Virgin Trains' attempt to get back on to the railways blocked
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has turned down all three existing applications to run private company train services out of London Euston along the west coast mainline.
The regulator says there is insufficient capacity on the line and it would affect existing passenger train and freight users.
The ruling comes after pressure from Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, for the regulator to clamp down on 'open access' train services because they might take income away from the government's renationalised Great British Railway (GBR).
Virgin had planned to run services along the line to Glasgow as well as separate services to Manchester and Liverpool. The other rejected applications were from First Group, which wanted to run a new cut-price Lumo service to Manchester, and the French company Alstom, which had wanted to run a service to north Wales.
Virgin, which ran the west coast mainline franchise for two decades after privatisation, immediately vented its frustration.
'The decision is a blow for consumer choice and competition,' a Virgin Group spokesperson said.
'We believe that given the opportunity, Virgin's open access routes could play a valuable role in delivering the high-quality train services the British public deserve and GBR wants to encourage.
'Anyone who remembers British Rail would rather forget it. Competition improves services, increases rail ridership and drives better results for everyone, including the taxpayer.'
In a statement, the regulator said: 'ORR has concluded there is insufficient capacity on the west coast main line southern section for the introduction of any of the proposed services.
'To introduce any of these proposals would be detrimental to performance on the line and therefore all passengers and freight customers.'
Open access rail services, which popped up during the years of privatisation, are operations run by a private company filling gaps in the timetable or the network and are run outside the ambit of the Department for Transport (DfT) without subsidy and retaining all their own profit.
Earlier this year Alexander had warned the ORR that such open access operations risked taking revenues from GBR and the taxpayer and creating congestion on the network.
The ORR said revenue abstraction was not the issue in its ruling: 'In the case of these three applications, lack of capacity and the anticipated impact on performance alone meant we could not approve them. As such, our duty to have regard to the funds available to the secretary of state was not relevant to this decision.'
FirstGroup has been a leading open access operator, running Lumo, a London-Edinburgh service and Hull Trains. The services at times or on routes ignored by the DfT have proved to be highly profitable. It has already gained licences to provide new open access services between London Paddington and Carmarthen in Wales and London Euston and Stirling in Scotland.
It is the operator of Avanti Trains' intercity services under DfT contract on the west coast mainline.
Of the decision to block a new Lumo service from Euston to Rochdale north of Manchester, First said: 'We are disappointed. Open access services are good for the communities they serve, offering new travel options and reaching under-served stations, and giving great value fares for passengers. These operators bring significant private investment to both the rail sector and UK [train] manufacturing.'
Alstom said it had spent two years preparing the Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway and had received encouragement and support from the DfT for the open access operation.
'We are extremely disappointed,' a spokesman said. 'We have received overwhelming support from local people, businesses, councillors and MPs, who all recognise the urgent need for this connectivity. We will now urgently seek to re-engage with the ORR and determine our next steps regarding the future of this vital passenger service.'
'A setback for passengers seeking greater choice'
Open access train operations are a legacy of the gaps in the network or the timetable created during the privatised era, when private companies launched new services, taking all the risk without state subsidy, and reaped all the profit if they made it work.
All current open access operations are on the east coast main line into and out of London Kings Cross competing with — or complementing — services run by state-owned LNER: FirstGroup's Hull Trains direct services to Humberside; FirstGroup's Lumo service to and from Edinburgh; and Grand Central, owned by Arriva, serving northern towns and cities.
Tony Lodge, a research fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies and a long-term campaigner for open access, criticised the decision by the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) to block all three extant applications to run services on the west coast main line into and out London Euston.
He said: 'It is a significant setback for passengers seeking greater choice, reduced fares, and expanded route options. Open access competition on the east coast main line has successfully delivered all of these, driving increased passenger numbers and revenue growth. The recent pressure from Whitehall to reject these open access proposals is particularly concerning.'
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, had instructed the ORR to think very carefully about revenue abstraction and network congestion before green-lighting any new open access applications.
Notwithstanding the unedifying precedent of ministerial interference in an independent regulator, Alexander will have been influenced by a look at the books of FirstGroup.
As a Department for Transport contractor running the giant regional networks of Avanti, GWR and South West Railway, FirstGroup last year made a profit of £107 million on annual revenues of about £3.5 billion, a profit margin of up to 3 per cent.
