Department for Transport – Halifax and District Rail Action Group

Our (latest) letter to Grant Shapps

Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Transport,

Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, LONDON SW1P 4DR

14 January 2020

Dear Secretary of State,

Northern railways and the Calder Valley Line – towards solutions

HADRAG is a campaigning rail users’ group, a supportive, positive and respected “critical friend” of the railway. We seek a modern, sustainable railway that more and more people want to use.

Failure of the railway collectively to deliver either day-to-day service reliability or promised enhancements is a desperate disappointment. We welcome your recent statements. We understand that you have a process in place to resolve the Northern franchise issues. From a passenger viewpoint, we wholeheartedly agree that action is needed. Thank you in anticipation for considering the following.

We were concerned by reports of a proposal to split Northern (Arriva Rail North) into two separate east and west companies:

Such a suggestion poses more questions for our Calder Valley Line than for on any other Northern-operated route. Four cross-boundary services per hour penetrate deep into east and west Pennine territories. Yorkshire commuters travel regularly into Manchester and Lancashire, using services that span York, Leeds, Preston, Blackpool, Manchester, Wigan and Chester.
We agree that Northern is geographically large. But we believe an already fragmented railway needs to be re-integrated, not split into further smaller parts
Such re-integration should, we believe, go beyond the existing Northern TOC bringing in TransPennine Express and the infrastructure operator Network Rail. Vertical integration – literally across the “wheel-rail interface” is perhaps more critical than geographical boundaries. But the cross-Pennine services of Northern and TPE should also be brought together since they are complementary and need to be operated in cooperation.

Whatever the future structure, the railway in the North must be collectively tasked with the duty, and provided with the financial and physical resources, to achieve the following priorities:

To run a reliable and punctual and comfortable service in the short term and going forward.
To deliver benefits that were promised by the 2015 franchise. These must include enhancements such as (on our line) increased frequency between Bradford and Manchester, and a regular link with the south side of Manchester, for which we know there is demand in terms of access to employment, education, attractions and connections. Locally, it is a major disappointment that the present franchise is unable to deliver these commitments.
To plan for further improvements to services and new services. In the Calder Valley there is a pressing need for a better service on the Brighouse route (which will hopefully have an additional station at Elland in 2-3 years). Since December 2019 Brighouse has only one train an hour Leeds-Manchester plus a Bradford-Huddersfield shuttle – a cut in service which fails to comply with the Train Service Requirement (TSR) in the original franchise agreement.

The recent collapse in service performance on both Northern and TransPennine Express sadly coincided with the introduction of new rolling stock, turning good news into bad. We hear that new trains were introduced with staff training insufficiently complete on both TOCs. Meanwhile, regular late-running by TPE causes hold-ups at Manchester, Leeds and York, hitting the performance of Northern-operated Calder Valley trains, showing the inter-dependence of the two TOCs.

The train companies seem to have offered too much with too little resources or allowance for contingencies. But failure to deliver franchise commitments for the Calder Valley Line is due in part to capacity on the Ordsall and Castlefield route through south Manchester. The Ordsall chord was built to carry both long-distance TPE trains and Northern’s Calder Valley services. Complementing Ordsall, we should by now have two more through platforms in use at Manchester Piccadilly and other works completed to allow longer dwell times and more trains. But the go ahead for this work was not given. We know other possible enhancements in the area are being considered. Meanwhile, Northern have told us they are banned from bidding for the additional Calder Valley services. Yet TPE is allowed to run 2 trains/hour from North East England to Manchester Airport via the Huddersfield line and Ordsall.

We respectfully ask therefore:

That you give the go-ahead – now – to the Castlefield enhancements planned originally for CP5 (2014-19). These are essential to deliver the priorities (1) and (2) above – franchise commitments.
That service planning should treat Northern and TPE as complementary and equal priorities. As we wait for more capacity, it may be necessary to run fewer trains – for now – via Castlefield. All we ask, however, is a fair share of the available paths, and delivery of promises that were made for our line. We look for imaginative interim solutions to deliver benefits.
For a realisation that Calder Valley line passengers find it unreasonable that present reliability and potential future services are being damaged because other train operators take priority. Connectivity across Yorkshire, Manchester and Lancashire are at least as important as connectivity between Tyne/Tees and Manchester Airport.
For further infrastructure enhancements to allow better timetabling and performance. Examples include additional tracks at pinch points, passing loops so that freight traffic does not hinder the passenger service, and of course electrification – essential for decarbonisation.

Whatever the short-term fix, we call for “one railway” involving both TOCs and Network Rail. We have no wish to pre-empt the (overdue) Williams Review. But:

Please do not keep us waiting any longer for publication of Williams and of your White Paper!
Could some of the ideas generated by Williams be brought forward as a pilot to tackle the problems of the railway in the North of England, a process that is now urgent?
Train planning functions at present seemingly in “silos” at the separate TOCs and in Network Rail have obstructed apparently easy service improvements. Two local stations one of which serves the significant catchment area of Sowerby Bridge have seen cuts in service with trains missing out stops late at night, their latest blow being loss of daytime services to York, Preston and Blackpool. Planning must be unified, and devolved as far possible to ensure that decisions are informed by local detail and responsive to common sense proposals.

We look for an alliance of train operators, Network Rail, local/combined authorities and Transport for the North to plan a service pattern that is fair to all, design a timetable that works, and operate it through a system that is adequately funded, swift-acting, and well-communicating within the railway and outside it.

