RailEnquiry

The UK rail network is 23% less efficient than on the continent, despite costlier tickets and greater taxpayer funding, according to the Office of Rail Regulation. It has wiped £2 billion off Network Rail’s budget for the next five years, while demanding more than 90% of trains arrive on time. VoR's Vivienne Nunis reports. London Waterloo is Britain’s busiest train station.Nearly 100 million passengers fill its platforms every year… and it doesn’t take long to find one with a complaint about the rail system.“I think there are two problems,” said one passenger. “One is the late arrival of trains, my train yesterday coming from Petersfield was an hour and a half late. The second thing is the appalling overcrowding on South West Trains, by the train from Portsmith gets to Guildford there are no seats left, and I think that’s absolutely appalling.”“The cost is horrendous,” said another passenger. “I booked the day before coming up from Weymouth to London, it cost me £19.95 and now going back today, it’s costing me £38, nearly £38.”“They seem to be overcrowded a lot of the time,” said one man, “ and more than any other country I’ve been to, they seem to be delayed, up to an hour sometimes.”That’s certainly the view of the Office of Rail Regulation.In a new report it says the British rail network is 23% less efficient than those on the Continent – even though ticket prices here are more expensive and there’s around 30% more taxpayer funding.

The regulator has slashed £2bn from Network Rail’s budget for day to day costs of running the system over the next five years, though that still leaves a kitty of £21.4 billion.

Christian Wolmar is a transport specialist and author.

He says there’s money that to be saved if Network Rail invests in new technology.

“There’s things like saving money on power by having regenerative braking on coaches, by having better systems to electrify lines, cheaper, lighter materials. All that kind of thing. The railway is a very complicated technological industry and it should be at the forefront of technological advances whereas sometimes one feels it’s rather behind in that respect.”

If the regulator believes £2 billion can saved, does that mean Network Rail is guilty of mismanagement?

Christian Wolmar says the state-owned Network Rail has been over-zealous when it comes to train safety, to the point where money has been wasted. He says this was a direct result of the Hatfield derailment, which killed 4 passengers and injured 70 others in 2000.

“Undoubtedly there is quite a lot of waste and because of the rail accidents that occurred just after privatisation, there is a big safety first culture which is of course quite right. But sometimes that results in an approach that is over-cautious, a belt-and-braces approach that does result in money being wasted. And I think they should really look at that and try to sometimes balance the real risk of things happening with the amount of money it costs to reduce that risk.”

Network Rail is being forced to cut the cost of transporting passengers by 28% per mile.

The new efficiency target comes as passenger numbers are expected to jump by 14% over the next five years.

The regulator has also set Network Rail a new punctuality target – at least nine out of 10 trains must run on time on all routes by 2019.

That comes just one week after Network Rail announced it had missed all its punctuality targets in England and Wales.

Christian Wolmar says the new target is a reasonable goal but some things are beyond a train driver’s control.

“The trouble is they are at the mercy of all sorts of other things like the weather, like people committing suicide which is unfortunately a major source of delays, trains breaking down, all kinds of aspects of the railway, so it’s very difficult to make these promises. But one thing does help drive improvements which is technology. If you have systems that are more modern, more efficient, then you do tend to get improved results.”

But if investing in new technology is the answer – and £2 billion in savings must be found - won’t that mean even higher fares?

A train ticket to Cambridge today will cost you £22. While a rail journey to Manchester will leave your wallet considerably lighter at £76.30.

Mike Hewitson is from the campaign group Passenger Focus.

“It’s unlikely that it would come back into ticket prices, it would just mean doing less. Because whilst the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail are looking at costs, the actual fares themselves are set by the Department for Transport, a different process. So in terms of finding that £2 billion it would be more about doing less, rather than putting fares up to balance it.”

Transport unions have threatened strikes if Network Rail looks to make the £2 billion pounds in savings through compulsory job losses.