Philip Hammond leaves Transport in ‘mini-reshuffle’

From: Rail News.co.uk

THE TRANSPORT SECRETARY Philip Hammond is moving to the Ministry of Defence, following the resignation of defence secretary Liam Fox. His replacement is Putney MP Justine Greening.

Mr Hammond has been in the top political job at the Department for Transport since the election in May 2010, and has overseen the launch of the controversial McNulty report into railway ‘value for money’ as well as supporting higher rises in train fares and the construction of High Speed Two, which is set to be the first domestic High Speed line in Britain.

He has also presided over and backed the award of the £1.4 billion Thameslink rolling stock contract to German-owned Siemens — a move which has been bitterly criticised in some quarters, particularly in the East Midlands where the losers Bombardier would have built the fleet of 300 trains.

He leaves as Network Rail is poised to move into a new era, with devolution of day-to-day management to route level due to take place on 14 November.

This change is being accompanied by hopes that Network Rail’s new route managing directors will be able to contain costs more effectively, particularly as the routes will be financially compared with each other over time through a system of benchmarking.

Mr Hammond will be handing the draft of a forthcoming railway White Paper to his successor.

His most controversial remark was probably his description of railway travel as often being a ‘rich man’s toy’, when he was being questioned by the House of Commons Transport Select Committee a few weeks ago.