Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere. It's certainly not in the first page of threads in here, anyway.
The Rail Delivery Group has published its submission to the Williams Review, and it's a doozy!
The full submission can be found at https://www.bigplanbigchanges.co.uk/changingtrack, but here's their summary of the key ideas:
The Rail Delivery Group has published its submission to the Williams Review, and it's a doozy!
The full submission can be found at https://www.bigplanbigchanges.co.uk/changingtrack, but here's their summary of the key ideas:
Rail Delivery Group said:
- Deliver easier fares for all: Update decades of regulation to enable a fares system which is much easier for passengers to use and better value for money, introducing pay as you go with a price cap across commuter markets, and reducing overcrowding on some of the busiest long-distance services while encouraging more people to use the network at different times of day. This fully reformed system would be backed up for the first time by an industry 'best fare guarantee'.
- Put a new independent organising body in charge of the whole industry: Form a new independent organising body which removes the politics from the running of the railway as far as possible and acts as the glue that binds it together, joining up decisions, making sure customer needs are prioritised and holding the industry to account with penalties where it falls short.
- Introduce responsive, customer-focussed 'public service contracts', replacing the current franchising system: Create a new system of contracts that would be more responsive to what our customers are asking for. Our new 'public service contracts' system would be made up of TfL-style single branded 'concessions' where usually an integrated transport body effectively runs the service, or new 'customer outcome-based' contracts, in place of today’s tightly specified inputs-based model, which better incentivise the private sector to innovate to improve, while only rewarding good performance.
- Give customers more choice of operators on some long-distance routes: For some long distance routes, having more rail companies competing for passengers means they could be offered a range of different services based on what they want. Whether it’s quicker more comfortable journeys or faster Wi-Fi, demand would shape the market; meaning rail companies would have to adapt to the needs of passengers if they want to keep their business.
- Make sure track and train are all working to the same customer-focussed goals: Introduce a single thread of consistent targets and incentives running through the whole industry, from CEOs to frontline teams and between the track and the train, so that all parts of the railway pull together – ending the blame game.
- Bring decisions about local services closer to home: Where appropriate, for example in larger city regions which serve commuter markets, customers would benefit from local transport bodies being given more power to design and specify local services, bringing decisions about the railway closer to the communities it serves.
- Enhance freight’s central role in delivering for Britain’s economy: We want to work with government to develop a clear national framework to put freight at the core of the government's business, environmental, and transport strategic policy making. It is important that freight obtains the access it needs to the whole rail network to keep supermarket shelves stacked, the lights on and the economy moving in a global marketplace.
- Invest in our people to deliver positive long term change for our customers: Develop a new approach to working with the unions, governments and the industry which provides our people with the skills, resources and rewards they need to deliver generational change in the railway.