East West Rail

Ah, hmm.

Good point otherwise, and that's not the only question this raises though, is it? The DfT announcement also says this about East West Rail, "Public ownership also provides a fresh opportunity to deliver East West Rail and its benefits for passengers." So dare we hope that government's close to agreement with RMT over driver controlled operation on the route, DCO?

Well, the-- I think there's no doubt that they're motivated to find a resolution.

Um, but other than the DfT simply giving the RMT what they want, this isn't a simple one to resolve, is it?

Thank you so much.

Ben Rule is Railway Operations Director at East West Rail.

Welcome, Ben.

Thank you.

the reality is that there is so much change happening now i think it's quite hard to separate out business as usual and change in a way that it might have been you know 20 30 years ago um so so there is there is a problem in in in in people having different perspectives the bigger problem though for me though is that the profession itself the project profession has a lot of capability that can be drawn upon and if you're a leader that's come through the kind of non-project route if i call it that to leadership you don't know what you're missing out on and and that for me is the kind of the tragedy of it uh and uh but but but we're a position now where knowledge can be shared and and i think that is changing as we go along

yeah excellent and and bringing you in ben to that conversation hearing what adam just had to say you know do you have a different perspective on that word project and what it means

Yeah, so I work for East West Rail.

So I am in an organisation, one of the ones that Adam mentioned, where we have been set up specifically to deliver a particular project.

So ensuring every stakeholder is bought in, including the DfT and DFTO, is vital.

From Oxford to Milton Keynes, we travel along the East West Rail, the subject of ongoing disputes between Chiltern Railways and the RMT, and we soon pass through Winslow Station.

It does look ready to receive the trains that have yet to start running.

So we've just come over most of East West Rail now.

We're not actually far from Bletchley and joining the West Coast Main Line.

We've just been through Winslow.

Well, we're getting ready for some diversions in November and then around Christmas time, where the, the railway into Paddington, uh, from Reading, particularly from Slough, will be blocked.

And a, a key thing, uh, that we believe in is that when we're, uh, dealing with engineering work, we should try and keep our customers- On trains.

Coming up on this week's show, RMT ballots for strike action over driver-only operation on East West Rail.

Has Andy Burnham agreed a pay deal with ASLEF for Avanti West Coast drivers? And digital signalling goes live between Wellingarden City and Hitchin.

Well, welcome to Green Signals from me, Steph Foster, and...

And so you've got to put up with me this week, but hopefully it won't be too much of a hardship.

So we begin with the depressing news this week that the RMT are to ballot train managers on Chiltern Railways for strike action.

But it's a further blow to the East West Rail line, which was handed over to Network Rail in December 2024.

That's coming up to two years ago, and which has seen regular freight and even charter trains since 2025.

But there's been no regular passenger service, something which has been attracting mounting criticism.

I think it works better that way.

And Jacob Harris is saying, what's your take on East West Rail and Winslow Station still not being open? That's one for a bonus, I think, very much.

Look, everyone, it's been a delight.

I hope that's been useful.

Those lessons in the UK have been learned for many years, and you've seen them go from Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, then they went to Crossrail, now the Elizabeth Line, then they went to the Olympics, and from the Olympics they're going on to HS2.

HS2, they're going to sites where they're going to East West Rail, all these major sites.

Now, if you look at Universal Studios building in Bedfordshire, that's a multi-billion pound development.

And they're doing the same thing in terms of local engagement, et cetera, et cetera.