UK: Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy struck an upbeat tone in his keynote address at the Railway Industry Association’s annual conference on November 6, promising ‘a new start for rail’ and confirming that High Speed 2 ‘will go to [London] Euston’.
Hendy said it was a ‘privilege’ to play a role in what he felt would be a ‘new start’ for the industry as the structural reform to create Great British Railways gathers pace.
He promised that consultation would begin shortly on the planned Railways Bill that would provide the legislative basis for the creation of GBR, but he repeated recent comments from Transport Secretary Louise Haigh that GBR would not see the de facto recreation of British Rail ‘with a headquarters on Marylebone Road’.
Instead, Hendy painted a picture of regionally-oriented management with integrated route structures that would oversee infrastructure, operations and staffing. ‘On the South Western network for example, you’d have one organisation where decisions are taken through a management structure covering track, trains and people — not through a myriad of contracts as we have had until now.’
He hoped that the audience in the supply chain had welcomed the Labour government’s inaugural Budget on October 30. ‘I hope you’re all encouraged by the start we have made’, he said, reiterating the government’s commitment to rail and to major investments including the Transpennine Route Upgrade and East-West Rail.
HS2 to Euston
On HS2, he said the high speed railway ‘will run to Euston’, although the government has so far only confirmed that tunnelling will proceed using boring machines already in place for the drive from the construction site at Old Oak Common.
‘There will be fresh oversight on the project’, Hendy promised, reporting that a new ministerial supervisory group had already had its first meeting.
Rail Business UK can report ‘cautious optimism’ from sources in government about the prospects of future extensions to HS2, despite what are termed ‘failures on all sides in the past that we cannot change’ on the project.
Hendy said he was confident about the wider funding outlook for rail, reiterating Haigh’s comments that ‘rail runs right through all this government’s missions’. However, he acknowledged that a Treasury-led Capital Projects Review would be undertaken between now and spring 2025, which would ensure rail investment ‘aligns with financial reality’. This would be augmented by a 10-year national infrastructure strategy.
‘I am not daft about the funding position for rail nor about the competition from other parts of government’. Hendy said. ‘But we need certainty about what we want to do when we have funding.’ Restoring certainty on the back of the previous government’s decision to axe Phase 2a of HS2 last year would be a priority, he added.
‘Not many people realise how few people were involved in that decision’, Hendy suggested.
Euston controversy
Following his address, Hendy was asked about the government’s attitude to safety in the wake of recent controversy dating from when he was Chair of Network Rail and in May 2024 exerted pressure on Systra to discipline Gareth Dennis who was then the consultancy’s UK Professional Head of Track and had made comments to the media about Euston.
Hendy said safety ‘was the top priority’ for the rail sector. ‘Nobody in the supply chain should be penalised for raising safety concerns with ORR, Network Rail, through [confidential reporting service] CIRAS or through any other means’, Hendy said.
He added that some sentences in correspondence he had with Systra had fallen ‘well short of what should be expected, for that I apologise’.
