Tag: 2001

The speech made by Richard Bowker, the then Chair of the Strategic Rail Authority, at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London on 3 December 2001.

[Chaired by Sir Bob Reid]

Good morning and thank you Bob for those kind words of introduction.

David very kindly invited me to speak at this conference and suggested that I give a few practical and inspiring words! Well, you can all be the judge of that soon enough; I don’t intend to say a huge amount this morning but I did want to tell you a bit about my background, the issues we face as an industry and the personal perspective I intend to bring to solving them. In particular, I wanted to answer the most repeated questions asked of me over the past few weeks; Why? and What? Why did I agree to become executive chairman of the SRA and What am I going to do to get the railway working properly again? .

So first of all, Why? Why leave a rather good job working with an exciting bunch of people, for one of the most iconoclastic brands and singular business leaders of the last 25 years? The answer is because I have a real vocation for Britain’s railways and for this job leading the Strategic Rail Authority. It’s based on an unshakeable belief that we can find our way back together as professionals to deliver once again a railway service of which we can be proud. So where does this belief come from?

My father was and still is a senior figure in the bus industry having worked in it for over 40 years and through him I came to have a strong appreciation of the role integrated public transport can play in our lives. My grandfather was a master joiner with the London Midland and Scottish Railway in the 30s and 40s. Transport and the provision of a public service is in my blood and like many professional railwaymen and railwaywomen before me, the sense of being part of a living, breathing organism called the railway runs very deep. We forget sometimes, and certainly Railtrack forgot in a most spectacular way, that the railway exists to deliver one primary mission. That is, the provision of passenger and freight services for its customers, safely and reliably, day in, day out. I, like many of you, have watched with a mixture of sadness and disbelief as this once proud and competent railway organism has lost both its sense of purpose and raison d’etre as well as its self confidence and innate professionalism.

To find the reason why this has happened, there are those who would urge upon us a re-examination of the underlying structural principles of privatisation and in particular at the number of different companies involved. Do all those in the industry, trying to make it work each day, share this view? What many will recall is the pain of the five years that the privatisation restructuring took. Five years that its architects now describe as “breakneck speed”. So to do it ‘properly’ might be, what, six or seven years?

Whatever the strength of the argument, this is a prospect to consider with great care. Many more years of the current carry-on and there may not be a railway network surviving in the form we now know it. Some radical organisational changes I would not rule out, indeed some simplification initiatives I would definitely rule in, but as the primary focus of attention, no thank you.

I am not saying that the industry relationships should escape careful forensic examination to see what works well and what doesn’t, and then make changes as necessary. Indeed the administration of Railtrack facilitates that very well. But to understand why we have a problem – and believe me we do – I believe we need to concentrate effort elsewhere.

Where we need to focus first is on people and in particular, on management. People make businesses work and work well. Its not contracts, it’s not regulation and it’s not the complexity and detail of financing agreements that determine performance, it’s people. This is where we must start.

It was Railtrack’s senior management that failed it for example. They didn’t focus on understanding their assets nor on looking after their customers, two fundamental maxims for success. Instead they focused on inflating the value of the Regulated Asset Base with no real incentive to deliver projects to a reasonable cost as a consequence, thereby increasing their rate of growth in shareholder value. They forgot that this needed to be done whilst also delivering their public law duty as the licence holder and therefore steward, not unassailable owner in perpetuity, of a very precious national asset. They outsourced maintenance, nailing suppliers to thin margin contracts and then failed to manage them effectively. In setting up this chain of command they failed to understand what it was that actually delivered a reliable railway; supervisors, line managers, the ‘black macs‘ and ‘sergeant majors‘ as Chris Green and others have called them. Railtrack today is still full of dedicated men and women, hugely professional in all they do, but the management of the company let them down and badly.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. There is no need why we should put up any longer with this inadequate leadership in our industry.

