In a shade under four months, the rail franchise both loved and loathed by 100,000 daily passengers – West Midlands Trains (which, you may be travelling on right now … ) – will vanish from the private sector and roll into public ownership.
This is part of the creeping renationalisation of Britain’s railways, a policy long promised by the Labour government. Next year, Great British Railways will start to flex its muscles and passengers will slowly begin to notice.
‘WM Trains have been pretty good lately’
This might be a surprise: I’m not here to bash the West Midlands Trains operator. As a regular commuter, I’ll risk the wrath of fellow travellers: They’ve been pretty good recently. Not perfect, but decent.
The trains themselves are relatively plush, thanks to a £1bn investment on the back of the 2017 franchise award. Don’t believe me? Compare them with the rolling stock rattling and creaking around the Northwest.
Stranger’s armpit, anyone?
Of course, there are problems. Signals and tracks fail far too often but that’s not their fault. That’s thanks to Victorian infrastructure. And there’s nothing quite like the sinking feeling of a ‘shorter than normal’ train arriving at a heaving platform as you face a journey to or from work in a stranger’s armpit.
The real wounder, though, is cancellations from crew shortages – particularly in winter.
Safety is always the priority
In a post-Covid world where illness takes on a new dimension and, in a safety-critical industry like rail, that is perhaps to be expected. Start your shift driving a train with a sniffle – what do you do if it takes a turn for the worse? Getting your head down and battling through with possibly hundreds of people on your train really isn’t an option.
But sickness among rail staff is not confined to the West Midlands – it’s a national rail industry headache. Let’s be honest, it’s a national economic headache.
Will public ownership change anything for customers?
So here’s the question: how exactly will public ownership change things? Beyond slapping no doubt slick ‘Great British Railways’ branding on the side of trains, what difference will passengers really feel?
You’ll hear the spin about cheaper fares. Not sure about that. Local fares here are already reasonable, and if you think they’ll drop under state control (or any control), I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Centralisation might make the system more manageable. Maybe. Hopefully.
Investing in greater resources to deliver a better service?
But the real prize would be diverting the hundreds of millions currently paid to shareholders into hiring and training more crew. That could actually reduce those dreaded cancellations.
What worries me is the flip side: competition between franchises has driven investment in new trains. Take that away, and we risk sliding backwards, with ageing rolling stock and poorer local services.
Will HM Govt have our best interests at heart?
And one more worry: when everything’s owned by the DfT, will our (relatively) shiny West Midlands fleet stay put – or be dispatched elsewhere?
I’ve got the scars from years in railway communications, so I know how emotive this all is. Hell hath no fury like a passenger scorned.
Time will tell …
Change is coming. Big, sweeping change. Whether it’s better for passengers or just another rebrand with no substance – well, we’ll soon start to find out.
