railbusinessdaily.com Editor Dan Clark spoke to Network Rail’s Managing Director, Eastern Region – Rob McIntosh – about the Budget, his region’s upcoming focuses and bridging the skills gap.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s first Budget announcement on Wednesday was a welcome one for many rail businesses. It reaffirmed confidence that the Government will support major projects across the UK – a confidence which many in the rail industry were hoping for.
Some of these projects are a significant part of economic growth plans in the North, where the case for investment in rail infrastructure grows stronger to support the needs of local communities. For Network Rail’s Eastern Region Director, Rob McIntosh, it is welcome news – but Rob has reiterated the need to ensure the capacity is there to deliver – and deliver well.
Mr Sunak’s Budget made firm commitments for a large proportion of projects in Rob’s region, so it wasn’t surprising that a meeting between them followed the day after the Budget announcement on Wednesday.
Rob said: “I think it was clearly a bold budget with a statement of intent that the country needs to progress with its infrastructure plans, particularly in the North. During the election, I said to my team that whatever the outcome, we have a once in a generation opportunity to transform the rail infrastructure in the UK and in the North.
“There is a lot of rail work across the UK and if we were asked to invest any more over this period of time, we have to ask if we have the capacity in this period of time – not just through skills, labour and materials, but ensuring we have access to the railways lines to complete these works while minimising disruption.
“The skills gap is something I did discuss with the Chancellor [when we met]. With the announcement and the commitment to this level of investment [in the Budget], this gives us the framework to start developing our skills needs. It gives organisations like mine confidence to start building the picture of what we need and allows us to build our programmes around it.
“We need to make sure that when we start projects, we hit the ground running and that we have the productivity to get the job done on time. Skills and productivity are inextricably linked and making sure we have both will allow us to deliver this investment in the best possible way.”
Looking at the TransPennine upgrade
One of the biggest focuses for the Network Rail team is the delivery of the TransPennine upgrade. As part of the Budget, the Government made a commitment to fund the Manchester to Leeds leg of the route.
The work completed on this section of the railway will bring huge economic benefits to the region – one of the objectives that Northern Powerhouse Rail set out to achieve. In order to deliver a project of this magnitude, meticulous planning has to be completed to ensure there is a balance between disruption and completion of the project. It is something Rob and the team have been working extensively on to ensure they put passengers, and the communities they serve, first.
Rob said: “I’ve been reviewing the TransPennine upgrades with the team and our biggest challenge in that programme is finding the optimum balance between passenger disruption and fast and efficient upgrade of the railway.
“There is a balance to be struck between investment ambition and how much disruption we can face. When we deal with something like this, where there is investment across the Pennines, it is the economic effect that has to be managed. We have to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of people that use that route on a regular basis serving the communities and economies keep doing that while we make these changes and that we don’t significantly disrupt businesses.
“That is what we are making sure we get right at this moment and those works will be completed in the next few years – we have to manage the disruption effectively and productively.”
Addressing air quality
Improving capacity isn’t the sole focus in the projects outlined by Network Rail. The growing need to decarbonise the railways and improve air quality has gathered momentum over the last few years. More recently, studies have been completed to demonstrate the diminishing air quality along railway lines and at stations – something which needs to be addressed quickly. Part of solving this is through electrification, and the Network Rail team has also been working with companies to speed the process of putting battery and hydrogen-powered trains on the lines.
Rob said: “We spent a large part of last year working with the Department to prioritise electrification schemes in the UK. Cities like Leeds, for example, have a greater demand for electrification – it has considerably less than other cities of its size such as Birmingham, for example. We’ve been working with Leeds City Region to create the argument to show how Leeds and the West Yorkshire area needs electrification – not just from a decarbonisation perspective, but from an air quality perspective too.
“Once the coronavirus situation hopefully slows down, we will still be talking about the air quality issues as a real public health problem. Air quality is something that is quite passionately spoken about in Leeds and that’s why we’ve been working hard to get that urban electrified area in place, which leads to better, quicker and cleaner trains. We are now working with the Department to refine which schemes across the UK can be delivered quickly and which ones will need to be delivered in the next cycle.”
Strengthening Supply Chain relations
One way that the Network Rail team will be able to manage deliver effectively is through its relationship with the supply chain. Nine years in the making, the devolution process took major strides last year with the appointments of the new Directors for the designated regions, but Rob acknowledges there is still more to be done.
He said: “Network Rail started the process for devolution in 2011, but we haven’t made a great deal of progress. What I remind people is that devolution is about the delegation of power and that means we are now in control of our own destiny – and that takes time.
