House of Commons Transport Committee Rural Railways Fifth Report of Session 2004–05 Volume II Oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 9 March 2005 HC 169-II Incorporating HC 1229-i and ii, Session 2003-04 Published on 21 April 2005 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £14.50 The Transport Committee The Transport Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Transport and its associated public bodies. Current membership Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody MP (Labour, Crewe) (Chairman) Mr Jeffrey M Donaldson MP (Democratic Unionist, Lagan Valley) Mr Brian H. Donohoe MP (Labour, Cunninghame South) Clive Efford MP (Labour, Eltham) Mrs Louise Ellman MP (Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool Riverside) Ian Lucas MP (Labour, Wrexham) Miss Anne McIntosh MP (Conservative, Vale of York) Mr Paul Marsden MP (Liberal Democrat, Shrewsbury and Atcham) Mr John Randall MP (Conservative, Uxbridge) Mr George Stevenson MP (Labour, Stoke-on-Trent South) Mr Graham Stringer MP (Labour, Manchester Blackley) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/transcom. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Eve Samson (Clerk), David Bates (Second Clerk), Clare Maltby (Committee Specialist), Philippa Carling (Inquiry Manager), Miss Frances Allingham (Committee Assistant), Miss Michelle Edney (Secretary), Henry Ayi-Hyde (Senior Office Clerk) and James O’Sullivan (Sandwich Student). All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Transport Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6263; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Witnesses Wednesday 3 November 2004 Page Mr Ingemar Lundin, Director, Jönköping Länstrafik Ev 1 Mr Iain Coucher, Deputy Chief Executive, and Mr Paul Plummer, Director of Corporate Planning, Network Rail; Mr Graham Smith, Planning Director, English, Welsh and Scottish Railway Ev 5 Dr Paul Salveson, General Manager, Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP), Mrs Sheila Dee, Community Rail Officer, Chester to Shrewsbury Line; Mr Jonathan Denby, Head of Corporate Affairs, One Railway, Bittern Line; Mr Scott Handley, Chief Executive, and Ms Ruth Annison, Marketing Director, Wensleydale Railway plc Ev 13 Wednesday 10 November 2004 Mr Anson Jack, Director of Standards, Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) Ev 21 Councillor Tony Page, Reading Borough Council and member of LGA Environment Board (Labour transport portfolio holder), Councillor Shona Johnstone, Cambridgeshire County Council and member of LGA Environment Board (Conservative transport portfolio holder), and Mr Vince Christie, Senior Project Officer, LGA, Local Government Association Ev 25 Mr Chris Austin, Executive Director Community Rail Development, and Mr David Hibbs, Assistant Director Community Rail Development, Strategic Rail Authority Ev 30 Wednesday 15 December 2004 Mr Vincent Smith, Director of Competition, Enforcement, and Mr Nooman Haque, Principal Case Officer, Office of Fair Trading Ev 39 Mr Tony McNulty MP, Minister of State, Department for Transport Ev 47 List of written evidence Page RR 01 H. Trevor Jones Ev 57 RR 02 Freightliner Ev 57 RR 03 Bedfordshire Railway and Transport Association Ev 58 RR 04 Alan D Crowhurst Ev 59 RR 05 Gloucestershire County Council Ev 60 RR 06 Tyne Valley Users’ Group Ev 61 RR 07 North Cheshire Rail Users’ Group Ev 63 RR 08 Ludlow Rail Users Ev 66 RR 09 West Midlands Regional Assembly Ev 66 RR 10 Crewe and Shrewsbury Passenger Association Ev 68 RR 11 English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ev 68 RR 12 Shropshire County Council Ev 72 RR 13 ACoRP Ev 74 RR 14 Councillor Donald G Clow Ev 82 RR 15 Local Government Association Ev 83 RR 16 Devon County Council Ev 85 RR 17 Countryside Agency Ev 86 RR 18 Heart of Wales Line forum Ev 88 RR 19 Angus Eickhoff Ev 89 RR 20 Midlands Branch, Rail Future Ev 91 RR 21 Dr John Disney Ev 92 RR 22 Dr Roger Sexton Ev 94 RR 23 Llangollen Railway Trust Ev 95 RR 24 David Dalton Ev 97 RR 25 I D King Ev 99 RR 26 Strategic Rail Authority Ev 101 RR 27 Church Stretton and District Rail Users Association Ev 104 RR 28 The Public Transport Consortium Ev 105 RR 29 Network Rail Ev 106 RR 29A Supplementary memorandum by Network Rail Ev 108 RR 30 Cambrensis Ltd Ev 118 RR 31 Nottinghamshire County Council Ev 108 RR 32 RMT Ev 111 RR 33 Department for Transport