Stability day to day

First we must restore a sense of stability and belief back into the running of the day-to- day railway. Rediscover our self-confidence, our pride in the job, our pursuit of excellence in all we day. To do this, we need to bring in new blood into the senior ranks of some of the key players in the industry. In Railtrack’s successor for example we need people who understand engineering, asset management, production and industrial processes, quality assurance, supply chain management and logistics technology. They exist in other industries; the oil and gas extraction sector, the hi-tech industrial processes sector and in the motor industry to name a few.

Let me give you an example. Twenty five years ago it was still possible to buy a truly terrible motor car, frequently (unfortunately) made in Britain! But now, whilst you can buy a cheap car, an economical car, a sports car and any one of hundreds of people carriers, you cannot really buy a bad car. The motor industry as a whole has raised its game, got its act together, sorted the processes and put engineering quality at the heart of everything. It is no surprise to me that Ian McAllister has been asked to put together the CLG bid for the successor to Railtrack. Ford is a company that rediscovered the need to allow its engineers to design cars such as the Mondeo and Focus, not its accountants, with the consequence that they have built good quality cars that sell well. And yes, they’ve succeeded with the prestige brands too, Jaguar and Land Rover. We need more Ian McAllisters and fast. They exist and they will cost money but the payback will be both immediate and long lasting. At the same time we must look after the railway knowledge that still exists in Railtrack and other companies. We need to nurture it, empower it, allow managers to manage and railway people to do what they do best but within a framework set by a competent and focused leadership.

The Strategic Rail Authority will play a full and active part in this process. In general terms, I shall use every opportunity made available to me to encourage and cajole anyone and everyone who has a part to play in delivering a safe, reliable day to day railway. Specifically, I intend to release the creative talent that exists in the SRA so that we have a proactive organisation, one which energises, and helps establish a common sense of customer focus. We will win the respect of the travelling public and of the freight/logistics operators. The SRA has substantial powers and I shall not hesitate to use them to ensure the public interest is served. We have to offer value for money. I am determined to build constructive partnerships with Train Operating and Freight Operating Companies to achieve this. The door is open and the phones are manned. Please come and see us, talk to us, engage with us. We can all do so much simply by focusing on the job in hand, acting decisively and implementing professionally.

Over the coming weeks and months there will be progress on a number of fronts. I know there has been frustration, and I am determined to resolve blockages. We will demonstrate that we are an action oriented Authority, not afraid to ask tough questions, set tough agendas and make tough decisions when required.

Rediscovering Planning

The second thing we must do is to rediscover the practice of planning. This is not just for the long term. Its absence is what so often undermines what has to be done on a day by day and week by week basis and we need to get better at it. The first step will be to launch the Strategic Plan in January. I’m sorry David that this conference was designed to coincide with the launch of the Plan. I took the decision to delay its release but the decision was taken for good reasons. A huge amount of work has gone into the Strategic Plan which, once funded and committed to by Government, and we’re nearly there, will enable the rail industry for the first time to plan the future with a degree of confidence and clarity from the operational companies through to the infrastructure businesses and the supply sector. I delayed it because I felt it needed to set a clearer vision for the future and this it will now do. It will be launched on January 14th 2002 (please put the date in your diary) and will I believe be a huge step forward in restoring a sense of direction to the industry. However, planning is not a static exercise, it’s a way of working. While it is the SRA’s plan, of course it is for the whole industry to use And yes it is challenging to develop plans which can provide direction for a large and complex industry, but don’t think that we’re alone, as an industry sector with such a challenge. We will review it and update it to ensure we remain on track to deliver the bigger, better and safer railway outlined in the Ten Year Transport Plan.

I know there has been a worry about the amount of taxpayers’ money set aside in the 10 year transport plan for railways, a worry that this isn’t enough. Well, let me say this. Continuing Treasury and tax-payer support depends on this industry performing. Before arguing we haven’t enough (and it may well turn out that’s correct), let’s acknowledge that we have the kind of long term financial support from this Government that (say) previous BR chairmen could only dream about. What we don’t have is the performance to match. So it’s clear where the real emphasis must lie. We have to deliver a better performing railway to stand a chance. You can count on me to argue the case for funding increases, but you the railway industry will have to create a stronger bargaining hand.

