From Liverpool birth to Manchester mayor via ministerial posts, and still with a keen eye on Downing Street. The eloquent and outspoken Andy Burnham has transformed travel in Greater Manchester. He would like to do more, with grandiose plans for a new railway between the biggest cities of the North of England. If the Lion in the North seeks to roar in the Corridors of Power in the South, would Andy Burnham be a right honourable friend to rail freight, asks UK Editor Simon Walton.
“A week is a long time in politics,” said a North of England socialist politician for whom the highest office in the land remained his only goal. Except that wasn’t Andy Burnham, and it wasn’t this century. Harold Wilson, who coined the phrase, was the complete antithesis of his modern counterpart. Yet, the pipe-smoking premier remoulded Britain in the white heat of technology, in a way his abstemious modern-day counterpart can only dream of doing. Lest this be considered an obscure comparison, be warned that the Yorkshire-born PM saw through the greatest dismantling of the railway network in history.
Starmer still on the footplate
In reality, a week may indeed be a long time in politics, but it is far too soon to imagine Keir Starmer being shunted off into the cripple lane at the back of the depot. He may not be doing much for the health of the rail freight industry, but he has far more pressing issues in hand. So, while development of the sector moves with as much help from government as Thomas the Tank Engine attempting the Lickey Incline without a banker, what would a new ‘northern’ Prime Minister do for the health of freight railways in Great Britain?
Andy Burnham’s railway credentials are not in question. However, they have been concentrated on that most recalcitrant cargo of all: passengers. Reforming the operations around Manchester into the Bee Network has been widely praised – but not at the Rail Freight UK Summit. Back when it was planned for MediaCityUK in Salford, at the end of the short tram line from central Manchester, Andy declined to participate and deferred to give any keynote speech about how important rail freight is to the economy of Manchester. Newsflash: it’s vital to the economy of Manchester.
Mixed messages on freight
On the other hand, the Mayor of Manchester has been known to speak out on the subject of rail freight. It’s not always been complaints about freight trains clogging up passenger lines. He did support the development of Trafford Park, and now advocates the move of services to Wigan to clear the way for a new football stadium. In fact, getting freight off the main passenger lines, onto segregated freight routes, is something he’s toyed with. That could be interpreted as a dismissal of freight as superfluous, or a grandiose plan to massively enhance rail freight provision. Indecision translating into indifference has happened before.
Harold Wilson, had he not been inconveniently dead for 25 years, may have taken up the invitation to speak at the Rail Freight Summit. He was cut from a different cloth, and belonged to a different era. Wilson was born into a world of fire and steel, where Britain was an industrial powerhouse, albeit one where the furnaces were already beginning to cool. Wilson though had no particular love of the railways.
Under a policy enacted by a previous government, Harold Wilson let Britain’s muddled network be radically rationalised throughout both his terms in office. Radical pruning cost the network the ability of universal reach throughout Britain, and with it went the idyll of the branch line and any ambition of reviving wagonload freight.
A hostile climate in Westminster
Today, the only white heat coming down on the office of the Prime Minister is the searing glare of uncertainty. The incumbent Prime Minister – Keir Starmer – is under fire from all sides. So much so that Thursday’s bilateral meeting with Donald Trump could have been considered a relaxation. A succession of political missteps – from Starmer – notably lost cabinet ministers, misplaced ambassadors, and misread policy promises – has left him as the architect of his own decay. Keir Starmer has never knowingly addressed any Rail Freight Summit, either (not even this year’s upcoming Silk Road Summit).
Now, despite the oversight of not attending the Rail Freight Summit, Andy Burnham could hardly be described as an enemy of the railways. In his tenure as Mayor of Manchester, he has overseen the significant extension of the Metrolink tram network, unified much of the conurbation’s public transport, and lobbied without rest for greater transport infrastructure improvements – albeit occasionally dismissive of rail freight.
Andy’s Northern cause
Burnham is the man who coined a saying of his own – the betrayal of the North – on the news of the crass cancellation which axed HS2 trains to Manchester (see RailTech.com). He couldn’t save that, but this turbulent high priest of Manchester is widely perceived as a saviour of a failing Labour Party, which seems to have forgotten how to manage the country after fourteen years out of office.
There is a whole train of hoops which would be required to be timetabled before Father Andy could reach the high altar of Ten Downing Street. Would rail freight be top of his agenda, should he reach there? It’s unlikely. Homes and health may well be up there, as he returns to familiar ground, having held ministerial posts with both portfolios. Might he bring his railway reforms south with him from Manchester? Yes, almost certainly – but rail freight has played second fiddle to Bee Network implementation. Might he even use high office to promote Manchester’s case, such as the proposed new Liverpool-Manchester railway?
As it stands, there’s not a great deal on the table for rail freight. With the incumbent Prime Minister distracted by his own position, there’s only so much that can be done. Burnham would need to take a huge gamble – give up his mayoral role to fight a by-election in order to take the first step on that long road to first among equals. Right now, that doesn’t seem like a moving train worth jumping for. Then again, as Harold Wilson said: a week is a long time in politics.