23.11.17
NAO: Rail network ‘cannot reliably support’ new Thameslink services
The current state of the rail network is not fit to support the new Thameslink Programme and will cause future delays and problems.
It has been revealed – following an investigation from the National Audit Office (NAO) – that Network Rail and the DfT “did not initially make adequate arrangements” to support the introduction of new services.
Between July 2015 and March this year, for example, 13% of all cancellations and delays of more than 30 minutes on the franchise have been due to failure of track and other Network Rail assets, such as signalling systems. In 2016, the infrastructure owner said a £900m investment in maintenance and renewal work was needed to achieve the resilience required to run the new services on the Thameslink network reliably – in addition to the investments already planned.
The roll-out of the new trains is also running behind schedule, although efforts are being made to mitigate this.
Siemens originally had issues finalising the on-board software for the fleet, which then delayed GTR’s acceptance of the first train by three months after the original planned deadline. More technical issues also emerged once the trains were brought into service.
But Siemens has made sufficient progress to address these issues, meaning that by December this year the company is expected to have caught up to its original schedule, effectively making up for lost time.
Ultimately, however, the £7bn programme would need a high degree of cooperation across the rail industry to fix issues, said the NAO.
“The wider rail network cannot yet reliably support the Thameslink programme’s new services,” the auditor said, adding: “The department and Network Rail did not initially make adequate arrangements to manage the introduction of the new services and there is limited time remaining for planning to be completed.
“Development of these plans also requires a high degree of collaboration across the rail industry, and clarity over who has the authority to make decisions on how the rail network operates. However, the department and Network Rail did not fully consider what arrangements they would need to manage the transition to bringing the enhanced services into use.”
Despite these setbacks, however, Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said there was overall value in the project.
“The Thameslink Programme has a realistic prospect of delivering value for money, with significant benefits for passengers in terms of increased capacity, and more trains but a number of key risks and challenges still remain to be overcome,” he commented.
“The department’s recent decision to introduce new services more gradually than originally planned means that passengers will get the full expected benefits one year later than planned, but it is a sensible step to protect value for money and passengers from further possible disruption due to large numbers of new services being launched at the same time.”
Figures from the NAO’s report show the total budget for Network Rail’s infrastructure works has increased from its 2012 figure by £474m (9.4%) to £5.5bn, while the budget for phase two increased by 18% from £2.6bn to £3.1bn – largely associated with the works at London Bridge, which surfaced unexpected and challenging conditions.
Network Rail finally moved into the latter stages of the London Bridge project last week after completing track and signalling upgrades between the station and Blackfriars.
This week GTR also unveiled the improvements across the franchise, but revealed that it was forced to push back its promise of 24 trains every hour to December 2019. The NAO applauded the move and said it was right for the developers of the project not to commit to a date which would not be possible.
Chris Gibb, chair of the Thameslink Programme Industry Readiness Board, explained: “By phasing the introduction of the new timetable in this way, we have front-loaded the benefits for passengers and then spread further changes in such a way that they can be more reliably introduced.
“Passengers will still enjoy almost as many additional trains in May as previously planned and we are doing some things earlier with an early introduction of some off-peak Thameslink trains through to the East Coast Mainline in April and the early use of the London Bridge route to give performance improvements.”
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