No new cash for the railways

THE Government is accused today of failing to provide new money to back up its masterplan strategy to rescue the ailing rail network. Passenger groups say the Strategic Rail Authority's (SRA) plan contains many recycled announcements and promises, while the Department of Transport admits 'there is no new money' on top of the £33bn already announced nearly two years ago.

The Strategic Plan sets out a series of measures by the Government's SRA to improve the network. However, the 116-page document is largely a collection of schemes already announced, both by Government and passenger train companies, in their plans for new and extended franchises.

The Government is claiming that £4.5bn of 'new' money has been added to the £29bn of taxpayers' cash already 'secured' by Transport Minister Stephen Byers.

However, the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions confirmed the extra money had already been announced in stages since the Government announced its first overall 10-year plan, covering all forms of transport, in July 2000.

Ministers emphasised the importance of a special £400m 'performance fund' available to both the passenger train operating companies and Railtrack which, from April, will be available to keep the services running on time. This will be used to provide immediate aide for the operators should another unforeseen crisis, such as the problems over cracked and broken rails which followed the Hatfield disaster, threaten to ruin the timetable. The rail plan itself is four months late arriving and has been overshadowed by a series of strikes and poor performance by the passenger train companies, particularly those serving London's busy commuter routes.

The Strategic Plan was unveiled by Richard Bowker, the SRA's new chairman. He said: 'This Strategic Plan marks a line in the sand; it is the point at which we say enough is enough and begin to deliver a railway fit for the 21st century.'

Wendy Toms, chairman of the watchdog Rail Passengers Council for Southern England, said the committee is 'disappointed in the sense that there is no long commitment to big spending on upgrading the infrastructure in general'.

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa May said it is quite clear the SRA plan had failed to set out a strategic vision for the rail industry. She said: 'There is no new money. The Government thinks it can buy off passengers by spending money on painting stations. What the plan completely fails to address is how to restore the confidence of the private sector to invest in railways. By his bungling of Railtrack Mr Byers has broken that confidence. Without private sector investment all that passengers can look forward to is yet more delays and cancellations.'

CBI chief Digby Jones warned that 'talking down' the railways could harm the long-term future of the industry by further damaging the confidence of investors and users.

London's business leaders also stressed their disappointment with the report. Clare Convey, spokeswoman for London First, the consortium which promotes the needs of the capital, said: 'If early reports are true that there are few new proposals in the report then that is extremely worrying.'

Such is the state of the network, along with growing commuter anger and frustration, that support for a national boycott of the network to take place on 1 March is escalating.

Blueprint for our stricken railways

Fares, finance, new staff and performance

Byers' answers - and our experts' verdicts

Fine words that conceal a two-year delay