Eddington Lock

December 13th 2006

EddingtonLock

AndyMilne documents rail reaction to Sir Rod Eddington’s transport study

Circumspect though the rail industry’sleaders may appear in public most feel let down by the Eddington novella. The report effectively blocks further high speed railways and says little about Crossrail. In fact it has all the hall marks of a Treasury produced-document eschewing spending on major projects. As Adrian Lyons, erstwhile director general of the Railway Forum anticipated, ‘It’s a lemon.’

The report came out on a Friday afternoon-  the day before Belgium announced the completion of its last section of a high speed rail link to France. The country already has HSLs to Holland and Germany. The following week we had the Chancellor’s pre-budget review. Basically having presided over soaring public spending occasioned by a multiplicity of social engineering projects and a costly foreign policy the government is in no position to increase public spending. Bad luck railways, try again next year, meanwhile suck on the lemon. 

 Sir Rod Eddington, one time head of British Airways, an Australian and a great cricket lover – this has in no way affectedthe objectivity of this article – was commissioned to examine the relationshipbetween transport and the economy. Britain has the fourth largest economy inthe world. Expanded transport links are doubly essential, first to fuel theengine of economic performance and secondly to spread the hot house economy ofthe south east throughout Great Britain. Alone among our major European partners, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany we have eschewed high speed rail. All we have is High Speed One – arguably only delivered under pressure by the French, merci mille fois. High Speed Two has quickly become High Speed Wonder When?

However there is some good news in the report which we should note. Eddington makes five recommendations in his report and it is worth quoting them verbatim as stated in a speech he made on its release.

‘I am making five headline recommendations for Government to act on,’ said Sir Rod.

• First make the most of the existing transport infrastructure by tackling congestion and capacity issues
• Second, identify the strategic economic priorities today. In the UK these are congested and growing cities, key inter-urban and international gateways
• Third, introduce a sophisticated mix of pricing, better use and sustained transport infrastructure investment
• Fourth, policy and strategy must adapt to these economic priorities
• Fifth, ensure the delivery system can support these policies.’

In essence the report grabbed headlines by backing road tolls, termed congestion charging. These can be varied to manage demand – much as train companies do with off-peak travel tickets. The government can now claim an independent legitimacy for road tolling. A happy concomitant of this will be added revenue for the Treasury. More importantly it can only drive up demand for rail travel. Already motorists in, for instance, the west country will compute the cost of the central London congestion charge, the extortionate car parking rates pertaining in the capital and petrol. Quite often it is already cheaper to travel by rail. However the Secretary of State for Transport, Duncan Alexander, has said only pilot schemes will go ahead and the idea of national road tolls is some way off. This seems odd if the idea is to reduce congestion on Britain’s national motorway network.

A second piece of good news in the tangled quintet of recommendations is the idea of streamlining planning applications. Sir Rod will remember the seemingly age-long battle to secure permission for the construction of Terminal Five at Heathrow. This is good news for railways. Crossrail planning applications will take years – three times as long as the actual building of the line. If the government strips out red tape and career long planning procedures no one will cheer louder than the railways. Imagine getting the go ahead for a London-Birmingham high speed link and starting up the bulldozers a mere six months later - just like they do in Spain. 

However looking closer his first recommendation is basically saying use what we have better. It thus obviates the need for high speed railways. This won’t wash as far as the railway industry is concerned. Paul Martin, Director General of the Railway Forum said, ‘Recommendations on short to medium term measures such as platform and train lengthening….are already under development and will notsolve capacity problems beyond 2015.’ 

Reservations about the report are not confined to rail chiefs alone. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said, ‘Road-pricing will not solve the problem on its own, and we need to see an equivalent revolution in public transport provision. Road pricing is a means of encouraging people out of cars, but for that to work we need a realistic long-term public transport strategy to cope with the extra demand that it will create, with a start made now on expanding capacity. We need immediate go-ahead for Crossrail and a commitment to a new high-speed north-south railway.’ Unfortunately the report provides neither. Gerry Doherty, general secretary of TSSA, goes even further and described the report as ‘half-baked’ because it calls for road-pricing, but ruled out major investment in a new north south high speed rail link.

Chris Grayling, Conservative transport spokesman said, ‘What I hoped to see from Eddington was a blueprint of what our transport system will need to become in the years after 2015 so we can start planning now. Should we follow other countries and develop a high speed rail network?’ Grayling is sympathetic to the idea whilst mindful of the cost. He went on, ‘It’s  wrong to rule out a high speed rail networkat this stage.’ (see next issue of RailStaff for a full feature interview with Chris Grayling.)

The Scottish Executive is now equally concerned about the blocking of an Anglo– Scottish rail link. Ministers in the Scottish parliament are backing the idea of a fast rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow. A source at the executive said the report was un-ambitious and went on, ‘In 2004/05 there were 1 million rail journeys between Scotland and London and 5 million flights. We want to turn that around. If we had a high-speed rail link, of between two-and-a-half to three hours, there would be no need to fly between Scotland and London. Environmentally there’s no excuse. Emissions and pollution from aviation are far greater than from rail.’

The report may have been politely welcomed but as an exercise it has proved unfruitful. It tells us nothing the rail industry and the government didn’t know already and provides no dynamic for building new railways as our partners in Europe have done. In a statement the Railway Forum, which speaks for the railway industry as a whole,  said it was concerned at the lack of long-term vision, particularly regarding the role that high speed rail could play in supporting a successful modern economy. Paul Martin said, ‘The Eddington Study report, whilst welcome, is in danger of being a missed opportunity for Britain. If we are serious about improving Britain’s economic prospects, relieving congestion and minimising the impact of transport on our environment we need to be thinking more positively about high speed rail.’ High speed rail, he went on would deliver new capacity on intercity routes and at the same time release capacity on existing railways. Mr Martin concludes, ‘When our roads became congested in the 1960s the Government developed a strategic plan for 2,000miles of new motorways. We are now looking for the same bold thinking for our railways. A new high speed line could be built in stages. Britain will open the new High Speed 1 rail link next year from the Channel Tunnel to London St Pancras. Planning surely needs to start now on extending this as High Speed 2 to the Midlands, the North and ultimately to Scotland.’

Sir Rod Eddington is a respected figure in cricket and transport. Years ago, in the summers of 1975 and 1976, he played for Oxford University alongside future Pakistan captain, Imran Khan. A left-arm bowler, one of his first  wickets was that of future England skipper, Tony Greig. His career at British Airways is well attested, vibrant energizing and bold. The transport study that bears his name does him little credit.

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