APPENDIX 3 TransPennine Express and Northern Rail Franchise Renewals Stakeholder Consultation Response from the Furness Line Community Rail Partnership Contents 1. Summary of Key Points 2. Background 3. Existing Services 4. CRP Preparation for Consultation 5. The Consultation Principles and Proposals 6. Key Response Points from the Furness Line Community Rail Partnership 7. Answers to Consultation Questions Annex A Furness Line Study by The Railway Consultancy Annex B Fares comparison 1. Summary of Key Points 1.1 The current service on the Furness Line is unfit for purpose: o there is a strong case for the retention, and restoration of previous levels of service between Barrow-in-Furness and Manchester Airport; o local services on the line are failing to provide for key markets, particularly commuters wishing to travel west towards Barrow and Ulverston; o the timetable is uncoordinated and irregular and fails to provide adequate capacity at key times. 1.2 Remapping, with potential loss of through services to Manchester, will result in: o over-crowding of TransPennine Scottish services south of Lancaster; o uncertainty of connections at Preston/Lancaster, where poor historical reliability results in passengers having to wait an unacceptable hour or more for the next train. o uncertainty of through connectivity with interchanges on the Northern Hub and HS2 developments. 1.3 Maintaining and improving the quality of rolling stock serving the route, especially on longer distance services, is a strong necessity. 1.4 Franchise planning needs to provide for massive growth in the local economy: o up to ??? new jobs in Barrow and Ulverston alone in next few years; o up to £17 billion investment on Cumbrian coast by mid 2020s. 1.5 There is an urgent need for a principal or lead operator on the route to: o develop a properly co-ordinated timetable; o upgrade stations to a common standard of facilities along the line; o manage and control all services in times of disruption to minimise hardship to passengers. 2. Background 2.1 The Furness Line serves towns and villages round the northern side of Morecambe Bay, extending 30 miles west from its junction with the West Coast Main Line at Carnforth. The effective junction for interchange with other operators and services is 5 miles further south at Lancaster. The line was designated with Community Rail status in June 2012. From Barrow the railway continues northwards along the Cumbrian Coast which comes within a separate Community Rail Partnership. 2.2 The population served by the line is about 120,000. Barrow (c. 70,000) is much the largest town with a range of industries dominated by the shipbuilding and engineering company BAE Systems. Ulverston (c. 12,000) is also an important employment centre with international firms GSK, Siemens, Marl and others. Grange-over-Sands and Arnside are small bay-side resorts and residential centres. 2.3 The line carries a wide range of traffics including commuters, especially to Lancaster and Preston, school children in substantial numbers to Lancaster, and also to Ulverston and other schools. Barrow, Lancaster and Preston are important service centre attractors for education, health services, retailing and other urban purposes. The Manchester Airport service provides a vital direct link for local businesses with their international connections, as well as for incoming visitors and local residents. Off–peak services are dominated by the leisure market and this accounts for 60% of the journeys. 3. Existing Services 3.1 Train services on the line are currently worked by two Train Operating Companies. TransPennine Express operates modern Class 185 trains on services between Barrow, Preston and Manchester Airport, though the number of services running beyond Preston has been reduced in recent years. Northern operates local services mainly between Lancaster and Barrow, with some services extended beyond Barrow over the Cumbrian Coast line to and from Carlisle using elderly Class 142, 153, and 156 trains. 3.2 Problems with present services: there is a lack of capacity on some trains and on connecting services at Lancaster, irregular timetable, poor connections and wide variations in quality at stations and on trains. The Railway Consultancy’s Furness Line report (2014) states that, “The current service pattern fails to meet the needs of many user groups (e.g. commuters, business, local leisure trips and holiday-makers). Despite trend growth in demand, recent reductions in services have generated problems of crowding, long waits, unsuitability of train timings, and enforced interchange”. In terms of longer distance services the report also states, “The withdrawal of some Manchester Airport trains has already led to passengers forsaking the train for such journeys, which are otherwise ideal for rail. This has a knock-on impact on business, for which the link to Manchester Airport is of strategic importance”. Evidence: As pointed out by colleagues at TPE, loss of longer-distance services with