First steps towards transforming the UK railway

The Great British Railways Transition Team has launched a Call for Evidence for a 30-year Strategic Plan for the railway. Its Lead Director Anit Chandarana explains more

For 200 years the railway has played a vital role in Britain’s economic and social development, connecting people and places, moving goods and services, and supporting the growth of business and regions.

Yet, despite its distinguished past and valued present, the old ways are just not working in some areas. The recent Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, the government’s plan to transform the railways in Britain which was co-authored by Keith Williams, Chair of the Williams Rail Review, identified that to secure rail’s full potential and its future, radical change is needed – a change from an industry too fragmented, too complicated, too expensive to run, and one in which innovation is perceived as difficult.

The biggest change in a generation One of the figures driving forward the biggest change to the railways in 25 years is Anit Chandarana, Lead Director of the Transition Team responsible for creating Great British Railways (GBR), the new public body borne out of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, that will bring the railways back together and end a quarter of a century of fragmentation.

Anit said: “Although what came immediately after the privatisation of the railways delivered a lot of good outcomes, that arrangement has had its time. As Keith Williams said, we’ve lost sight of the customer, lost sight of the passengers and the freight users, and that’s unforgiveable in a world where the benefits of rail only happen if people actually use the railways. At the same time, we are taking increasing amounts of taxpayers’ money to keep the railways running. The system has lost its way.

“Keith was clear that there was remarkable consistency in what people said to him during his evidence gathering for the Plan for Rail – the railway needs to be brought back together. The separation of track and train and the fragmentation that it created aren’t just failing to deliver benefits, they are actually hindering it.”

The first major step in that transformation is the ‘Call for Evidence’ to support a 30-year Whole Industry Strategic Plan (launched on 9 December), which aims to provide clear, long-term plans for transforming the railway in the UK.

Open until 4 February, experts from the rail and transport industry and beyond, including business leaders, innovators, technologists and environmentalists, are being urged to provide their views on how rail can contribute to five strategic objectives set by government to:

Meet the needs of future passengers and freight customers;

Ensure rail is financially sustainable, efficient and value for money;

Catalyse long-term economic growth;

Reduce regional inequalities and bring the union together;

Support the government’s environmental sustainability objectives.

Anit said: “I can’t stress enough how important the Call for Evidence is for the industry, and for the country. The Strategic Plan will be the first strategy of its kind, a 30-year high-level plan shaped by a set of strategic objectives that have been developed for the benefit of our passengers, freight users, taxpayers and staff, and that support Britain’s nations, regions, and communities.

“It’s vital for the Strategic Plan to be informed by as many different perspectives as possible, both from within and outside the rail industry.

“Once completed, it will give confidence that there is a long-term vision to the railway, one influenced by a wide range of people with ideas of how we might deliver against those strategic outcomes.

“We’re looking to be challenged with innovative and creative contributions, backed by evidence, on how those outcomes can be met. This isn’t about people sending us their shopping lists – we all need to recognise that we’re operating in challenging financial times and that difficult choices will need to be made. However, that doesn’t need to diminish the scale of our collective ambitions for the railway, and the opportunity we have to make real, beneficial change, both for the industry and the customers and communities we serve.”

New challenges Anit is a Network Rail veteran of more than 18 years, coming from a background of financial management in retail and the oil industry. He is also a Non-Executive Director at the East London NHS Foundation Trust. In January 2020 he was appointed as Network Rail’s first Chief of Staff, working directly with Andrew Haines to help manage restructuring and the challenges ahead. He’s now working full time as Lead Director for the GBR Transition Team (GBRTT).

Network Rail has undergone a lot of change itself in recent years, including a major change towards devolution through the introduction of five regions, split into 14 routes, which brought decision-making closer to its local customers and partners. Other initiatives include:

SPEED work leading to a reduction in the time and cost of building the railway, and

An efficiency drive which looks set to save £4 billion in operations, maintenance and renewals work by 2024.

Anit was very clear that GBR will not be a refreshed version of Network Rail: “This is a brand new start for the railway.

“We know there are many people working in the industry who are doing great work, and we want to learn from that while at the same time taking the opportunity to see what can be done better.

“GBRTT is joining up the railway in a way that hasn’t been done for decades and we don’t assume to have all the answers.

“We are at the start of the journey and everyone in the industry has a brilliant opportunity to influence and own that change.”

Many voices Anit added: “Key to this will be learning from our local partners and how we can go further in our ability to be even more accountable to local passengers, freight users, and local decision makers. The real trick is ensuring the regional MDs – at Network Rail and, in future, for GBR – are part of decision-making and that they can deliver national outcomes while being empowered to take decisions locally too.