In the same period Hull Trains and Lumo made £34 million on annual revenues of just £106 million for a profit margin of 32 per cent, returns unprecedented on Britain's railways.
Open access operations are minuscule compared with the network as a whole. As a battlefield for the argument of private versus public ownership, the issue could become a noisy cuckoo in the nest.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
32 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Firm commits to delivering 1,200 jobs at former coal terminal
The agreement will underpin the company's plans to produce specialised subsea high voltage cables capable of transporting electricity generated by offshore wind farms in the UK and abroad. Executives and union leaders met in Glasgow to finalise the agreement as GMB, one of the biggest unions across the UK energy sector, urged UK and Scottish ministers to help accelerate the development. GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour said the ground-breaking agreement shows how the voice of workers and their communities can be harnessed to help create new jobs in green energy. A future look at the HDVC manufacturing site at Hunterston (Image: XLCC) She said: 'Too many workers believe the transition to renewables is being done to them, not with them. 'That must change and this agreement shows how. The voice of workers must shape industrial strategy and energy policies if our country is ever to turn talk into jobs. 'Only genuine and effective cooperation between industry, unions, and governments can help deliver the transformation needed in our manufacturing supply chains. 'We share the ambition of XLCC to create good, unionised jobs in Ayrshire and hope innovative agreements like this can be a template to help secure a new industrial future.' READ MORE: GMB said the UK Government's promise to create 650,000 new high-quality jobs will rest on harnessing the combined strength of industry and workers, and urged governments on both sides of the border to support the proposed cable plant at Hunterston. The agreement details how the business and union will work together to campaign for the development while building industry-leading industrial relations. The agreement is intended to pave the way to a full recognition agreement with collective bargaining as the workforce grows. XLCC chief executive Ian Douglas said: "This agreement is a significant step forward as we work to establish a new UK-based supply chain for HVDC subsea cable manufacturing. 'Our investment at Hunterston will create up to 1,200 skilled jobs and place Ayrshire at the heart of the UK's energy transition. This is a truly transformative opportunity for community and country. 'We're proud to be working in partnership with GMB to ensure these jobs offer long-term, high-quality opportunities in a growing global industry.'
Telegraph
42 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How a deprived corner of Kent became a magnet for London's wealthy
Jamie Currie is sitting on a bench in Margate eating an ice cream with his 92-year-old father, David. The thing about the town, he says, is that 'it's a mixture between a good manicure and dirt under your fingernails'. It has long been cheery, but deprived. But in recent years, it has become a fashionable magnet for Londoners, nicknamed 'Shoreditch-on-Sea'. Nearly 6,000 people from the capital relocated to the wider district of Thanet in the three years following the pandemic alone. This invasion of so-called DFLs (Down From Londoners) is a gentrifying force, especially in Margate's Cliftonville neighbourhood – stretching from the Turner Contemporary on the harbour arm to the Walpole Bay Tidal Pool. Telegraph analysis, using data from our tool, found that Cliftonville West is the place that has gentrified the most in all of England over the past decade. This is based on a combination of household disposable income data, higher education attainment, house prices and a deprivation score, taking into account everything from poor health and disability rates, to crime and access to services. The numbers lay bare a rapid pace of change. Property in Cliftonville West costs double what it did in 2010, the proportion of residents who are university graduates almost doubled between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, and average earnings shot up by more than £10,000 between 2012 and 2020. Long-time locals and newcomers alike are keenly aware this has been both a blessing and a curse. But few believe things can go on in this way. 'I don't like things either too bleak or too tidied-up,' Currie, 55, adds. 'But I don't know how long that's going to last.' The top 0.1pc for deprivation 'Cliftonville as a name was invented by Victorian property developers,' says Dan Thompson, an artist and historian. Back in Charles Dickens' day, Margate was seen as 'a bit common and rough around the edges'. In a bid to make it look more upmarket and encourage tourism, homes in the brand new neighbourhood were built as deliberate replicas of London's stucco terraces. 'So the whole argument about DFLs,' adds Thompson, 'that's what this town is for, it's what it's always been for. It was built for that.' But therein lay the crux of the town's eventual decline – an almost exclusive reliance on seasonal holiday trade. 'After the Second World War, Margate didn't build any new hotels, it didn't build a new theatre or a conference centre, which all the other seaside towns did. So those places became more attractive to take your children to, and it became very much a day-tripping resort,' says Thompson. The hotels that once lined Cliftonville's streets closed down, leaving behind neglected properties ill-suited to local families. As early as the 1960s, London boroughs began snapping up addresses for affordable housing. What was left was truncated into tiny, cheap flats which, according to a council report from the early 2000s, attracted 'vulnerable and transient people to the area'. At that time, hospital admissions for alcohol or drugs were running at five times the average for Kent, and it accounted for 12pc of all crime in Thanet, despite housing just 5.5pc of the population. Knife amnesty bins remain on a few squares today, harking back to these more violent times. By 2010, the western end of Cliftonville encompassing the notorious Ethelbert and Athelstan Roads was the 33rd most deprived area in England, putting it in the top 0.1pc. 'A new tribe moved in' The turnaround since then has been stark, and one of the engines of this revival may be art. 'I'd say the Turner Contemporary is singularly responsible for the regeneration of Cliftonville,' said Heather Tait, 61. Since the gallery opened on the seafront back in 2011 – on the site of a boarding house frequented by the acclaimed Romantic painter JMW Turner – it has contributed more than £100m to the local economy, it claims, in the process establishing the town as a 'vibrant creative destination that artists and creatives now call home'. Tait is one of those artists who, with her husband, a sculptor, arrived from Brighton shortly after, attracted by the relative affordability of housing and the stimulating 'rawness' of the place. 'The first wave of arty-farties came when the Turner opened up,' she says. By the end of the decade, rock band The Libertines had converted a dilapidated Cliftonville B&B into a boutique hotel, and Time Out was on the cusp of pronouncing it the coolest neighbourhood in the country. After the pandemic, however, 'the energy changed' says Tait. 'The influencers started coming down. It didn't feel like it used to. A new tribe moved in – quite exclusive and wealthy.' Hollywood also contributed to Margate's newfound glitzy appeal, with 2023's Empire of Light starring Olivia Coleman and directed by Sam Mendes prompting a flurry of celebrities. Last year, Tait left for Scotland. Thompson was also very much a part of this 'first wave', migrating from Worthing back in 2013. 'If you came back then, you knew you were coming to a place where things would have to be done,' he says. 'You knew that if you wanted a nice coffee shop, you might have to open one. You had to get involved in the community. You knew that this town needed help and needed things to happen.' He adds: 'The wave that came down during and post-Covid were coming down seeing the town as finished. It had coffee shops, it had wine bars, it had galleries, it had all of that. They were coming down as consumers.' 'Old-time Margate people hate DFLs like us' Margate's fortunes started to rise in the Old Town, making Cliftonville the new frontier for the more recent influx. Sophie Brown, 34, moved from south London eight years ago. In 2022 she, her wife and three friends opened CAMP, a queer bar and community space on Northdown Road, the bustling commercial spine of the neighbourhood. 'There are a lot of old-time Margate people who absolutely hate DFLs like us. They think that we're coming in to gentrify the place and really destroy it. We think we're making it better and also trying to make things better for local people.' At a time when gay bars are shuttering across the land, CAMP has managed to keep the lights on, but it is tough and getting tougher. 'We're finding more so now that we have to step up prices, and actually I went to London recently and I didn't think our prices were that much lower anymore,' she says. 'But you can't price things for DFLs, expecting everyone to be on a London wage. The biggest thing for most people who have left London is that they can't afford the quality of life that they want there.' The housing market is perhaps the best indicator of this change. Brown sold her first house in town at more than double the purchase price just three years later, to a pair of Londoners. 'But that was a different time,' she says. 'We bought into the dream of what it was going to be, which fortunately it was.' Between 2020 and 2022 alone, just over 18,000 people uprooted themselves to Thanet from the rest of the UK. Some 6,000 of them came from London – a third of the total. Transactions averaged £229,000 in Cliftonville West over the past year, according to HM Land Registry – almost double the £117,000 in 2010. The pressure that this places on those who don't own property is all too real. Thompson was left homeless for six months last year due to a lack of affordable rental properties. Others can be seen sleeping rough under the Victorian shelter that fronts the main beach. 'I think the bubble is bursting a bit,' says Brown. 'Maybe the true colours are coming out with Reform coming in, and maybe people are realising it's not all as rosy as it seems here and there was a community here long before we showed up. 'People that were born and bred here, and they're pretty angry at us. We are part of the problem, there's no sugar-coating it.' 'People have had enough' In the May local elections, Kent County Council recorded the largest swing to Reform in the country. As the frontline for small boat arrivals across the Channel, Kent would seem fertile ground for the party. And while the proportion of white British residents declined only slightly over the decade between the 2011 and 2021 census, at 68.6pc, Cliftonville West is the most diverse neighbourhood in Thanet. But this was not what Jamie Henderson, the freshly elected Reform councillor for Margate, thinks got him over the line by just over 200 votes. 'People have just had enough of the old school.' He adds: 'I was out canvassing at a food festival and they were all coming up to me saying 'You're in the wrong place, we're all lefties here!' At that point I did think, 'Yes, maybe I didn't have it in the bag at all.' So there are a lot [of DFLs]... but not enough.' Tourists, meanwhile – Cliftonville's old lifeline – are flocking back. 'Every year the number of visitors increases,' says Jim Moran, 72, down on the sands of the Grade II-listed Walpole Bay Tidal Pool. 'The [number] of businesses is increasing, mostly street food and fine dining. It's a different demographic, but the traditional seaside holidaymakers are still well catered-for.' According to Cllr Rick Everitt, leader of Thanet District Council, the Cliftonville of today is 'the result of many years' work to improve living standards and housing stock, reduce deprivation and tackle the number of sub-standard rental properties.' Thompson adds: 'If you'd have come here in 2004 and spoken to local people, you wouldn't have wanted to come back. 'Now even the most grumpy of locals, who are moaning about the dog s--- and the bins not being emptied, they'll also tell you that the beaches and the sunsets are beautiful.'
Telegraph
42 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Flat-pack houses made from hemp spark outcry in Essex
Plans for thousands of flat-pack 'eco-homes' built with hemp have sparked a backlash from local residents in Essex. Net zero construction company Hemspan has put forward proposals for a 2,000-home new town on 320 acres of green belt land in Rochford, promising the world's first large-scale 'climate-positive' neighbourhood. Homes would be built with modular panels made from hemp mixed with structural timber, produced by a factory on the same land. Production would also require 5,000 hectares of land in Essex or nearby counties to grow hemp on. The developer said these homes would have net zero carbon emissions as well as remove additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because CO2 is absorbed by hemp as it grows. Called Rochford Park, the project would also include a swanky four-star spa hotel, a school for children with special educational needs and a supermarket built with the same materials. Matt Belcher, founder of Hemspan, said the plans had a 'natural alignment' with Labour's housing development drive, which involves freeing up lower-quality green belt land for developments and setting compulsory housing targets for councils. Labour has increased Essex's housebuilding target by 37pc to 14,088 homes a year. 'They're taking their chances' However, some locals have objected to the plans, raising concerns about a lack of critical infrastructure for the thousands of homes proposed. Lee Ellis, a resident launching a campaign against the proposal called Stop Rochford Overdevelopment, said that 'everyone is viewing this project as a direct threat to the way they live their lives'. He said: 'We simply don't have the infrastructure for it. How would this area, the roads and even the sewage system cope with an additional 2,000 homes? It's unthinkable.' He added: 'This is all a function of Labour's new policies – it's very clear. I think developers are smelling a bit of blood in the water in regards to what can be done, and they're taking their chances.' Judy Hathaway, who lives in nearby Ashingdon, said the plans would 'obliterate the green belt'. She said: 'Rochford is a historic town, with a protected greenbelt that is being disregarded in favour of big housing companies.' Ms Hathaway added there was a 'saturation point' at 'which the quality of life for existing residents is negatively impacted by more housing'. She said: 'Doctors are full, dentists can't take on any more NHS patients. If you have an accident, make sure you time it right, because Southend A&E is always full and overflowing.' Mr Belcher said he was engaging with landowners to explore the creation of a 'new north-south connection' to prevent negative impacts on the town, and vowed to 'deliver the community infrastructure that's required'. He said there was a 'deep history of hemp farming in Rochford and in the South East', adding that the landowner was the biggest grower and processor of hemp in the 1990s and 2000s. Mr Belcher added that local opposition had been overplayed on social media and said even some opposing the project had told him that if homes had to be built there, they would rather have his team build them 'instead of the PLC housebuilders'. The developer intends to file a formal planning application early next year.
