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reform must put passengers at its heart
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ORR to look at
compensation and accessibility
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review to make recommendations in the autumn
Keith Williams, independent chair of the first ‘root and
branch’ Rail Review to be
supported by government, will today (26 February 2019) announce
that the rail franchising system cannot continue in the way it is
now.
In the George Bradshaw Address, Keith Williams is expected to
say:
I have heard a great deal about the franchising model….driving
growth in passengers and benefits to services. But with this
growth the needs of passengers have changed whilst many of the
basic elements of our rail system have not kept pace.
Put bluntly, franchising cannot continue the way it is today.
It is no longer delivering clear benefits for either taxpayers
and farepayers.
I believe that for the railway to be successful it needs to put
passengers at its heart.
We need to recognise that there is unlikely to be a ‘one size
fits all’ solution which will work for every part of the
country and all types of passenger.
The former British Airways chief executive and deputy chairman of
John Lewis Partnership, will set out that the reason he took on
the review was because he had a clear commitment from the
government to deliver change:
This is the first full-blown rail review to be supported by
government for some considerable time - with a very clear
commitment from the Transport Secretary and from , and the whole of
the department’s executive.
I see our role not just to tackle those recent problems that
passengers have experienced but also to tackle the more
fundamental underlying causes of those problems.
In his address, he will also say that the rail industry is
adapting to a fast-changing world but unable to respond to
consumer demand:
We are spending on the railway, in offering new services,
purchasing new rolling stock, and renewing and enhancing the
network. The May timetable change, for instance, was designed
to offer thousands of new services, hundreds of new trains, and
much improved critical infrastructure – but as a system we were
unable to deliver on this investment. And the customer
suffered.
Williams will summarise the progress made on the Rail Review as
well as the next steps. He will say:
There’s real hunger for change within the industry as well as
outside. We will continue listening to what you have to say and
learning from your insight and experience.
We need to do more on making it easier for customers to access
the compensation they are entitled to and improving
accessibility for all users, including disabled people.
I’ve asked the ORR to advise me on what
more could be done by rail operators to improve this, and
whether more regulatory powers are required to ensure it
happens. They will report back within the timescale of the
review recommending action to help transform compensation and
accessibility across the network.
In the autumn we will bring everything together and alongside
government, recommend change through a white paper. It will be
the culmination of the biggest and widest review of the railway
for generations.
- the Rail Review was established to recommend the most
appropriate organisational and commercial frameworks to support
the delivery of the government’s vision for the railway
- former British Airways chief executive Keith Williams leads
the major review of the rail industry, supported by an expert
challenge panel
- the government will publish a white paper on the review’s
recommendations, with the implementation of reforms planned to
start from 2020
- the annual Bradshaw Address is named in honour of George
Bradshaw (1800 to 1853), who developed the Bradshaw’s Guide to
the railways
- the review’s first evidence paper, The role of the railway in
Great Britain, will be published at 7pm today (26 February 2019)