“There’s much further to go on that. GBR will be even more devolved than Network Rail is today. Something GBR will definitely take on is the procurement and management of passenger service contracts.

“For that to work effectively, the devolved business unit of GBR will have to be the function that manages those passenger services contracts because the needs of local passengers and stakeholders need to be balanced against the impact localised changes can have at a national level. It’s an example of how we can better work together as an industry, acting nationally across the whole sector while taking a regional and local focus.”

One thing that will change beyond recognition is Network Rail. The owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in the UK is, alongside much of the industry, expected to be absorbed into GBR as part of a transformed approach to customer experience, stations, contracts, fares and revenue.

“There’s no question that GBR will need to bring together experience from Network Rail, Train Operating Companies and owning groups, Department for Transport, the Rail Delivery Group, and from a wider commercial background,” said Anit. “We want GBR to be very best of the private sector – innovation, unrelenting focus on quality, outstanding customer service – joined by a single guiding mind to drive benefits and efficiencies across the system as a whole. By way of example, if you have a local devolved unit accountable for passenger service contracts and managing the infrastructure, that’s when you’re really bringing track and train together, that’s when you’re going to take decisions that are best across the system.

“How soon that happens we’ll have to see. The hard yards of change and improvement are still to come.”

Transforming the network GBRTT is setting the foundations to deliver the most ambitious changes to the railway in a generation, working with the government and across the rail sector. It is being led by Andrew Haines, also the current Chief Executive of Network Rail, who has put in place the team to consider the interim arrangements.

GBRTT will also have an industry and commercial team that will work with the Department for Transport in designing the passenger service contracts; a transformation team (which is leading the implementation of the operating model, introducing a new culture and setting up all the enabling projects); and a finance and business planning team – the primary objectives of the latter being a £1.5 billion costsaving programme and the creation of a whole system financial model for the industry.

In addition to Lead Director Anit, the team is made up of the following Programme Directors: Elaine Seagriff, Strategic Planning and Whole Industry Strategic Plan; Rufus Boyd, Passenger and Freight Services; Michael Clark, Strategy and Transformation; Suzanne Donnelly, Passenger Revenue and Marketing; and Jeremy Westlake, Chief Financial Officer.

It’s vital for the Strategic Plan to be informed by as many different perspectives as possible, both from within and outside the rail industry

GBR TT

Creating: Focus on action.

Simpler: A laser focus on cutting complexity, red tape, bureaucracy.

Better: Articulates both the customer benefit and continuous improvement.

For: Engage the organisation around the service offering.

Everyone in Britain: Setting out the scale of the opportunity and the inclusive ambition.

Anit added: “We recognise the need to bring about a cultural shift in how the industry operates. We need to create a railway that focuses around the customer, not one where the customer has to work around us. The team is serious about putting customers at the very heart of our work, understanding what they want so we can get passengers back on the railway and attract new ones. We have developed a purpose that we’re determined to live and breathe at GBRTT – to create a simpler, better railway for everyone in Britain.

“In many ways the railway is the backbone of the economy, keeping people and freight moving, supporting communities and creating jobs both directly and through the supply chain.

“It’s about time that freight had a more distinct voice in the industry, so we’re going to create a leadership role to be a strong and influential freight voice in the team. What we want to create for freight is a world where people who have to move goods see the railway as a reliable, sustainable place to move their goods. There is some way to go on that, but we are working with freight operating companies with the ultimate aim of growing the market share of logistics.”

The journey ahead Anit explains GBRTT is currently operating in a virtual way, with a legal entity due to be set up in April with an executive management team. Its Advisory Panel, chaired by Keith Williams, met for the first time earlier this month.

He said: “I’m under no illusions regarding the challenge ahead. There is a lot to be done to deliver the vision laid out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, and that change is not going to happen just by the creation of GBR.

“Typically, these kinds of things can take five years plus to deliver but we are determined to start that journey in the Transition Team which, I hope, will build into GBR itself.

“For me, I suspect this will be the most important thing I ever do in my career in rail. I had a choice of whether I wanted to stay and be Network Rail’s Chief of Staff or lead the GBRTT. It was a difficult decision because the Chief of Staff role was the best role I’d ever had. But I’m hugely proud of the opportunity I have to play a leading role in designing the operating model of what GBR will be, and the positive difference that delivering it will make to the people who use the railways.”

The Call for Evidence is open to the rail and transport industry and beyond, including business leaders, innovators, technologists, home builders, entrepreneurs and environmentalists, to share their views and evidence to help shape the Strategic Plan and the future of the railway. It will run until 4 February 2022. Visit https://gbrtt.co.uk/wisp/

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