Ev 113 RR 33A Supplementary memorandum by the Department for Transport Ev 119 RR 34 Office of Fair Trading Ev 116 Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the Transport Committee on Wednesday 3 November 2004 Members present: Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody, in the Chair Mr Brian H Donohoe Ian Lucas Clive EVord Miss Ann McIntosh Witness: Mr Ingemar Lundin, Director, Jo¨nko¨ping La¨nstrafik, examined. Q1 Chairman: Good afternoon, Mr Lundin. Can so it has been twice as much cost for us to use this I begin by warmly welcoming you here and system but still we have a new fleet which means apologising. I understand that your morning has that we have twice as many seats on board trains. been a bit eventful. I am very sorry that you should have lost your case and I apologise on behalf of Q5 Chairman: Did the subsidy come from the London if not on behalf of the United Kingdom. central government or from the local government? We are enormously grateful to you for giving Mr Lundin: Most of the taxpayers’ money goes to evidence to us today because we think what you the local or regional level. That means our owner have to say to us is going to be very important. puts in this money and also makes the decision May I begin by asking you to tell us your name about buying the new rolling stock. Our owner is and your oYcial title and then perhaps you have the county council and its 13 municipalities. something to say before we go to questions. Mr Lundin: I am very happy to be here in London. Q6 Chairman: They decided to spend the 320 I had some illustrations in my bag but you will get million Swedish krone? those later. I am managing director for a public Mr Lundin: Yes, as an investment in the future. transport authority in Sweden, in Jo¨nko¨ping. It is They have also been responsible for decisions about quite a rural area with a regional centre of about running the old trains before at lower cost. The 105,000 inhabitants and I have been responsible for county council’s main expense is for health care. the rail service since 1985. I have been managing 95% of their budget is for health care and 2% for director for 24 years. During that time, we have public transport. That means that they are giving been the first place in Sweden to have a private some priority between public transport and operator in early 1990. That is the reason why we health care. have visitors from the Ministry of Transport in the UK, to see if it could be possible to have private Q7 Chairman: Was there any central government operators. Today we come to you and look at your subsidy? railway system. Mr Lundin: There is a central government subsidy which is about one third of the costs for these Q2 Chairman: How much does the railway network rural railway. in Jo¨nko¨ping cost? Mr Lundin: It is a net contract that we have. That Q8 Chairman: When you say “costs” are we talking was one of the figures in the papers so perhaps I about operational costs or capital costs? could come back on that. Mr Lundin: Gross costs, including capital costs, in what we are giving to operators. A fee for using Q3 Chairman: What proportion is covered by fares? the rail, for example, is included in the £4 per Mr Lundin: Yes. The costs are per kilometre, kilometre. approximately £4 per kilometre. From there it is our cost. As it is a net contract, that means that Q9 Chairman: How do you get the funding to the operator has the income, the fares. From our reopen lines? I understand that you have not just point of view, the relation between income and cost been running the existing railway but you have is about 45% in the present system but it is very opened up some more lines that had been closed. important also to illustrate that, by this new Is that right? system, we have invested about 320 million Swedish Mr Lundin: In a way, yes. It is more that we have krone in new rolling stock. You have to divide it taken over responsibility for the state railways. by 13 to have it in pounds. There was a Transport Act in 1988 in which the public transport authorities handed over the Q4 Chairman: Was that just the rolling stock? responsibility for all regional service, including Mr Lundin: Yes. Before that we had old trains with rural service. Many of those lines had a rail service no capital cost and no train crew on board, just the before but it was a long distance rail service.