The industry is still sub-optimal, so we’re working closely to try and cut out some of the duplication. If you’re showing leadership that’s what you need to do. I think we’ve made some progress, but we are nowhere near finished.
“So here’s my RSSB feedback to your question, because I haven’t answered it very well: you can’t lead the industry if you don’t have an oversight of safety - you just don’t. So whether that responsibility comes through the Network Rail side of RDG or whatever, it is important that RDG is sighted on RSSB’s plan, work and process, because RSSB is so critical.”
So there was a discussion about taking over RSSB?
“There is an ongoing discussion about how we best interact with RSSB,” he replies, which still doesn’t answer my question. “It would be misleading to say that it was a merger or a takeover - but how do we make sure we are each sighted on what we are doing?
“That discussion has started with RSSB Chief Executive Chris Fenton. Mark Carne, from RDG’s point of view, is a sort of sponsor for RSSB, and that works well, I think.
“Mark is totally focused on safety - particularly workplace safety - and that’s good because that underpins everything else in the rail group. We must continue to get that right.”
Having got his feet firmly under the table at RDG, how does Griffiths see its current state of development? Is he happy with its rate of progress?
“It’s only six or seven months since I took over, but it seems a lot longer than that! And yes, I am happy with progress,” he says.
“I actually feel that there’s an awful lot going on not only in terms of the areas that we are looking at - technology, people, asset management, stations, franchising - but also in terms of the more public things that we have been getting involved with. This includes HS2, our ability to speak to both current and potential policy makers.”
This is a crucial area of work that the industry as a whole has not done well since privatisation. Indeed, this is one job (research and development is another) that the unified British Rail did especially well - and much better than the privatised railway to date.
Its ‘This is the Age of the Train’ TV campaign entered the public consciousness so deeply that it even sparked a me-too derivative promotional ads campaign among Britain’s steam and heritage sector, under the heading ‘This is the Aged Train’ and featuring one of the Bluebell Railway’s steam locomotives. And while we look back in horror at Jimmy Savile now, at the time the series of TV ads he fronted were powerful and effective in marketing the railway as a whole.
Since privatisation, fragmented agendas, budgets and strategies have meant no overall voice for the railway in either promotional or PR terms, so I welcome and applaud RDG’s attempts to raise the level of understanding about railways. A series of press releases giving context and wider understanding is long overdue, and (I believe) crucial in the long-term task of increasing awareness about our railways.
Does Griffiths see RDG’s job as speaking to policy makers or the public?
“Both,” he answers, without hesitation. “Clearly we have a job to do to respond to the public, and make them aware of what’s going on and respond to their needs.
“But yes, it is crucial we speak to policy makers both current and potential. We need to make sure that if politicians want to change or tamper with the industry structure, I would feel that I had failed if we didn’t give them the right information, facts and evidence - rather than rhetoric or hearsay - to inform their thinking and decisions.
“So the KPMG report did a great job highlighting growth and perspectives. That has now been updated, and it publicises some superb statistics about UK rail and what is does for the country.
“In my view, we shouldn’t really spend our time in narrow debates about, for example, whether we should have state bidders for franchises. There are much bigger challenges for the railway in the next 20 years, and that’s really where politicians should be focusing.
“Where do we want our railway to be in 20 years? Can we meet our growth aspirations? What does that mean for capacity? What does that mean for our rolling stock strategy? Frankly, compared with those really massive issues, whether or not we have a small state-owned entity bidding for franchises isn’t relevant (in my view) to finding answers to these much more fundamental challenges. Yes, they are certainly opportunities, but they are also challenges which we need to rise to.”
Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? But Griffiths’ argument is underpinned with a logical and coherent argument.
As a private sector player, he is used to risk. And he knows a franchise bid can cost up to £10 million with a one-in-four/five chance of winning. Provided the playing field is level, he’ll take losses on the chin - but he believes that a state bidder tilts the playing field and exposes the taxpayer to risks and costs that rail privatisation was supposed to pass elsewhere.
I also venture the view that the West Coast franchise farce pushes you towards the view that the state just wouldn’t be that good at franchise bidding? This clearly strikes a resonant chord.
“That’s an interesting comment,” he says with a wry smile. “I’m just about old enough to remember that Transport for London did precisely this when the bus companies were privatised. It decided that, even though it had all the contestability and bidding in the bus market it needed, it would keep an operator. So, a state-owned operator placed bids for contracts, but it lasted only about 18 months before being abandoned - they didn’t win anything, and couldn’t justify themselves in the market relative to the private sector. So I just think for me, it’s a route that we just don’t need to go down - and I very much hope we don’t.”
