NORTHERN PERFORMANCE STABILISES BUT GTR PUTS FAITH IN INTERIM TIMETABLE
News Front
EIGHT OPERATORS are to defer timetable changes planned for December 2018 following the difficulties implementing the changes made on 20 May.
The eight affected are:
• CrossCountry;
• Govia Thameslink Railway;
• Great Western Railway;
• London Overground;
• Northern;
• South Western Railway;
• TransPennine Express; and
• West Midlands Trains.
These will all ‘roll over’ their May timetables in December rather than introducing planned changes, according to the Rail Delivery Group. All eight operators had notable changes planned in December (see box opposite). RDG says where possible GTR and Northern will make small adjustments to their schedules in light of passenger and stakeholder feedback.
The decision to defer these changes follows recommendations from incoming Network Rail Chief Executive Andrew Haines, who was asked by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to review plans for the winter timetable. The RDG says Mr Haines’ review was carried out ‘to better balance ambition and caution for December’ and involved consultation with NR and operators. His recommendations have subsequently been accepted by Government. RDG says returning to a position of confirming timetables 12 weeks before a change (T-12) will take longer than previous planned, with ambitions to do so by May 2019.
Modern Railways understands the operators involved received written confirmation they would be compensated financially for the consequences of the decision. As far as franchise agreements go the decision is classed as a ‘change’ event and operators will not be penalised for what would otherwise be breaches of their contracts. Sources report the implications are likely to involve ‘a considerable amount of money’ with sign-off by the Treasury having been required before the instruction was sent to train operators. Another senior source told Modern Railways ‘no one at the DfT knows where the money comes from’.
TEMPORARY TIMETABLES
After the 20 May change, Govia Thameslink Railway’s Thameslink and Great Northern services suffered significant disruption, with multiple cancellations across the day, largely due to driver resourcing issues, as we reported last month.
The operator introduced a revised interim timetable from 15 July, which it says matches available resources (drivers and trains) and should reduce late notice cancellations and amendments. Once the interim timetable has bedded in, GTR says it will look to introduce more services to complete the intended May 2018 timetable.
Northern introduced a temporary timetable from 4 June, temporarily removing around 6% of daily services until the end of July, which appears to have largely stabilised performance. Performance at TransPennine Express has been worse than at Northern (Table 1), with suggestions the most significant problems are caused around Manchester by the use of the Ordsall Chord and the lack of capacity on the Deansgate to Piccadilly corridor.
As we went to press Transport for the North had just approved a phased reintroduction of the full 20 May timetable by Northern and TPE starting from the end of July.
Asked whether the Department for Transport is taking steps to bring either franchise back into public ownership, Rail Minister Jo Johnson said on 6 July that DfT was reviewing whether GTR had met its contractual obligations in the planning and delivery of the timetable change, and he said that if the operator was found to have been negligent all available options would be considered. However, with an improvement in performance at Northern since it introduced its temporary timetable Mr Johnson said no preparatory steps had been taken to bring Northern into public ownership.
