Go-Ahead lambasts 'Winsor's failure'

The chief executive of Go-Ahead Trains, the biggest operator of commuter services in south-east England, yesterday criticised the rail regulator, Tom Winsor, for failing to reduce the number of speed restrictions on the network.

Keith Ludeman also took the chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, Richard Bowker, to task and questioned how effective Network Rail's 100-strong members' council would be in overseeing the new operator of the rail system.

Mr Ludeman said that two years after the Hatfield disaster, the number of speed restrictions remained roughly the same at 700 and laid part of the blame withMr Winsor. "As train operators we have to ask ourselves whether the rail regulator is effective in what he is doing. We desperately need to see effective regulation but it all seems to be taking a long, long time."

Mr Ludeman said that Go-Ahead, which operates the Thameslink, South Central and Thames Trains franchises, was less badly affected than inter-city operators but added speed restrictions were causing problems with punctuality throughout the network.

As for Mr Bowker, the Go-Ahead boss said: "We have heard lots of examples of what the SRA can't do. What we now need to see is what it can do." He said there was a pressing need for the SRA to make progress in enabling train operators to increase capacity to alleviate overcrowding. Longer trains, which will mean spending money to extend platforms, are a priority.

Network Rail's members' council, which is comprised of representatives from the industry, the SRA and public interest organisations, holds its first full meeting next month and one of its first jobs will be to approve the pay packages of the board.

Although Mr Ludeman is a member, he said: "I am somewhat sceptical it is going to work. The amount of direct influence it will have over Network Rail is going to be limited."