“Andrew Haines made great strides in setting out the regions, one of which I am lucky to be a managing director of, but the Network Rail model hasn’t fundamentally changed at the moment. The critical phase of devolution starts this summer when we fully restructure the Network Rail structure into localised delivery operations.
“I have a good relationship with the supply chain, and for years, they have said they want to get closer to the routes through devolution. We’re in a period of maturing but we’ve worked really hard to maintain relationships and I’ve spent a lot of time with our supply chain and the team has plans for supplier events in the near future.”
One way in which Rob plans to achieve this is through working closer with smaller businesses. Rob believes that these businesses are the key to the success in delivering projects outlined in CP6 and beyond. Round table sessions will be announced in the coming months to create opportunities for SMEs to reap the benefits of Network Rail devolution.
He said: “SMEs have a huge part to play in our organisation. We want to create a series of round tables because that is where the skills are going to be grown and where the capabilities are. We need to work with those SMEs because that is where we are going to bridge the [skills] gap. They have already made great progress [in bridging the gap] and we need to play our part to make sure we are working with them.
“I remember back to my conversation with a Careers Advisor in the 1980s about there being a skills gap in engineering. It is one of the reasons I took an apprenticeship to become an engineer. The problem that existed then also exists now – but we will find a way of getting the engineers to do the work we need to do. If we don’t do that, the journey will be more painful, our productivity will be poor compared to other industries and we’ll end up paying more.
“It’s why we are really focused on working with our supply chain to ensure these projects can be delivered effectively.”
Working with Combined Authorities
Of course, over the last few years, Network Rail isn’t the only organisation to go through a devolution process. West Yorkshire Combined Authority secured a £1.8bn devolution deal in Wednesday’s Budget, which will help with providing better transport in the region.
The Network Rail team has already seen the benefits of working with Combined Authorities elsewhere and Rob is looking forward to the opportunities that this brings to the West Yorkshire region.
Rob said: “We have a great relationship with a lot of the combined authorities, such as North East Combined Authority and Tees Valley Combined Authority. The most important factor is that they have the decision on how they spend that money. [With Combined Authorities], we can have much smarter and much quicker conversations about how we can deliver these projects more efficiently and benefit passengers and their communities.
“We’ve done some great things with [Tees Valley Mayor] Ben Houchen through the regeneration of Darlington station – it is a project we have been working really quickly on. We have moved that on significantly in the last year and that is what is going to make the difference with West Yorkshire and the devolution deal.
“Leed’s proposed White Rose station is something we worked on with the Combined Authority, Leeds City Region and Munroe K – it has been a process of working collectively for a number of years to put that proposition together. It is a fantastic model where investment has come in for it and we have moved forward with pace – we need much more of that.”
Addressing the growing capacity issues
The North isn’t the only place where working with Combined Authorities has been effective. The Chancellor also confirmed the Government’s support for a new station at Cambridge South. The opportunities that this station will bring will greatly reduce the need to drive and will positively impact on a modal shift in that area where business parks and a hospital have created thousands of jobs.
While Rob is pleased about the outcome for this station and for future stations which will help to connect communities, he says capacity and integration with other transport has to be an essential priority.
He said: “There’s a great need for Cambridge South. The biggest issue isn’t the building of the station, but it is the capacity issue that fitting those trains into the already busy schedule.
“When we are looking at new stations, it impacts the capacity elsewhere. We need to ensure that the network can deliver the requirements of extra services and how that impacts performance and journey times.
“We also need to expand these discussions into making sure that we offer an integrated solution for these stations with other forms of transport. It is about making sure that the bus routes link up as they should and that we have options like electric charging points which could be powered through the overhead lines on the railway, for example. We need to be exploring much more integration and there’s a lot of projects similar to that across the North.
Capacity issues are not just created through new stations though. There are other projects which are logistical challenges for Rob and his team – making sure they fit into what is an already congested railway. What is certain is that there is a lot of work to be done to ensure the railway can run at optimal efficiency.
“We’re working with the North Yorkshire LEP where they are fund the infrastructure to double the services between York and Harrogate. The biggest issue there isn’t the line – it is the allocation of services on the very small stretch of East Coast Main Line that those trains have to travel on when coming out of York. Over the last few years, there has been a situation where there are too many trains on a network that isn’t resilient, and it impacts on performance,” Rob said.
“Whilst we are working hard on the TransPennine upgrade, the East Coast Main Line from York North onwards needs a lot of work completed to ensure it meets the demands of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in the next few years. Making the case for investment on the East Coast Main Line is a major priority.
“I don’t think there’s a part of our network that doesn’t have a case for work to be completed on it – they all have a strong case for growth.”
