Tracking rail station responsibility

By Liam Allen
BBC News

A report by a committee of MPs says that too many of the UK's railway stations are in a "deplorable state", blaming the problem, in part, on "numerous organisations at loggerheads about who is responsible for what".

So who is responsible for the upkeep and improvement of stations?

Network Rail owns the majority of the UK's rail stations

Thursday's report by the Public Accounts Committee points out that Network Rail owns most of the UK's 2,507 railway stations and operates 17 of the largest.

The remaining stations are leased to 22 rail operators, whose responsibilities include station maintenance.

The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) also played a key role in the stations because it, and its predecessor the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF), placed requirements for the upkeep of the stations on the operators.

The SRA has now been wound up with many of its functions passing to the Department of Transport (DoT).

But despite this structure, Passenger Focus (PF) - formerly known as the Rail Passengers' Council - agrees with the report that "the issue of responsibility is blurred".

We want it to be made absolutely clear about who is responsible for what Passenger Focus

"There's no set criteria of who looks after what," PF's Jane Cobell told the BBC News Website.

"We want it to be made absolutely clear about who is responsible for what."

"In terms of franchises, there are standards for certain things but they're not laid out clearly that operators have to do this, this, and this."

This would ensure bodies "could not pass the buck" for maintenance work, she added.

The committee's report says that, after privatisation, the original franchises placed "basic, broadly-defined obligations" on operators for the upkeep of the stations.

"The original franchises gave little incentive to the train operating companies to modernise stations," committee chairman and Conservative MP Edward Leigh said.

New requirements

The DoT points out that £87m is invested in the network every week and says that there is "room for further improvement" in working to create "a cleaner and more pleasant travelling environment for passengers".

And a DoT spokeswoman told the BBC News website that the SRA had set more specific requirements for operators to meet in new franchises entered into since 2004.

As an example, she said that, where original franchise agreements might have had no obligations in terms of standards of seating, a new franchise agreement specified "undamaged and fit for purpose, secure, clean and free from litter, self-draining and free from rust".

The report, however, goes on to say, that most of the operators "continue to operate to their original, more basic, obligations until their existing franchises run out, in up to 16 years time".

The changes made in 2004, says Ms Cobell, do not address PF's concerns, particularly as they may not apply to a number of leases for years.

'Best interests'

"The original franchises had very, very minimal standards, things like a covered shelter, a phone and lighting. As far as we're concerned, the new franchise doesn't offer much more.

"We haven't seen a massive improvement. We want to see the standards really raised."

It was in operators' best interests to improve their stations, with or without contractual obligations, she added.

Anything that's more prescriptive is bound, in a way, to be more effective Atoc

"We think it shouldn't be about what they have to provide, but that they should want to provide a nice service."

But George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc), told BBC News there had been a "huge improvement" in station standards in the last 10 years.

"We spend an enormous amount on stations - £640m a year are spent on stations across the country," he said.

"As the report says, there are 1,000 stations, that's half of our stations, that have less than 100 passengers a day, so this is not an easy challenge."

An Atoc spokesman added that the relationship between Network Rail and train operators was that of "landlord and tenant".

The operator, as tenant, was generally in charge of the general upkeep of the station while Network Rail was responsible for things like structural problems.

Of the new franchise obligations, introduced in 2004, he said: "Anything that's more prescriptive is bound, in a way, to be more effective.

"To suggest nothing has changed is a bit wide of the mark."

A Network Rail spokesman said it had invested £400m in its 17 major stations over the last five years.

It hoped to raise £4bn from property developers in the next 10 years to help fund station improvements, the spokesman added.