The AB&T and regional transport policy

Paul Salveson raised the issue in one of his salvoes of the role of passenger transport authorities in the future of regional rail.
In essence the rumours that the owners of metro’s operating company, Deutsche Bahn, are keen on metro expansion reflect that debate.
Metro is one of the few vertically integrated rail operations in the UK. As a result it is capable of economies of scale and integratron that are denied to other rail franchises by the lunatic system imposed by the government in the 80s and 90s.
Expanding the range and scope of Metro would enable further gains to be made. Free from the interference of civil servants the franchise could invest in rolling stock and services that would focus on local needs, not the specifications of a rail network obsessed with inter city working and journey times to and from London. It is ridiculous that, once Metro refresh is complete, passengers on publicly subsidized rail in Tyne and Wear will have brand new trains, while local rail passengers in Northumberland will still be travelling on other franchise’s castoff from the 1980s.
It’s time to have that debate about what passenger transport planning should look like, and a genuine debate about what the rail network in Northumberland and County Durham could look like if there was one, integrated passenger transport authority across what the last government called the city region.
That doesn’t mean we need to have a debate about re-nationalization or any of the other shibboleths of left or right, just a genuine debate about subsidiarity and sustainability. Currently decisions about rail services in the regions are made too far away from the regions, and for reasons that have less to do with the needs of the regions than with attempts to reduce the risk of losses to the rolling stock companies and the big franchises.
That shouldn’t be a difficult debate to have. It could deliver savings and efficiencies for local government as well. Northumberland County Council can’t justify a transport policy officer who specializes in rail. Instead it forks out inordinate sums to consultants for reports that reflect the existing rail industry, not how it could be. It’s no surprise NCC has achieved nothing with regard to the AB&T, and looks as if it never will. Moving Durham and Northumberland into an enlarged Tyne & Wear PTA could benefit many more projects than just the AB&T.