Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 578-579)

MR GEORGE MUIR AND MR RICHARD LOCKETT

16 JUNE 2004

  Q578 Chairman: Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am sorry to have kept you waiting. Could you identify yourselves for the record?

  Mr Muir: My name is George Muir, I am the Director General of the Association of Train Operating Companies.

  Mr Lockett: I am Richard Lockett, the Director of Systems and Standards.

  Q579 Chairman: Mr Muir, did you have something you wanted to say before we begin?

  Mr Muir: Briefly, very briefly. It is in the nature of railways that they do require standardisation. This has been true almost since railways began, and indeed across Europe in the nineteenth century there was a fairly extensive system of standardisation and latterly under the control of a voluntary body called UIP. It was simpler when railways were inherently more simple. Railways are now much more complicated and the equipment is much more complicated. In continental railways, therefore, where there is a need for international traffic, it is inevitable that standardisation is required. The dangers are, however, in my view perfectly clear. The first is an over enthusiasm by those setting the standards to standardise and seek to regulate over too great a scope, and, secondly, perfectly obviously, there is danger of getting it wrong. When you set about drafting TSIs—it could be between 500 pages or 5,000—the scope for error is perfectly obvious, and the task is to make sure that we control the propensity to widen the scope for standardisation and try to think carefully and make sure that they are correct.


 
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