One of the problems is that no-one has in my opinion yet sat down and produced an irrefutable, soundly argued, analytically robust and tested integrated plan that demonstrates the point. So we need a planning framework that takes all the inputs and then examines all the possible relationships to ensure that the outputs are optimised for a given level of input. The key relationships between renewals, upgrades and enhancements compared to management and optimisation of the service plans of train and freight operating companies has never been properly understood because the SRA and ORR have never sat down together with that single objective in mind. That is about to change forever. Tom Winsor and I have agreed to bring our two senior teams together to create a process designed to model these relationships in a transparent manner so that we can see a true holistic model of the investment need of the railway.

A wise procurement chum of mine once said ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. So has it been with investment planning on the railway. The SRA will play a full part in the forthcoming Spending Review and we will champion the railway cause to the fullest extent. But we shall do it armed with proper and robust analysis. We stand far more chance of winning if we are properly prepared.

I’ve mentioned Tom Winsor and the ORR so perhaps a little more on relationships is useful. One of the most unedifying sights of the last few years (and ultimately one of the most destructive) has been the continual bickering and backstabbing process carried out by many sectors of the industry on a regular and very public basis. That must also be consigned to history. This conference has been organised by the Commission for Integrated Transport. What hope do we have for that if we can’t even behave as integrated industry ourselves. I have known Tom for some years and whilst we do not always agree, we have professional and mutual respect for each other, have our debates in private, and then get on with the job. I expect everyone else in the railway industry to do the same.

Conclusion

In summary therefore we must do these two things. First, restore stability to the railway and confidence that we can do the job. Everyone must play their full part and the SRA will lead where required and play its full and proactive part. Second, put in place a planning framework which will for the first time enable us to have complete transparency of the costs, benefits, risks and funding opportunities for the railway.

My vision is of a railway for which people are proud to work, in which customers can have confidence is professionally managed and can deliver a safe, reliable and value for money service and in which investors, including Government, wish to invest. We do have a Government which for the first time I can remember has a bigger and better railway as a stated and quantified policy objective. Lets not let the chance pass us by. We can do this; we have the people and the tools, if we have the vision and desire, we can achieve anything. Lets go for it.

Thank you.

The speech made by Richard Bowker, the then Chair of the Strategic Rail Authority, on 5 December 2001.

Introduction

….thank you Stewart for those kind remarks. Congratulations too on organising this conference at the start of my third day in the job. As the date was set some two months before I accepted the post, you get a high score for strategic planning!

As you can see from the title of this session, I believe it is time that the SRA rose up to the challenge facing the industry in general. Specifically, it is time to lead.

So, first of all, why did I take on this huge and challenging task, and leave behind a good job in order to do it? The answer is because I have a real vocation for Britain’s railways and for this job leading the Strategic Rail Authority. It’s based on an unshakeable belief that the industry can find its way back together as professionals to deliver once again a railway service of which we can be proud.

I reckon many of you in this room this morning share something of the same belief. Why else would you devote such a huge amount of time to the work of the Committees, well beyond the hours expected in many cases? The railway generates strong views and attachments and this is as much for the users as well as the railwaymen and women who serve them.

So, let me start by talking about the state and future of the railway, and then move on to the key role of the RPC network in delivering the strategy.

The Railway

Looking at the ‘doom and gloom’ headlines of the press day by day, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the railway is delivering each day, carrying a third more passengers than five years ago, and 40% more freight.

Everyday 18,600 trains are run (21% more than five years ago). Every day 2.8 million passengers are carried, and 480,000 people are safely delivered to Central London between 07.00 and 10.00.

The results of the last five year’s planning are starting to be delivered. New trains are arriving. The c2c fleet has been transformed. As of today, nearly 30 Voyagers are operating, bringing new standards of quality to cross country services… and last week, the first of the Pendolino trains were delivered for use on the West Coast Main line. They begin driver training very soon. The freight fleet has been transformed with over 300 new locomotives and 2,500 new wagons – the first major investment in a generation.

