MacGregor will allow exclusive rail franchises

JOHN MacGREGOR, the Secretary of State for Transport, responded to critics of his rail privatisation proposals yesterday by damping down plans to allow competition between operators, as a fierce row broke out in Tory ranks over a critical report prepared by the Commons transport committee.

The Bow Group, the Conservatives' left-leaning think-tank, added to the dissent yesterday by expressing its own doubts about the proposals.

Yesterday, in a speech to freight groups, Mr MacGregor resolved the apparent conflict between allowing all operators 'open access' to lines and granting exclusive franchises. He said: 'If some individual franchises have to be exclusive in whole or in part, then they will be made so.'

This would in effect rule out competition on the same lines. But it is hoped it will encourage interest from potential franchisees, many of whom were wary of bidding if other operators were allowed on the lines.

Mr MacGregor also accepted that he may allow both track and train operations to be given to the same franchisee on certain 'relatively self-contained' lines, something which some potential operators have been demanding. Previously, all track was to have remained in the hands of the new track authority, Railtrack.

Meanwhile, three Tory members of the Conservative-dominated Transport Select Committee attempted to distance themselves from its criticism of the plans. Matthew Banks, the MP for Southport, who actually attended the meeting at which the report was agreed, and two new members of the committee, Nick Hawkins and Nigel Evans, disowned the findings of the report. The committee's Conservative chairman, Robert Adley, had warned a few days ago that pressure was being put on Tory MPs to toe the line on rail privatisation.

Mr Hawkins said he fully supported the Government's proposals to bring in private-sector disciplines, while Mr Banks, secretary of the Conservative backbench transport committee, said the report was 'too negative'. One Conservative source dismissed their stance as 'pathetic' and 'job-seeking'.

Meanwhile, Mr Adley accused the three of misrepresenting him. 'I have never said I am opposed to privatisation,' he said. 'I am worried about the methods the Government is using.'

The report criticises the Government for failing to provide sufficient details about its proposals and for not stimulating a sufficiently wide debate. It suggests other methods for getting private involvement in the railways, but does not endorse any of them.

Mr Hawkins' position was undermined by criticism of the plans from the Bow Group, of which he is chairman. A report to be published by its transport committee next week, Levelling the tracks, supports the concept of privatisation but says the plans are fundamentally flawed because operators will be expected to pay large sums for using the tracks.

The report's author, David Campbell Bannerman, said: 'The Government has got it two-thirds right but is wrong over the funding issue. That issue will determine whether privatisation is a success or failure.'

Train makers' fate, page 25