Train chaos is a private, not a public sector failure

The Train Operating Companies and Chris Grayling may have tried to pin this on Network Rail, but the truth is that a publicly owned and unified service would have taken steps to address the lack of drivers, plan infrastructure development, and avoid the cancellations.

The current crisis is the result of a whole new timetable with new routes being introduced across very busy lines before there were sufficient drivers trained to support them.

Train companies typically run on driver overtime from a skeleton staff anyway, so even at the best of times there is limited slack in the system.

When that slack disappears the result is catastrophic service failures and Thameslink getting dragged by Poundland on Twitter.

Chris Grayling has spent much of the last two weeks blaming this on delays in introducing electrification by Network Rail; in other words, blaming the public sector.

Unfortunately, some members of the public have been taking it out on staff who have been working their hardest to keep a system running whose failure they were powerless to prevent.

The truth is that this situation could have been avoided – or at least very significantly ameliorated – if the rail system was one publicly-owned and coherent whole.

After all, as the McNulty review identified as far back as 2011, “multiple industry players, together with misaligned incentives ... has made it difficult to secure co-operative effort at operational interfaces, or active industry engagement in cross-industry activities which need to be undertaken for the common good”.

Under a system where track and train were unified under a single authority, that authority would have been in a position to ensure sufficient driver cover was available to facilitate training on new routes, that the introduction of the new timetable and routes aligned better with training new drivers, and that the impact of delays to electrification were communicated across the system so every part could plan effectively.

In short, much of this chaos would have been avoided.

So wherever the DfT, GTR, Northern Rail or anyone else attempts to place the blame remember that the real fault lies with privatisation that fragmented the system in the first place.