Yesterday, I was in Edinburgh, to mark the start of work on the Crossrail project – part funded by the SRA with an RPP grant. Tomorrow, with Stephen Byers and Ken Livingstone we start work on the East London line extension. On Friday, I will be announcing extension of the RPP fund, together with new guidance for users, and we will soon be able to set out details of the refranchising programme.

And in January, on the 14th to be precise, we launch the Strategic Plan, the first blueprint for a generation on how we are going to plan and deliver a better railway in line with the Government’s Ten Transport Plan.

I find it frustrating that we have not got these messages across. I am not suggesting everything in the garden is rosy. It is not and I shall return to that in due course. But there are some great things to celebrate. Privatisation has brought some tremendous benefits in new equipment and services, new technology and new investment. I say this because it is all too easy to lose sight of this amongst the tremendous issues and challenges that we face both in the short and longer term.

So what of the future?

In my view, the latent demand for rail services will continue to drive rail usage towards the growth targets the Government set out in their Ten Year Plan. Economic growth brings with it an increasing demand for transport. Trunk road and motorway congestion is not likely to reduce. Parking constraints are not going to get easier. Indeed, a number of cities – including London – plan to introduce congestion charging, which if it goes ahead will increase pressure on rail demand.

Can the railway cope?

It has to. We have to find ways of making it capable of meeting the demand. The road system cannot handle the growth in demand nor should it be have to do so. Apart from this, any significant new road building could take ten years or more to achieve. We have to equip the railway to play a bigger role in meeting Britain’s transport needs. But that is a defensive position to take in isolation. I do not want to see a railway simply doing its best to play “catch up”. The railway is moving a third more passengers than at privatisation and I think that’s fantastic! Remember all the statistics of the 1980s? Ridership down, freight down, investment down. That’s been turned on its head. What we have to do now is stimulate more demand by making rail the mode of choice where it can be, and make it so attractive and welcoming a transport proposition, that people actually positively switch to rail and feel good about doing so.

Things are not good enough at the moment. Performance is very ragged, and the combined effects of September 11 and the collapse of Railtrack have left uncertainty for passengers, for train operators and for rail staff, who also feel the brunt of the daily onslaught in the media. We can’t just issue vague platitudes about ‘things will get better’. We need to get on with practical things and now.

So, where do we start?

First we must restore a sense of stability and belief back into the running of the day-to- day railway. The tremendous railwaymen and women that are the bedrock of this industry have to rediscover self-confidence, pride in the job, pursuit of excellence in all they do. To do this, we need to bring in new blood into the senior ranks of some of the key players in the industry to lead. In Railtrack’s successor for example we need people who understand engineering, asset management, production and industrial processes, quality assurance, supply chain management and logistics technology. They exist in other industries And we should be actively seeking to attract them to the railways.

We need to nurture our staff, empower them, allow managers to manage and railway people to do what they do best but within a framework set by a competent and focused leadership.

The Strategic Rail Authority will play a full and active part in this process and take a lead. In general terms, I shall use every opportunity made available to me to encourage and cajole anyone and everyone who has a part to play in delivering a safe, reliable day to day railway. Specifically, I intend to develop the potential of the SRA, to energise it and help establish a common sense of customer focus. We will win the respect of the travelling public and of the freight/logistics operators and I am determined to build constructive partnerships with Rail Companies and their users to achieve this.

The RPC network has a key role to play here – particularly on restoring confidence. You can help us identify the problem areas from your local knowledge and your discussions with TOCs. You can help rebuild public confidence in the comments you make to the local media – particularly as performance starts to turn the corner – and you are uniquely placed to highlight best practice and to encourage its spread around the network.

So what are we going to do to rebuild confidence? Prioritisation has had a terrible press as a word. Most people jump to the conclusion that it means ‘cutback to what can be afforded’. It does not. It means focusing on the things that maximise benefits for users within all the relevant constraints. In the railway industry, this means skills and technical resources as much as money. For example, the next two years will see Railtrack completing full implementation of TPWS, essential signalling renewals and the signalling for the West Coast upgrade. It is a period during which some key signalling resources are going to be in limited supply.

