The Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) will press for early trials of innovative ways of running local and rural railways, bringing them closer to the communities they serve.
ACoRP believes that the McNulty report could provide the catalyst to transform the way local lines are run with greater local involvement and better value for money securing their future.
The report, rules out rail closures but highlights the levels of support going into regional franchises which are higher than for other parts of the railway.
Sir Roy recommends the formation of a Rail Delivery Group to lead a programme of change. For local and rural railways, this would involve a new approach to providing lower cost railways, including:
- “Piloting more differentiated approaches for both infrastructure and operations which can maintain safety, but which can reduce the costs of less intensively used networks.”
- Benchmarking routes with different characteristics to develop these principles.
- A trade-off between flexibility in use of rolling stock and the ability to provide bespoke low-cost solutions that involve a different approach.
- A greater degree of local decision making by PTEs and local authorities more closely aligned with budget responsibility and accountability.
ACoRP General Manager Neil Buxton said:
“These recommendations reflect an approach long advocated by ACoRP to reduce unit costs and boost ridership, and we are keen to work with DfT and the new Rail Delivery Group to put some of the ideas to the test.
“Community Rail Partnerships have extensive experience of achieving above average results with limited resources and we have plenty of ideas to improve the value for money of our rail services to both passengers and the community.”
As communities change and expand, the need for new stations to serve these developments grows. ACoRP is particularly pleased that this is recognised by McNulty who recognises that:
“An opportunity to access a new retail or housing development might change the economics of a route, but it is likely to be ignored if the cost of platform construction is inflated by inappropriate standards.”
