01 April 2004
Network Rail and the Strategic Rail Authority must be scrapped and a new public sector agency combining both functions set up to end the chaos on Britain's railways, MPs have demanded.
In a damning report, the Commons' transport select committee levelled a barrage of criticism at all the parties involved for a catalogue of failings.
Members condemned Network Rail for its 'unacceptably weak' structures, and managers for failing to 'exercise effective control' over the company. They said they had 'no confidence' in the SRA, which 'appears utterly incapable of managing significant improvements'.
Rail regulator Tom Winsor was attacked for being 'high-handed' and for trying to extend his powers beyond their remit.
Meanwhile, the government was slated for failing over six years to come up with a policy to rescue the industry and ensure decent services for passengers after a 'botched privatisation'.
The MPs called for a 'fundamental reorganisation' of the railways, sweeping away the current structures, and warned that unless that happens services are likely to get worse.
They want a Railway Agency to be set up, combining Network Rail's responsibility for maintaining infrastructure with the SRA's role in commissioning services and setting performance targets.
This should be publicly owned to ensure proper accountability for the billions of pounds in government money spent on the industry and to allow the new body to borrow more cheaply.
'Combining these functions will permit the body responsible for growth and targets also to manage the means of achieving improvements,' the report said.
'However, this body must demonstrate a much greater creativity and vigour than its predecessors if these new arrangements are to have a chance of working.'
Commenting in advance of the report's publication on April 1, committee chair Gwyneth Dunwoody was lacerating in her criticism. 'Not only does our evidence show that the bodies presently running the railway co-operate appallingly badly, but that they each have serious flaws,' she said.
The MPs did not call for the banishment of the private sector from the railway industry, saying that ministers could 'consider the merits' of their continuing involvement in infrastructure projects and train services. But they said the government's 'mind should be far more open than before to the public sector providing services directly'.
The MPs' report was published the day after Network Rail released its 2004 business plan, which committed the company to spending £26bn over the next five years, or £14m per day, on the rail network. The company claimed that this would allow it to achieve 90% train punctuality within five years.
But, as Public Finance went to press, neither Network Rail nor the Department for Transport were willing to comment on the MPs' conclusions. The SRA and the rail regulator were also unavailable.
PFapr2004