Focusing on delivery means some hard choices in the short term – replacing the “wish list” with the priority list for passengers but, I am adamant the longer term is not forgotten, indeed, quite the opposite. I am determined that the projects that will define our future – many of which may not come to fruition until long after my term as Chairman of the SRA is over – are developed and planned now. This is a long lead time industry and many of the problems we face today are a direct consequence of short term investment thinking in the past. We will not repeat that mistake.

I am also committed to making sure we do not lose sight of smaller things that can be done quite quickly to really improve the quality of the overall travel experience. Stewart and I discussed recently the need to really look at our station infrastructure. Stations are the gateway to the service, the first point of interaction between the passenger and the railway network. And let’s face it, some of them are truly dire. That is why we are so keen to develop the RPP programme and make it easier and quicker to access. Many schemes have been successfully implemented but I am keen to see them happen more quickly in the future.

In summary, you will see how all of this fits together when we publish the Strategic Plan.

The team at the SRA has done a very thorough job in analysing the issues and producing a plan which deals with them, notwithstanding the uncertainties that face our industry today. Whilst assumptions have to be made – they do in all Strategic Plans – it will set a clearer vision for the future than has existed before. However, planning is not a static exercise, it’s a way of working. While it is the SRA’s plan, of course it is for the whole industry to use. I know the Council has been involved as a partner in the preparation of the plan, and I am grateful for the input from Stewart and his team.

I said on Monday, (my first day) that the popular belief is that we need more money than was contemplated in the Ten Year Plan in order to deliver a long term sustainable railway network. The problem is, no-one has yet sat down and produced an irrefutable, soundly argued, analytically robust and tested integrated plan that demonstrates the point. So we need a planning framework that takes all the inputs and then examines all the possible relationships to ensure that the outputs are optimised for a given level of input. The key relationships between renewals, upgrades and enhancements compared to management and optimisation of the service plans of train and freight operating companies has never been properly understood because the SRA and ORR have never sat down together with that single objective in mind. That, however, is about to change. Tom Winsor and I have agreed to bring our two senior teams together to create a process designed to model these relationships in a transparent manner so that we can see a true holistic model of the investment need of the railway. We may be separate organisations but we will show by example that we can really deliver when we work together. This will revolutionise the way in which we undertake investment planning in the future.

The RPC Network

I have seen how the RPC network has been transformed over the last eighteen months, with a bigger remit and bigger responsibilities – matched by a bigger budget! The working relationship with the SRA and the rest of the rail industry has become more proactive, with more practical suggestions for improvement, rather than acting simply as a complaints forum.

This is an important role for the network, as is the strong regional focus of the Committees. For us as an organisation based in London, strong, regional imput is essential. Links between the Committees and regional and local Government are important, and I would like to see this virtuous circle completed, building on the strong links already established between the SRA and Scotland, Wales and the English Regions.

Consultation is a word that is often used but abused. My concept is simpler – let’s talk to each other. If a week goes by and you haven’t talked to or heard from the Rail Development Manager or one of Chris Austin’s team, then pick up the phone and ask “What’s new”? I know Stewart and Anthony will do the same to me! Formal consultation may be needed for things like PSR changes, but it should be no substitute for regular dialogue. I can promise you, there will be plenty to talk about over the next few months!

Given that our goals are the same – providing a better service for passengers (and freight customers) and encouraging development of the railway, this relationship needs to evolve into a partnership.

Conclusion

My vision is of a railway for which people are proud to work, in which customers can have confidence, is professionally managed and can deliver a safe, reliable and value for money service and in which investors, including Government, wish to invest. We do have a Government which for the first time I can remember has a bigger and better railway as a stated and quantified policy objective. Lets not let the chance pass us by. I believe we can do this; we have the people and the tools, if we have the vision and desire, and we work together, we can achieve anything.