VIRGIN CROSS COUNTRY SERVICES
54. In addition to its service between Wales and
London, Virgin Trains also operate a cross country service between
Wales and England. In November 2002 Virgin introduced a new timetable
for services between South Wales and Birmingham, the North East
of England and Scotland.[86]
That service was contracted to Virgin under the Public Service
Requirement. Mr Green from Virgin Trains explained that it had
wanted to provide a two hourly service from South Wales, through
Birmingham to Scotland, but that it had soon became clear that
the railway was too crowded, and resulting in an unreliable service.[87]
55. The service was withdrawn by the SRA in January
2003. Defending its decision, the SRA argued that the service
was introduced "against the background of a very congested
railway network".[88]
Mr Bowker argued that it was clear to the SRA, Virgin and to Network
Rail that when the service was introduced, that it caused the
railway network to suffer paralysis at certain times of the day.[89]
56. The SRA are under a statutory obligation to consult
with the relevant statutory bodies on changes to the Public Service
Requirement. We asked Mr Bowker about that consultation. He began
by explaining that the timing of any decision on the future of
the service needed to be made quickly in order to meet the deadline
of mid-January 2003 for the May 2003 timetable:
"We had two months at most, which included
the whole of the Christmas and New Year holiday period, to do
all the necessary analysis, recast the timetable, make sure that
it worked and then advise Network Rail of any changes they needed
to make for the May 2003 timetable. There was not time to undertake
a wide consultation exercise, so we did not do it. The decision
that we had to take was, was it better to consult on something
which would have got us into a huge great debate and run the risk
of not being able to do anything until September or was it better
to give passengers a better service in May. We took the decision
to give them a better service in May".[90]
57. However, the SRA did not consult the Rail Passengers
Committee for Wales on this issue, despite the SRA's undertaking
to consult the RPC on "all substantive material changes to
Public Service Requirements as a matter of course".[91]
The RPC while noting the SRA's desire to make decisions quickly,
described recent consultation on this and other major issues as
"poor or negligible".[92]
58. Under the Transport Act 2000 the Strategic Rail
Authority is also obliged to consult the National Assembly for
Wales on changes to rail services in Wales. Mr Bowker asserted
that the National Assembly had been given advance notice. However,
this consultation took the form of a late-night conversation with
the First Minister, the night before the decision was taken by
the SRA.[93] When questioned,
Mr Bowker stated that he was "content that what we did in
respect of the service changes was properly done, was within the
powers that we have and it was the right thing to do for passengers".[94]
59. While the changes to Virgin Cross country
service may well have been necessary to provide a reliable cross
country service, the manner in which decisions were made fell
well short of what is required. Presenting the First Minister
with what was effectively a fait accompli the night before
changes to the service were made does not constitute consultation.
We conclude that the Strategic Rail Authority failed in its statutory
duty towards the National Assembly for Wales and did not honour
its own undertaking to consult the Rail Passengers Committee.
We recommend that the Strategic Rail Authority review its procedures
to ensure that such events do not happen in the future.
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