Ghost of our rail past helps keep future on track

IT is refreshing to have your assumptions destroyed. "Of course the railways were never privatised," declares Christopher Garnett, chief executive of Great North Eastern Railway, the railway company that won the franchise for the east coast routes.

"British Rail is still there. It may be a ghost, but we are mere transient subcontractors. We only have a management service contract that expires in a couple of years," says the boss, who last week launched his campaign to retain the east coast franchise.

Many thought BR had gone, but it lingers. However, board a GNER carriage, even though they are only repainted BR rolling stock, and you feel in a different world.

Garnett is one of those evangelists whose enthusiasm is infectious. He confesses that he once thought the idea of selling off the rail service to different companies was daft. How could you have competition in railways? It is a natural monopoly and best owned by the state, he thought.

His conversion has been an adventure of discovery. He laughs when he explains all the rail franchises were awarded on the understanding that passenger traffic would contract each year. "They were so used to managing decline it never occurred to the civil servants drafting the deal that overcrowding would be a problem. The railways reeked of failure. Success had not crossed their minds."

GNER's passenger numbers are so healthy (up to 14 million in 1998), it is putting alarming sums into new fleets of tilting trains that should bring King's Cross an hour nearer, with a proposed #1.3 billion improvement package envisioning a 140mph railway by 2010.

The company reckons that if you add the waiting time at airports and making the bus or underground connections, Waverley to central London is not any slower by train than an airline, and far more relaxing.

Garnett believes he has transformed staff morale because everyone feels enhanced when they know they are performing a good service. He adds that he and his team found crazy rules governing the train network, none of them to do with safety or delivering quality of service, but for the convenience of the employees. Before he won the franchise, Garnett travelled the BR InterCity 125 trains and observed the dining room staff spending more time feeding and entertaining themselves than the public. He says that ethos has gone.

Because of the favourable trading figures at GNER, it seems a strong candidate for a public flotation, once it has secured the 20- year future franchise. GNER is owned by Sea Containers and traded on the New York Exchange, but based in Bermuda to avoid high taxes.

GNER says it is linking the two most prosperous cities in the UK - Leeds and Edinburgh - with the capital. Both are at the right distance to take on the airlines and beat them. They are already defeated on price, soon they'll be defeated on speed.

However, not everything is blooming. GNER thinks it's daft that slow freight trains are allowed to clutter up high-speed lines and wants them limited to night time use. And with the company aiming to build parkway stations outside city boundaries, at Musselburgh in East Lothian, for example, Garnett claims to be exasperated with planning officials who restrict expansion.

GNER's franchise expires in April 2003 and Garnett says it is not worth investing in new capital equipment unless the company has a good signal a further period will be granted. He and his team seem chuffed at the thought they have secured a further 20-year licence: "I'm afraid I'm 54," he jokes. "I will probably expire or at least retire with the first franchise."

Garnett stumbled into running a railway by accident. Fate took him to the Channel Tunnel, where he learned something of the anthropology or trains. Previously he had sold milk and motor spare parts. It was these experiences that made him an eloquent exponent of customer care and quality control. He reckons if a train trip to York or Aberdeen is smooth and successful, passengers come back for more. But aren't far too many of your trains still arriving late? "We'll accept the blame when it is really our fault, but we reckon 3% of late arrivals are up to us, the rest are up to Railtrack," he says.

GNER has a limited stock of trains - only nine diesels and 30 electric trains making 112 trips a day. The next generation of trains will offer speed, luxury and value.

So is Richard Branson's bid to compete for the same track going to be a hazard? Garnett becomes diplomatic, but smiles. However, his PR man looks appalled and rustles his papers, suggesting I have taken up far too much of his boss's time.

Copyright 2000
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