Rail developments in the North West

The reform of the railway industry since the early 1990s has been driven by several factors including the desire for transparency and separation, at l east in an accounting sense, of the cost of operations and the cost of rail way infrastructure. Concern regarding the overall position of rail vis-a-vi s the transport market as a whole led the European Commission and member st ates to pass directive 91/440 and to implement it into member state legisla tion. In the UK the transposition to legislation was achieved through the R ailways Act 1993 which privatised British Railways (BR) and duly implemente d in 1994. The effect of the act was a very profound and marked transformat ion of an efficient nationalised rail administration (and industry) into a supposedly more efficient, private sector based industry. The early 1980s s aw a wide ranging reorganisation of the whole railway structure culminating in the 'Organising for Quality' (O for Q) initiative that created the vert ically integrated business-led railway. The O for Q initiative enabled the businesses to control both operations and infrastructure and delivered sign ificant improvement in BR's overall finances. After recent events increasin g doubts are being expressed about the efficiency of the privatised railway . The cost of achieving the transformation was large and has not been witho ut problems.(1,2) This situation has only partially been addressed through the Transport Act 2000, which takes in elements of the failed Railways Bill 1999,(3) and which is designed to promote the use of the railway network f or passengers and freight, secure the development of the railway network, a nd contribute to the development of an integrated system of transport. This paper concentrates on the second of the above items and looks at railway d evelopment in the North West region of the UK. The definition of this regio n used in this paper is slightly wider than the official definitions of the North West and Merseyside. Our definition includes the northwestern part o f Derbyshire and the north coast of Wales. Both of these areas are linked t o strategic centres in the North West; to Manchester and Crewe. The paper l ooks at the background to recent railway reforms and how they have affected rail services in this area. The paper addresses how railway projects have been implemented, what projects are ongoing and what are planned over the n ext 10 years or so in the North West region.