One of London’s key commuter railways is to be run by a “Fat Controller” in a bid to improve services for passengers.
Steve White, the managing director of Southeastern, which operates out of Victoria, Charing Cross and Cannon Street via London Bridge, will be given control of Network Rail track and signalling.
The new arrangement – uniting the leadership teams at Southeastern and Network Rail’s Kent route - will be known as South Eastern Railway.
The decision to “unite track and train” under a single guiding mind is described by the Department for Transport as an example of Great British Railways – the Government’s new renationalised brand - in action.
Rail minister Lord Hendy said the aim was to roll-out the initiative to other parts of the network as more rail firms were renationalised.
He described the previous separation of responsibilities as “illogical” and disadvantageous to passengers and taxpayers.
Lord Hendy told The Standard: “As train operators come back into public ownership, we are looking to do exactly this, so that the operator and the infrastructure comes back together, managed by the same person and in the best interests of passengers.”
South Western Railway, which runs in and out of Waterloo, was brought back within public control in May.
C2C, which runs in and out of Fenchurch Street, and Greater Anglia, which operates from Liverpool Street, will follow in July and October this year.
Southeastern was already under Department for Transport control prior to the start of the current Government’s renationalisation.
According to the most recent figures, 2.4 per cent of Southeastern’s trains were cancelled between January and March – which is low when compared with other UK operators – but only 65.3 per cent of its trains arrived on time.
Of the cancelled trains, more than six in 10 were unable to run due to factors beyond Southeastern’s control, potentially involving track and signalling problems – or trespassers being spotted on the railway.
These are issues that the new system is designed to resolve more quickly. Over the last year, drones have been used to spot trespassers.
Southeastern currently requires a Government subsidy of about £1m a day. The aim is to reduce that by £50m a year.
The Fat Controller was a fictional character who ran the railway in the classic Thomas and Friends children’s TV series.
Lord Hendy, a former TfL commissioner and Network Rail chairman, added: “Fat Controller is a bit pejorative.
“But even if he’s called the Thin Controller we want him to wake up every morning and know that, as he tries to provide a brilliant service for his passengers, everything is under his control.
“Steve is a good guy. He is out there with his staff and passengers, and I have every confidence he will make it a success.”
Southeastern runs almost 50,000 services a month, including high-speed domestic “Javelin” services between St Pancras and the Kent coast, to towns such as Margate and Ramsgate.
South Eastern Railway is described as a “contractual arrangement” rather than full merger between Southeastern and Network Rail. There will be no changes to any staff contracts.
Asked if the new arrangements made it less likely that London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan would win Government support for Southeastern’s Metro services to be transferred to TfL, Lord Hendy said: “It’s not necessarily incompatible.
“I have talked to Sadiq about Southeastern and also about Great Northern. There is work to be done. I looked at it myself when I was the commissioner of TfL.
“We couldn’t make a cost-effective case to separate the Metro services from the rest of Southeastern.
“If Sadiq Khan wants to influence fares and services and stations, there is an opportunity for him to do that.”
Lord Hendy said he was strongly in favour of renaming Southeastern the South Eastern Railway. “I do prefer it,” he said. “I don’t like contrivances. Historically it was South Eastern Railway. Most people refer to it as the South Eastern.”
The trains will feature the Great British Railways logo once the network achieves key reliability standards.
“I want each of the operators, as they come into public ownership, to aspire to hit a set of conditions – the Great British Railway standards for passenger services.
“When Steve gets there then ‘Great British Railways’ will feature on his trains as well.”
South Eastern Railway’s plans include spending more than £40m on station improvements, including at Hither Green, modernising its Metro trains and using thermal imaging cameras and AI CCTV to spot track defects.
Mr White said: “We know that for our customers what matters most is a railway they can depend on, is reliable and responsive when things go wrong.
“By joining together track and train under a single leadership team, with accountability for the whole railway instead of different parts we can remove friction, and make better, faster decisions to deliver a better service.
“This new way of working puts customer needs front and centre, and will deliver a more joined up, responsive and sustainable railway.
“There’s a lot of work to do, but we are relentlessly focused on delivering improvements in performance, driving up standards for customers and reducing the cost of running the railway on taxpayers.
“Our ambition is to improve performance and reduce subsidy whilst acting in a purposeful way.”
