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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