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Cutting costs means cutting services says rail adviser

The Government should consider cutting the price of off-peak train services to cut costs, according to Sir Roy McNulty, the man charged with investigating the finances of the rail industry.

The Value for Money report, which was released in 2011, led to calls from the Government demanding the railways make annual savings of £3.5 billion annually. Sir McNulty, who led the report, found that in comparison with cheaper continental services Britain had more frequent trains carrying fewer passengers.

The findings were dismissed by rain industry leaders, and Tim O’Toole, the chief executive of First Group and chairman of the Rail Delivery Group, an industry reform committee, said that cutting services was not on the agenda.

He said: “We don’t think that cutting the numbers of services that would be required is politically acceptable in this country.”

According to the Value for Money report, British railways are 30-40% less efficient than their continental competitors, although the benchmarks used have come under criticism. from
National Rail officials.

Another individual who worked on the report said: “Securing data for benchmarking can be a challenge … and there is a limit to what companies are willing to divulge.”

The higher costs have been attributed to the fragmentation of the industry and the payment of dividends to shareholders by Union leaders.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .