Published on 10 February alongside a report on the upcoming Railways Bill and the formation of Great British Railways (GBR), Rail Investment Pipelines: Ending Boom and Bust from the Transport Committee highlighted the issues caused by stop-start investment cycles.
Investment in the railway has “been characterised by ‘boom and bust’ cycles, which create damaging uncertainty for the supply chain,” the report said. “This puts the viability of employers at risk and delays much-needed improvements to the network. Fluctuating investment increases costs and undermines efficiency.”
Electrification of the rail network is a “conspicuous example”, the report said, where “planning has been lacking, leading to losses of capability, poor value for money – and a network that is still only 39% electrified”.
The formation of GBR, which will be responsible for both passenger services and infrastructure, is an opportunity for a new approach to investing in the railways, the committee said. The government needs to clarify how much autonomy the new body will have, it added. Chaired by Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, it identified the upcoming Long-Term Rail Strategy and rolling stock strategy as “key to future certainty for the industry”.
The rail investment pipelines report is “good as far as it goes”, said Rebeka Sellick, chair of the IMechE Railway Division – but, she said, it is limited by “only talking about the railway” instead of highlighting the vital role it can play in lowering the environmental impact of the entire transport system.
Transport accounts for almost 30% of the UK’s domestic emissions. Transport emissions only decreased by 13% between 1990 and 2023, compared with 53% for the country overall.
Highly efficient and often electrified, rail only accounts for 1% of domestic transport emissions, compared with 89% for road vehicles – but, despite that, the recent report failed to mention ‘net zero’, only included the word ‘environmental’ twice and ‘sustainability’ once.
Investment in rail capacity could also counter unsustainable use of air travel. “We are using far more aviation for domestic flights than is remotely sustainable. The investment in railways would see that transformed, just as it has on the continent with high-speed trains, and in the Eurostar case,” Sellick said.
“Increasing the capacity of the railway network is absolutely phenomenal, in terms of shifting modes from highly polluting modes… there’s an environmental argument that’s really strong, and that’s not brought up.”
That is true for both passenger and freight transport, she continued, with one freight train capable of replacing 76 lorries, bringing associated benefits for road wear and tear, and environmental pollution.
A focus on environmental factors could come with the new legislation. The Railways Bill will “set out the secretary of state’s vision for rail, the strategic objectives that should guide decision-making, and the outcomes expected of the railway in support of the government’s broader social, economic and environmental ambitions”, the pipeline report said.
Strategy and skills
The report was “absolutely” right that the ‘boom and bust’ cycle has been damaging, Sellick said, but she added that its scope was “constrained” by focusing on the infrastructure part of GBR, which will have five-year planning periods, as does Network Rail today. Those five-year periods also need to apply to railway operations as they are incorporated into GBR, she said, as many operators are only due to migrate gradually from one-year to three-year contracts.
The upcoming rolling stock strategy should form part of a wider strategy with “at least a 30-year planning horizon”, Sellick said, as recommended by the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail. This strategy should comprise six five-year cycles that are populated and refined every five years, IMechE suggested.
The committee said it “found little appetite during our inquiry for a detailed, confirmed pipeline of railway projects lasting decades into the future; this would be unrealistic. What is needed instead is a consistent strategic vision that predictably informs shorter-term planning.”
GBR will join up Network Rail and train operators, Sellick said, but “that’s by no means everybody, all the actors in the industry”. Small manufacturers, maintenance firms and “the whole supplier community” are vulnerable to the ‘boom and bust’, she said.
Irregular investment is particularly important for skills. “We, as the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, are intimately engaged with the development of engineers – attracting, developing, retaining and continuously developing engineers – and that’s very difficult in a stop-start space. Not only is it difficult to have a coherent policy and investment, but it’s also difficult to attract people.”
The pipeline report highlighted and detailed challenges caused by skills shortages. “A steady pipeline would support jobs at all levels of the supply chain, facilitate workforce planning, help industry address skills shortages and foster innovation. Success stories from Scotland, where there has been greater certainty of future workload, show the relationship between steady investment and industry’s ability to invest in its people and provide high-quality employment,” it said.
The Railway Industry Association (RIA), which includes more than 450 companies in its membership, called the recent reports “an important contribution… on the need for more clarity around both the future of rail investment pipelines and more details around how Great British Railways (GBR) will work”.
Chief executive Darren Caplan said: “The RIA has been arguing for a clear and visible pipeline of work to be published ever since the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline was launched in 2019, so we welcome the select committee’s recognition of the ‘damaging uncertainty’ this has caused to the UK rail supply chain and the need for ‘clarity to plan and invest’.
“The MPs also acknowledge that many of GBR’s key policies, processes and decisions have yet to be determined, which adds to the current sense of uncertainty among companies across the railway industry. The report is right to say that the ‘advent of GBR is an opportunity for a new approach to investing in the railways’, and we look forward to seeing more details of the government’s detailed plans for rail reform and future investment models, which will allow rail suppliers to plan and invest for the future.”
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.