Liverpool councillors have bowed to pressure from Bob Crow’s RMT union and scrapped plans to put the Merseyrail train company in the vanguard of a piecemeal, regional reprivatisation of Network Rail.
The move is being seen as an immediate knockback for the Department for Transport and its recently published McNulty report, which recommended the type of train and track integration that Merseyrail was considering.
Merseyrail had been leading the way in the reform sweeping the railways by proposing the merger of its train operations — run jointly by Serco and the Dutch state railway — with the track, stations and signalling owner Network Rail. The idea was that substantial savings from eradicating duplication in the at times confrontational operational processes could be translated to cheaper fares for passengers.
However, Merseytravel, which operates Merseyrail, said the bodies that run transport in the city — the Integrated Travel Authority and the Passenger Travel Executive — are “to discontinue negotiations regarding localism given the current uncertainty and union opposition.” It continued: “Members don’t want Merseyside to be emblematic of the issues surrounding the implementation of Sir Roy McNulty’s report for reducing the cost of the UK’s railways.”
The decision came from Mark Dowd, the Liverpool councillor who oversees Merseyrail and has previously been a proponent of vertical integration, which included spending £1.5 million leading a campaign. He was reported as saying: “I think there is too much uncertainty. We are better under government control.” Mr Dowd declined to return calls from The Times.
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The decision comes a day after the RMT railway workers union pledged to declare industrial relations war on the reforms contained in the McNulty report. The report says British railways have the capability of reducing costs by 30 per cent. The RMT says that is a recipe for thousands of jobs losses and a compromise over safety.
In a statement from Fort William where the RMT is holding its annual conference, Bob Crow, its general secretary, said: “Common sense has prevailed in Merseytravel and this decision can only be welcomed as the first defeat for the McNulty proposals to break up Network Rail. What the train operators are calling ‘vertical integration’ is nothing of the sort and would amount to more dangerous fragmentation of infrastructure.”
The McNulty report has been interpreted as backing the regional break up and privatisation of Network Rail by moving its track, station and signalling responsibilities to train operators where the infrastucture operations are discrete and have few other users. Such networks have been thought to include ScotRail, the Welsh railways, Greater Anglia and the C2C routes between London and south Essex.
The Department for Transport declined to comment saying: “It is a matter for Merseyrail.”
Paul Plummer, group strategy director, Network Rail, said: “Network Rail has been in discussions with Merseytravel to find a way to build on the success of one of Britain’s best performing railways, while reducing costs and allowing decision-making to be taken at a more local level. Merseytravel will need to consider this decision and its impact on their plans.”