If anyone is interested I have sent the following to the DfT this morning:
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FAO Rail Franchising
I am aware that the department is currently considering who is best placed to operate rail services between Barton Upon Humber and Cleethorpes – the Barton Line – and that as such the planned transfer from Northern Rail operation to Abellio East Midlands Railway is currently on hold. I hope you will be able to take on board my following comments on this.
I do not support transferring the Barton Line to Abellio East Midlands Railway (EMR) and feel it should be retained within the Northern Rail operation (or any successor), or if not, operated as part of the TransPennine Express (TPE) operation, TPE being the current provider of crew to operate the service.
On an operational basis, the Invitation to Tender train service requirement and proposals announced by Abellio and the department upon franchise award, imply that the Barton Line will be, to at least some extent, isolated from the rest of the EMR network for the majority of the day. The plans are for the Barton Line to operate largely as present Monday to Saturday between Barton and Cleethorpes, whilst the only other EMR service in the area, from Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln, will terminate at Grimsby Town during daytime hours. From a rolling stock perspective the services will be separated for the majority of the day; I am unaware of Abellio’s long term plans for crew provision. In the stakeholder response to the Northern and TPE franchise consultation in February 2015, the department noted in paragraph 4.11 that the Barton Line “has been operationally separated from the rest of Northern, making it difficult for the operator to develop the service strategically and for it to handle service disruptions”. The planned EMR operation means the Barton Line would remain operationally separate for most of the day and service disruptions will not be easy to deal with as a result. It rather voids the department’s original justification for the franchise remapping.
In addition, the nearest rolling stock maintenance depot will be in Nottingham, which remains some distance away from the Barton Line and which will not make service recovery significantly quicker in the event of replacement rolling stock needing to be sent to the Barton Line in the event of the Barton Line unit needing to be taken out of use unexpectedly (e.g. breakdown).
Whilst ever the split between the main regional express services and local services remains in the North of England, the Barton Line is never going to ‘neatly’ fit into one operation or another.
The franchise remapping proposal also creates an anomalous situation whereby a route fully within two Transport for the North (TfN) constituent authorities, and fully within the north of England, is being transferred to a franchise which is primarily outside of the north of England and with far more limited TfN involvement.
As much as I am pleased the department is reconsidering the future operator of the Barton Line, and potentially cancelling the transfer to Abellio East Midlands Railway, it is important the Barton Line does not lose out as a result of this. During the Northern Rail franchising process, improvements to the Barton Line were not provided on the basis of it’s upcoming transfer to the East Midlands operation, and as such the Barton Line has not seen any significant improvements for years. Abellio had proposed station improvements and the reintroduction of Winter Sunday services as part of their bid and should the Barton Line not transfer, these improvements should still be implemented.
Finally I would like to suggest that regardless of the future operation of the Barton Line, that management of Habrough station is transferred to TPE; since last month, almost all TPE services now stop at Habrough. As TPE have realised, Habrough station does not only serve the village of Habrough, but also the nearby town of Immingham, it’s port, the port and industrial facilities at Killingholme, and other nearby villages. Habrough is an important railhead/parkway station for the local area and TPE management of the station would acknowledge this and be in line with other stations in similar circumstances, such as Barnetby and Brough.