substitution of connecting services in their place will seriously erode the contribution of these highest value fares make towards the overall revenue from the line 4. CRP Preparation for Consultation 4.1 Serious concern has been felt in South Cumbria as what has perceived as a threat to the pattern of services which has operated with little change since 1994, providing a local shuttle overlain by a two-hourly service to and from Manchester Airport. Erosion of this pattern commenced with the progressive strengthening of TPE’s Scottish services and then again with the introduction of the new TPE class 350 units on these services. The class 185 units are not able to couple to the class 350’s, allowing trains for Barrow (and Windermere) to split at Preston and their availability has decreased as some now operate the Liverpool – Newcastle service. The Community Rail Partnership, in conjunction with local MP John Woodcock, arranged a conference in Barrow Town Hall on 17th January, 2014. Attended by over 50 representatives of local employers and other organisations, strong support was expressed for the concept of an economic study of the line, its services and potential for the future. Before the conference closed £12,000 had been pledged towards the cost of such a study, mainly from the private sector, and subsequently this fund was increased to over £30,000. 4.2 In April 2014 The Railway Consultancy Ltd of Crystal Palace was engaged to conduct this study and much of following response is based on the findings of the study. A full copy of the study report is submitted with this document (Annex B). 5. The Consultation Principles and Proposals 5.1 The main references in the consultation document which are relevant to the Furness Line are (references are to the consultation document) : Rail North’s vision is to create a world-class railway for the whole of the North of England (page 8, para 11); Rail North has three over-arching objectives for devolved rail services in the North of England (page 8, para 12) - - To support economic growth by delivering more rail capacity and better rail connectivity - To improve the quality of railways in the North, with a better offer for passengers to encourage more use. - To deliver a more efficient railway and to secure greater value for money. The Secretary of State’s objectives are stated separately for the two franchises. These are very similar for each and may be summarised as (page 11, table 1.1): - Help the economy of the north of England thrive by offering good quality rail services; - Realise the benefits from rail investment in the north of England with improved journey times, frequencies, reliability and connectivity benefits for passengers; - Deliver excellence in customer service; - Secure efficiencies in operation by working in partnership across the rail industry; - Support local communities to help deliver local transport regeneration and investment in and around stations; - Improve social and environmental sustainability to reduce carbon emissions, use resources efficiently and built skills and capability within the business and supply chain. Further electrification (page 30, para 3.16): the Furness Line is not included in the list of routes to be examined for extension of electrification in the North but the list is not closed to further additions. Staffing(page 33, paras 3.28 to 3.31): the consultation document suggests that future operators need to consider more efficient use of staff, including the potential for driver-only operation and more modern ticket retailing. 5.2 Where appropriate these points are answered below as far as the Furness Line is concerned. See also answers to Consultation Questions in Annex A. 6. Key Response Points from the Furness Line CRP 6.1 - Remapping (NW1) The current service offering is seen as a minimum baseline. Critically for the Furness Line this needs to support advanced manufacturing growth, with links to nuclear and energy excellence in South West Cumbria. The SEP identifies the visitor economy as presenting significant growth potential with improving the movement and accessibility to the county being critical to accommodate international visitor needs. Improved rail connectivity will be fundamental in supporting this SEP priority. The Furness Line CRP stresses that the current service offering must be maintained as a minimum. Due to the significant differential quality experience of TPE compared to the current Northern franchise, the CRP stresses that the new franchisee operates to a minimum quality standard based on the TPE delivery model. Infrastructure investment, particularly in stations and signalling as well as rolling stock, is vitally important to maintain and enhance the economic attractiveness of the area. Maintenance of through services to Manchester International Airport is critical for the line, as shown in the Furness Line study. To this must be added the growing need for through connectivity with interchanges on the Northern Hub and HS2 developments.