Examination of Witnesses (Questions 51-59)
MR IAIN
COUCHER, MR
PAUL PLUMMER
AND MR
GRAHAM SMITH
3 NOVEMBER 2004
Q51 Chairman: Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Would you identify yourselves, please?
Mr Coucher: My name is Iain Coucher.
I am the deputy chief executive of Network Rail. On my right is
Paul Plummer, also from Network Rail. He is director of planning.
Mr Smith: My name is Graham Smith.
I am the planning director for English, Welsh and Scottish Railway.
Q52 Chairman: You are all most warmly
welcome. As you can imagine, our inquiry into rural rail is very
important because we see it as a way forward for the railway system.
Do either of you want to say a few words before we start? Do you
know what proportion of your costs is attributable to rural lines?
Mr Coucher: We have never calculated
precisely the cost of maintaining and operating or renewing the
rural network. The costs that we do incur are a function of the
usage of a particular part of the railway and that in turn is
a function of the types of trains which go down there, which is
dictated by speed, weight and frequency. As our rural routes only
carry round about 6% of total passenger trains, only a very small
proportion of our total costs are associated with rural railways.
Q53 Chairman: You could approximately
say that you would differentiate according to use, not according
to rural or urban?
Mr Coucher: Yes. It has never
been precisely calculated although, as we move into the new way
of planning, the intention is that we break down much more precisely
the costs allocated by specific routes.
Q54 Chairman: At the moment, for example,
you would not say that the rural lines were a higher proportion.
You would say they were quite a small amount of your total proportion
because of the use?
Mr Coucher: Yes. It is a very
small proportion of our total cost and the same would apply for
renewables. We renew the asset when it has expired and because
of the usage on rural routes it tends to last a lot longer. We
have parts of the network which are very lightly used and will
last for many years.
Q55 Chairman: Do you think rural railways
have been neglected in favour of long distance lines?
Mr Coucher: From Network Rail's
side, no. All our work is treated as equally seriously as any
other part of the network.
Q56 Chairman: When you are prioritising,
I do not say this in a pejorative sense but would you be more
inclined to go for those lines that were heavily used rather than
those that were lightly used?
Mr Coucher: We tend to focus our
money on where it is needed to maintain operational services.
On the renewable side, we tend to spend more on the main lines
because track that is very heavily used would last five years,
whereas it could last 50 years on rural routes. It is just a function
of usage. Rural routes tend to seem to get less but they do not
proportionally.
Q57 Chairman: If I can quote the Public
Transport Consortium, it says, "Most of the UK's branch lines
are survivors of the `Beeching' cuts . . . but it would appear
that the railway industry has seen them as a nuisance . . .".
They say there have been a number of success stories. "Almost
all have been due to local interests and local authority involvement",
the suggestion being that you will prioritise main lines, long
distance lines, heavily used lines and that, from the point of
view of someone maintaining an integrated track, the branch lines
are a nuisance?
Mr Coucher: Not at all. We spend
to support the whole rail network and our expenditure programme
and activities are dictated by the usage. We support all the rural
routes and we maintain them properly. We operate them properly
and we renew them as and when the asset is required to be renewed,
which tends to be less often on a rural route when they do not
wear out quite as much.
Q58 Ian Lucas: Your perception of the
rural lines seems to be determined very much by existing usage.
In other words, you support the existing usage of particular lines.
I do not get any sense from you of you planning future usage.
Do you look at lines and consider in what way services could be
improved or do you not regard that as part of your function?
Mr Coucher: It will change when
we assume responsibility for route utilisation strategies but
at this point in time the responsibility for planning additional
services for rural routes lies with the relevant train operating
companies and the SRA. If somebody came to us and said, "We
now wish to double the frequency of trains on a rural route",
there is an incremental cost for doing that and that is reflected
in the charges but it is not within our gift to go out and seek
additional services. Rural routes tend to be lightly used and
therefore it is very easy to add additional services onto rural
routes.
Q59 Ian Lucas: It would not have big
cost consequences as far as you are concerned?
Mr Coucher: No.
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