GTR not stripped of franchise despite timetable chaos

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has not been stripped of its franchise despite its “unacceptable performance” following the introduction of the May timetable, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has announced.

Taking control of services away from the company would “cause further and undue disruption for passengers and is not an appropriate course of action”, he claimed.

The decision was announced on the day the Transport Select Committee (TSC) published a scathing report which said Mr Grayling should have been more proactive in preventing the chaos that gripped parts of the network earlier this year.

The Transport Secretary insisted the Government is “holding GTR to account” by ordering it to pay £15 million for service agreements.

GTR, which is majority-owned by transport group Go-Ahead and runs lines in south-east England including the troubled Southern Railway service, will make no profit this year and will make a reduced profit for the remainder of its franchise until September 2021 as part of the sanctions.

Mick Cash, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, described the punishment as a “half-hearted slap on the wrist for GTR”.

He went on: “By refusing to strip them of the contract, they are being given yet another licence to carry on with chaos by the man who is Britain’s leading specialist in failure.

“Chris Grayling should resign.”

The TSC called for swift reforms to restore passengers’ trust in the railways and said the “chaotic roll-out” of alterations to services across the country should be the catalyst for “genuine change” for people who rely on the network.

The MPs said Mr Grayling was not fully informed of the serious problems caused by the changes, but they added that it was not reasonable for him to absolve himself of all responsibility.

Mr Grayling had the ultimate authority to judge trade-offs between competing commercial interests and he should have been more proactive, said the report.

The Transport Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he had apologised “many, many times across the summer for what happened”, adding: “Clearly we did not ask tough enough questions.

“The reality is, at no point did I get the information I would have needed to intervene, and we must make sure that never happens again, and I absolutely accept responsibility for my department and myself not asking the tough enough questions.”

The TSC found that GTR failed to run about 470 (12%) of its planned 3,880 daily services following the new timetable.

Arriva Rail North, which operates Northern rail services across the North of England, did not run around 310 (11%) of its planned 2,810 services per weekday.

The report said passengers most affected by the delays and cancellations should receive a discount on 2019 tickets.

National rail timetabling needs “genuinely independent” oversight, located outside Network Rail, to avoid being affected by commercial and political pressure, it added.

Last week’s announcement that rail fares would increase by an average of 3.1% added “insult to passengers’ injury”, said Lilian Greenwood, who chairs the committee.

She said: “It is extraordinary, and totally unacceptable, that no-one took charge of the situation and acted to avert the May timetabling crisis.

“Instead of experiencing the benefits of much-needed investment in our railways, around one in five passengers experienced intensely inconvenient and costly disruption to their daily lives.

“There was extraordinary complacency about protecting the interests of passengers, who were very badly let down.

“The complex system by which we operate our rail services failed to cope with the scale of change planned for May.

“The Secretary of State has announced a year-long independent rail review.

“While the need for fundamental reform is beyond doubt, passengers cannot wait until 2020 for key lessons to be learned and reforms implemented.”

Mr Grayling said passengers had already received a discount of “nearly 10%” under a compensation package.

He said the main problem facing the network was that lines were running at full capacity.

He told Today: “They are now so full that you cannot have a railway as fragmented as it is at the moment.

“That is the most significant underlying problem of the railway.

“The mistake I have made was to say we will change that through a process of evolution which we had started.

“We now need revolution and that is what the Williams review is going to lead to.”

Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, said: “This industry knows it must deliver a smooth set of changes when the next round of timetable changes takes effect this Sunday.

“They must show they’ve learned lessons after a torrid summer of timetable crisis, and are acting to improve performance.”