Leasedrive Velo Blog

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

Two weeks ago, I explored the position of the three major parties on transport. One of the specific future targets of the Labour party was to simplify the structure of rail fares and ticket types across all rail operators. Lord Adonis, you need to get on the case right away!

I’ve just had a nightmare time booking rail travel.

As one of the fares was eligible for a discount, I was unable to book via the internet if I was going to ensure the person I travelled with sat next to me.

So, having called the national number, I was inevitably put through to an overseas call centre. Twelve minutes later, I was just about to book when the line went dead. Having made a coffee, I tried again. The same previous tedious process had to be repeated, not once but twice. Having relayed details of my required travel arrangements, I had these repeated back to me. Satisfied that all the details were correct, the operator then transferred me to a colleague to pay! You’ve guessed it. I had to go through the whole rigmarole again before giving my credit card details. All told, I spent over thirty minutes on the phone.

The trip? Not to Inverness via Aberystwyth, calling at Doncaster on the way. A simple return trip to the NEC.

The cost? For me a £40 single to the NEC and a £16.50 single back from the NEC.

Don’t ask!

It was cheaper that way apparently than buying a return ticket. Total adult price, one month in advance, £56.50.

Two things strike me. It would have been less time-consuming to have driven down to my local rail station and booked the tickets on the spot. It would have been less stressful too.

Next, the total cost of two people travelling far exceeded what I would have paid in fuel and car park charges if I had driven up. Okay, the overall motoring cost would have been more but then how many drivers actually think in those terms?

In this day and age of technology, our rail network should have an easy and quick booking engine system.

I recall a national travel correspondent had the same problem booking a train trip online to the south of France in an attempt to be green. In the end, he gave up and flew EasyJet. It was not only quicker but also cheaper.

The same applies to Eurotunnel that claims to be greener than cross-channel ferries.

Ever tried booking recently?

Its booking engine was as bad this last summer as it was when operations first started in the mid-nineties. I could not complete the transaction, despite three attempts. P&O was an absolute breeze by comparison.

It’s hardly surprising that people are so protective of their independent mobility solutions. Only when Government and the various operators makes it cheap and easy to book public transport are we going to be able to start tempting people out of their cars.

We have a long way to go. Adding more lines, more coaches, improving station facilities, etc is only part of the solution. Making booking easy and the cost of travel attractive are equally important components.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

What is it about the Brazilian Grand Prix? Over the past few years, we have enjoyed some sensational championship showdown races. Raikkonen versus Hamilton, Massa versus Hamilton, Barrichello and Vettel versus Button. Great racing, nail-biting outcomes, ecstatic winners and, more importantly still, dignified losers.

Who can forget Filipe Massa’s conduct on losing the F1 World Championship for Drivers on the very last corner of the last lap of the last Grand Prix of the season? Never had there been such a close finish to a World Championship season. Massa had done everything he could to wrest the laurels by dominating the race and yet the way he conducted himself when he heard Hamilton had finished fifth not sixth was something that will be remembered for a long-time, especially in the era of modern sport, where sporting values appeared to have long been thrown out of the window.

This Sunday we saw Rubens Barrichello warmly congratulate his teammate and later lend him his private jet to return to the UK. The way the two Brawn teammates battled it out all season long without falling out was equally good to witness. They say they loved each other outside the car but hated each other inside the car. True competitors but ones who valued true friendship.

My most abiding memory of this last weekend, aside from the sensational overtaking and aggression displayed by Jenson Button in becoming the tenth British World Champion, was when Ross Brawn was interviewed immediately after the race.

Displaying more emotion than we have come to expect of the man, he collected himself and immediately recalled all the hard work that had been done over the winter and paid tribute to those unfortunate staff he had to make redundant immediately after the opening race in Australia. He acknowledged their immense contribution and hoped that they could share in the team’s success. Now that’s what I call pure class.

I wrote a blog on April 30 about the lessons to be learned from F1 in good business management. In essence, I drew three conclusions.

Lesson one: you can get by on the minimum essential resources but you must nevertheless invest for the future.

Lesson two: you need top people with a good mix of experience to steer the organisation to success.

Lesson three: you need talent in a team and you need to engender team spirit so that everyone pulls in the same direction.

It seems those three lessons have been very successfully applied at Brawn Grand Prix. With one race to go the team has become the first in F1 history to win the World Championship for Constructors at its first attempt, Jenson Button has become the 2009 World Champion and his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, currently third could still secure the runners-up spot. For a team, born out of the ashes of the Honda F1 team, that did not know if it had a future and for drivers who looked as if they were unemployed for the season that is quite some achievement. Hats off to everyone at Brawn Grand Prix, including the 270 staff from the original 700-strong workforce, who lost their jobs.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

Now that the three major party conferences are behind us I thought it would be interesting to see what they had to say about transport.

Not much really, apart from Labour, which is surprising.

As readers of my blog will know, I’ve been quite impressed with Lord Adonis and would recommend his conference speech to anyone.

If you don’t feel like reading it, here are a few interesting highlights.

More than half of all journeys – including journeys to work, to school and to college – are of five miles or less.

In the Danish capital, Copenhagen, 40% of journeys are now by bike.

In the Netherlands, a third of Dutch rail passengers use bikes to get to and from their final destination.

The figure for Britain is just 3%! No wonder Labour wants to get more of us on our bikes to relieve congestion, improve the environment and make us healthier. No surprise then the announcement of a £14m programme to create cycling hubs at 10 UK railway stations – see my blog dated 1 Oct 2009 for more details and comment.

