The head of the Government’s rail review has warned that its proposals will be limited by ministers’ insistence that it be fiscally neutral, leading to ‘trade-offs and tough choices’.
Keith Williams has published criteria that his review will use to manage the trade-offs, setting out what it aims to achieve ‘for passengers, freight and taxpayers, and the industry changes needed to deliver them’.
Mr Williams said: ‘Moving to a customer focused railway won’t be easy and I want to make it absolutely clear that trade-offs will be unavoidable when I come to make my recommendations - for example, between a system that delivers a national network and is responsive to local interests.’
A paper published by the review sets out its overarching objectives, a statement of the high-level problems it has identified in the rail sector and the high-level assessment criteria that ‘the Review will use to drive the subsequent phases of its work and use as a basis for trade-offs’.
The objectives cover passengers, taxpayers and wider society. It defines the taxpayers objective as ‘improving long-term affordability and value for the taxpayer’.
On the need for trade-offs, the paper states: 'Any future operating model for the railway must balance competing objectives. Trade-offs will always be required – for example between the cost of running the railway and the quality of the services it provides, and day-to-day reliability for passengers versus ambitions for running more trains and increasing capacity for the future.'
It adds: ‘The Review will make proposals which will help deliver these objectives. In line with the Review’s Terms of Reference these proposals will be fiscally neutral, beyond any reasonable transition costs, and designed to avoid negative impacts on the public sector balance sheet.'
The review has published evidence on ‘the lessons that the UK can learn from other networks around the world, and on the factors affecting public trust in the railway’.
Key findings include:
- perceptions research finds that – despite UK passenger satisfaction rates being amongst the highest in Europe - trust is low because passengers feel that the industry is not competent to run a quality service, and is not motivated to
- re-building trust will require passenger-centric reform
- the vast majority of railways have a mix of public and private sector involvement
- performance issues and low satisfaction rates are not unique to the UK
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