Trade-offs and tough choices will be an essential part of the
move to creating a more customer-centric railway, the head of the
government rail review has said.
Keith Williams, who was speaking at the
Accelerate: future of rail conferencein London, has set out
the scale of the challenge facing both government and the
industry and that the changes will not be easy.
Mr Williams also announced the criteria that the Rail
Review will draw on to develop a new model for the UK
rail network, and launched the next phase of the review’s call for
evidence to focus on them.
The assessment criteria are the first step towards developing a
blueprint for the railway of the future, setting out what the
review aims to achieve for passengers, freight and taxpayers, and
the industry changes needed to deliver them.
Alongside these assessment criteria the review has also published
evidence on the lessons that the UK can learn from other networks
around the world, and on the factors affecting public trust in
the railway.
Key findings include:
- perceptions research finds that – despite UK passenger
satisfaction rates being amongst the highest in Europe - trust is
low because passengers feel that the industry is not competent to
run a quality service, and is not motivated to
- re-building trust will require passenger-centric reform
- the vast majority of railways have a mix of public and
private sector involvement
- performance issues and low satisfaction rates are not unique
to the UK
Keith Williams said:
There needs to be a much stronger focus on passengers. This has
been common ground from everyone we have spoken with.
Passengers must be at the heart of the future of the railway.
And not just the passenger of today, but also the passengers of
tomorrow, who will look at rail differently than we do today
and hopefully, if we do our job right, as part of a more
integrated transport network.
Moving to a customer focused railway won’t be easy and I want
to make it absolutely clear that trade-offs will be unavoidable
when I come to make my recommendations - for example, between a
system that delivers a national network and is responsive to
local interests.