Other interesting headline statistics from his entertaining speech include the fact that only Wales and Albania do not currently have a single mile of electrified rail. No wonder Labour has outlined plans for the biggest electrification programme in a generation including between Cardiff and Swansea.

In Continental Europe, there are 3,600 miles of high speed rail. In the UK, just 68 miles.

No surprise then, the 20-year North-South high speed network project announced earlier in the year. Again, see my blog dated 16 July 2009.

So much for party conferences, what do the parties say about transport on their websites?

Again, for some, astonishingly little. The Lib Dems prefer smoke and mirrors over substance.

I quote: “The transport system should empower individuals to make sustainable choices about the way in which they live, while offering modern, affordable, accessible and reliable means of travelling around Britain.”

That’s actually their opening statement.

Contrast that with Lord Adonis’s statement in his speech that “we face a challenge: how to reconcile personal mobility for all, one of the foundations of social justice, with tackling climate change in our generation”.

The LibDem’s idea of substance is: “We would invest in a proper public transport system, taxing lorries and domestic flights to invest in high speed rail. By cutting petrol duty and Vehicle Excise Duty and introducing a revenue-neutral motorway and truck road pricing…”

The woolliness goes on. Hardly surprising, they have fat chance of being elected!

The Conservatives are all for a high speed rail revolution and reforming Network Rail. It’s worrying they start becoming political again by talking about transforming the Rail Regulator so that they can block the bonuses of Network Rail senior executives. We’re concerned with a transport policy, not scoring cheap pot shots!

The Tories want to tackle congestion by building new roads and providing an improved public transport system.

They propose delivering a national re-charging network to boost greener driving through electric and plug-in hybrids.

Of note, as a topical aside, the Climate Change Committee stated earlier this week that if Government was to meet its carbon emission reduction targets, among other measures, 1.7m electric vehicles would be required by 2020, supported by a proper re-charging network infrastructure.

The Tories would also say ‘no’ to a third runway at London Heathrow, ensure foreign trucks contributed properly to road maintenance and would seek to create a Transport Carbon Reduction Fund to which local councils could apply for green travel initiative funding.

In summary, the Tories outline a transport approach combining some firm proposals with politically motivated actions. Not exactly a structured totally-integrated transport policy.

Labour seems to come closest to the latter, firmly having tied its colours to a green mast by centring its policy on carbon emission reduction. Interestingly, it states categorically that it will act on the advice of the Committee on Climate Change – see above.

The party claims that for the first time in a century there is a fully funded plan for the rail network, which will double passenger and freight numbers over the next 30 years. It will give local councils more power to ensure local transport meets the needs of local people.

It claims key recent achievements include an extra £1bn investment in major transport projects; £5.5bn for Thames Link; £600m for railway station improvements at Birmingham New Street and Reading plus a further £150m for refurbishing a further 150 rail stations; funding for Crossrail; and the introduction of free-off peak travel on local buses in England for the over 60s.

Specific future targets include delivering over 1,300 new carriages (close to an extra 100,000 seats) for the rail network by 2014 and a simplified structure of rail fares and ticket types across all rail operators.

More substance on their transport policy then than any other party.

Don’t think I have any political axe to grind. I don’t.

As regular readers know only too well, I have little regard for any MP of whatever political persuasion.

The on-going “expensesgate” saga merely underlines my view.

However, we are entering an important period for those interested in seeing a joined-up, integrated transport policy for our country as we run-up to next year’s general election.

We all need to start lobbying our local MPs now, and hard.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

It’s get on your bike time! I’m not referring to another London to Paris bike ride in aid of charity but the recent announcement by Government of a £14m injection into improved bike facilities at railway stations.

As readers will know, I’m a keen advocate of a fully integrated transport policy and am still waiting patiently for some central Government document to emerge.

Meanwhile, in keeping with politicians disjointed thinking, we get drips and drabs appearing from time to time. Mere crumbs on the poor man’s table.

The latest will see 10 hubs created at key railway stations across England. Five million pounds will be spent on these with further money invested in creating an additional 10,000 cycle parking spaces. A nice touch is that each hub will include cycle hire and repair facilities. The whole project is due to be completed in two years time.

I must say the choice of railway stations seems a bit haphazard with a heavy bias to the north as well as to the capital. The 10 cycle parking centres will appear in Grimsby, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and York plus three London railway stations.

What about Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Norwich not to mention Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow?

And, of course, you’ve got traditional commuter starting points such as Brighton and Winchester. The list goes on.

The aim of the programme according to transport secretary, Lord Adonis is to encourage more people to cycle to the train station rather than taking their car. This would reduce local congestion, lower demand for vehicle parking and encourage a healthier lifestyle. Air pollution would improve and more people would take to the train. All commendable objectives.

I just hope the pilot schemes soon prove a resounding success so that there can be a nationwide roll-out at all major railway stations. Indeed, cyclists should be well served at all railway stations and the rail network encouraged to transport more bicycles, perhaps in a dedicated coach.

Meanwhile, it’s good to learn that Lord Adonis appears to have the backing of the Prime Minister for his high-speed rail network plans.

In the highly unlikely event that Labour gets returned to power in the next general election, let’s hope the current transport secretary is given full reign to outline an all-embracing vision for future transport in the UK. If not, let’s hope the Tories nominate someone equally capable to come up with the solution.

Otherwise, we the electors should tell all the MPs to get on their bikes!