report, with a warning from its outgoing chairman, Sir Alastair Morton, that the plan was 'fatally flawed'.
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