Yours sincerely, and with thanks again,

(by email)

J Stephen Waring, Chair, HADRAG

cc MPs, local leaders, media, neighbouring rail user groups, Railfuture

Autumn update 1: Arguments for electrification

DSCF1406 HADRAG intends to play a leading role in the campaign for a rolling programme of rail electrification across the North of England. It’s well over two years since the Northern Electrification Task Force (NETF) drew up a list of 32 northern routes and recommended 12 for electrification in the early 2020s. The schemes were scored on economic and operational criteria, and the top ranked scheme was our Calder Valley Line from Leeds to both Manchester and Preston via both Bradford and Brighouse. We say that would follow on naturally from the Huddersfield Line “TransPennine Route Upgrade” scheme, the scope of which should be announced later this autumn.

How much actual electrification of the York-Huddersfield-Manchester route it will involve is now in doubt following government announcements and comments by the Secretary of State for Transport earlier this summer. Talk at the Department of Transport is now of “state of the art” bimode trains that mean sections of line can be left unwired – “discontinuous electrification” – where the constructing masts for overhead wires is deemed too expensive or disruptive.

Many of us think that is short term thinking, bad for business, bad for the environment. What bimode trains really mean is “electro-diesels” and “state of the art” means electric multiple units with diesel engines under the floors. More complexity meaning more to go wrong, higher maintenance costs – and compromised reliability? The diesels take over on sections of line that are not electrified, but mean the whole train is heavier, less energy efficient and more polluting. When the train is running on electricity from the overhead supply, the diesel engine is just dead weight. When it’s on diesel the transformers that handle the 25000V electricity are not being used. More mass means more energy used, means higher running costs, bad for business, bad for the environment.

And train companies seem at present to be creating a glut of modern electric trains. New trains are being ordered and replacing ones that are perfectly serviceable for years more use – if only more lines were electrified to use them! See picture caption below.

So why, when there is more and more talk about electric cars and road transport generally become “greener”, do we seem to be committing our railways to the obsolescent internal combustion engine for another generation? Government aspirations are to stop sale of conventional petrol and diesel road vehicles by 2040 and make road transport almost completely zero-emission by 2050. Surely it’s time we had a plan also for the rail industry to phase out prime movers that damage air quality and damage the climate. HADRAG says the argument for electrification, starting with our own line, remains strong. Yes, there may be innovative solutions for sections with significant lengths of tunnel or other obstacles. We believe future electric trains may be pure electrics with onboard energy storage. Battery technology is leaping ahead driven by renewable energy development and (ironically) electric cars.

HADRAG intends to promote a Charter for Rail Electrification and have written a draft supporting document Arguments for Electrification . Click to read – and prepare to engage in the debate!

: HERE’s one of those “cast-off” trains that came North from London’s travel-to-work area, and a story that shows just one little reason – among many bigger ones – for electrifying more of our railways. It’s a Class 319 electric train at Liverpool Lime Street station about to work a service to Manchester Airport. From March 2015 the old Northern Rail franchise gave them glossy new colours so that from the outside at least they really did look almost like new. (Now they are beginning to appear in Arriva Rail North’s near-white livery.) Not bad inside either, despite old-fashioned 2+3 seating layout. (A former Northern boss was once heard to say that passengers couldn’t tell them from brand-new trains, but we weren’t sure we quite believed that.) The last “319s” have now ceased service on the Thameslink route between Bedford and Brighton. There were 86 of these 4-car trains. 32 are now with Northern (or about to be). Eight more are to be given diesel engines, becoming electro-diesel “bimodes” called Class 769. The eight should (assuming conversion and testing runs smoothly) enter Northern from next Spring. A further five “769s” have been approved for the Welsh trains franchise. That still leaves nearly half of these decent modern trains, easily upgradable to modern high quality, in store, “off-lease”, awaiting a user. Northern (Arriva) will probably use some of its eight 769s on the Windermere branch, where electrification plans have recently been cancelled by the government. Windermere-Manchester Airport trains seem likely (until brand new stock arrives) to run on diesel on the branch line, and on overhead-wire electric from Oxenholme to the Airport. So heavy internal combustion engines and fuel tanks will be dragged as dead weight under the wires. The promised brand-new stock might have to be pure diesel, though there is a hint of “alternative fuels” – electrics with battery storage maybe – by the early 2020s. It’s not just the 319s – with new franchises down south – not to mention Northern’s neighbour TransPennine Express – replacing serviceable electrics with brand new stock, there appears to be an increasing glut of electric trains. All the more reason, surely, for a rolling programme of proper electrification, not least across the North of England and starting with our top-ranked Calder Valley Line. Read our draft Arguments for Electrification paper.

Arriva for Northern and First hold on to TransPennine Express

Just when we thought it was safe to have a lie-in, a glance at the phone gave the alert. White smoke from the Department for Transport (DfT) revealed Arriva Rail North Ltd in line for the Northern train operating franchise. TransPennine Express will stay with First group.

It’s a year since we put our views to the Arriva team, who impressed us as good listeners. Campaigners had already demanded (against an originally disappointing DfT prospectus) train services comparable with what London and the home countries enjoy. The result was a reasonably expansionist specification (the “ITT”) that it’s clear Arriva now intend to deliver well beyond.

With the worrying proviso that Network Rail has to complete infrastructure enhancements on time, four years from now, our line will be part of the Northern Connect express network, with regular trains to Liverpool, Chester and Manchester Airport as well as Blackpool, Preston and York. Halifax should have 5 trains/hour to Leeds, plus an extra train each daytime hour Bradford-Manchester with journey times reduced by at least 10 per cent. Stations will have a new staff presence. Sunday services will be increased. And there will be significant additional rolling stock both new and refurbished to reduce commuter overcrowding.

Will it be enough? We are disappointed at how little is proposed for the Brighouse Line. We don’t blame Arriva for this but we want more to be done. And we say Sowerby Bridge should be served by all Blackpool-York trains and by the extra Manchesters to be introduced in 2019.

HADRAG’s work continues

Header image attribution: By Geof Sheppard (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons