The Railway Industry - Summer 2022

THE

RAILWAY INDUSTRY MAGAZINE The official magazine of the Railway Industry Association

Alex Hynes, Scotland’s Railway On track and train, electrification, new stations and a growing freight market.

John Larkinson The ORR Chief Executive praises dialogue with the rail supply industry.

Christine Fernandes New Women in Rail chair seeks support to enable initiatives on gender diversity.

ANIT CHANDARANA

ON THE GREAT BRITISH RAILWAYS TRANSITION “The private sector will continue to be important to the railways and could have even greater involvement in the future”.

SUMMER 2022

RIA Annual Conference 2022 Growing rail in a year of transition 10 and 11 November

Park Plaza Riverbank, London

2-day conference with keynotes, interview sessions and panel discussions.

Confirmed speakers include Andrew Haines, Chief Executive, Network Rail and John Larkinson, Chief Executive Officer, ORR Conference host: Sameena Ali-Khan, Television presenter and Journalist Evening programme includes networking drinks, dinner and entertainment!

Scan the QR code to register today Or visit: riagb.org.uk/AC22

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DARREN CAPLAN Introduction to The Railway Industry Magazine

Welcome to the latest edition of The Railway Industry, published as we look forward to seeing many of you again at the RIA Annual Gala Dinner on 14 July.

At the time of finalising The Railway Industry, PM Boris Johnson has just resigned and there have been significant ministerial changes. We will of course be keeping an eye on how all this impacts rail policy and investment in the months ahead.

And whilst there have been difficult challenges affecting our sector, from industrial action to, of course, inflation and the cost of living, there have been positive developments too. Postpandemic, freight returned to preCovid levels quickly, but at the time of writing passengers are returning in impressive numbers too.

Since May, passenger figures have regularly exceeded 80% of pre-Covid levels. In June we saw a ten-day period at 92-93% of pre-Covid levels.

Passengers are coming back both during weekdays and weekends, including a steady increase in commuter travel too.

Against this background, RIA urges

THE

RAILWAY INDUSTRY MAGAZINE RAILWAY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION David Clarke • Technical Director Gaynor Pates • Membership & Business Administration Director Kate Jennings • Policy Director

both the Government and the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) not to base their 30-year strategy on the last two exceptional years. Given the clear demand for rail travel, it is essential GBRTT is ambitious about rail’s future and maximises the benefits of investment, to ensure rail is the backbone of a reliable and clean transport system.

Mainline north of Crewe, following the scrapping of the Eastern Leg last November. This vital link had been included in the Integrated Rail Plan and the HS2 Phase 2b Bill, and so we are left with huge uncertainty on how HS2 services will connect into Scotland. Ministers should confirm as quickly as possible their alternative plans here.

Too often I hear that, with leisure travel producing less fare yield than commuting, we need to plan for “a new normal”, with less funding. But rather than contemplating managed decline, we should be discussing what steps we can take to increase passenger revenues in the coming years. Currently, revenues are between 80-85% of pre-Covid levels, and there is much to build on. We must avoid at all costs talking our sector down – not least to ensure continued Treasury funding – when the long-term future is bright.

As we contemplate how best to link the country’s railways, it is worth considering whether the rest of the UK could learn lessons from what is already being achieved by Scotland’s Railway. We have an interview with its Managing Director, Alex Hynes, telling a story of deep collaboration between track and train, a continuous programme of electrification, new stations and a growing freight market.

All that leads him to the conclusion that Scotland is “the best bit of Britain’s railway”.

If anyone still needs reasons to be optimistic, they should take a trip on the new central section of the Elizabeth line, connecting London Paddington to Whitechapel. I guarantee they will be impressed by the level of boldness and ambition on display. It really is an exceptional achievement for TfL, Government and the supply sector; and RIA members from all over the UK have played a key role in making this landmark project happen. The good work in the capital can only continue if DfT and TfL strike up a longer-term deal soon – rather than the stopgap 11 mini deals of the last two years – so rail businesses can plan for the future, and passengers and taxpayers get value for money with future projects.

We are also grateful to ORR Chief Executive John Larkinson and GBRTT Lead Director Anit Chandarana, for giving us wide-ranging interviews on their plans. On the latter, we should take encouragement from his emphasis that the private sector will continue to be important to the railways and could have even greater involvement in the future.

The salami-slicing of HS2 is disappointing, with the Government’s decision to scrap the Golborne Link between HS2 and the West Coast

Katherine Anchorena • Marketing & Events Director

These and many other features in the pages to follow offer fascinating insights on a key year for our industry, as we start to plan for our Annual Conference on 10-11 November.

Meanwhile, I hope to see you at the 14 July Gala Dinner, and I wish RIA colleagues a great summer.

Darren Caplan Railway Industry Association Chief Executive

Michael Burrell Editor

Milda Manomaityte • Innovation Director Neil Walker • Exports Director RAILWAY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

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Gala Dinner

THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION’S GALA DINNER – A SUMMER GALA CELEBRATING GLOBAL DIVERSITY IN RAIL! RIA’s Gala Dinner is a special night, uniting the railway industry to celebrate ‘Global diversity in rail’ and to celebrate different cultures and ethnicities found in our sector. Get ready for an evening of celebration including a 3-course dinner, professional dancers from around the world, live music and a raffle kindly hosted by Railway Benefit Fund.

WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

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IA’s annual Gala Dinner will this year take place on 14 July 2022 at the Intercontinental Hotel Park Lane. Every year, RIA hosts hundreds of colleagues from around the industry for an unforgettable night, filled with music, networking, fine dining, colour and lots of fun.

To fit this year’s theme, we encourage those attending to come in your national garb or dress in your most glamourous outfit.

Evening entertainment Our host this year is Ayesha Hazarika MBE, political commentator and former Labour Party Advisor. Having moved from the civil service to comedy to Harriet Harman’s Chief of Staff and now back to comedy, Ayesha has gone from writing policy and speeches to writing jokes and commentary pieces. With a combination of humour and insight she looks at politics, the operation of government, what goes on behind the scenes of Westminster and what might happen next.

To celebrate global diversity around the world, we have organised dance acts from all four corners of the globe. Feast your eyes with dance performances from Japan, Ireland, Egypt, Peru, and Spain.

The dinner will also have a charity raffle, with a selection of fantastic prizes to win. This year, we will be supporting the Railway Benefit Fund (RBF), who will be running the raffle this year to raise money for their cause.

To end the evening, we will have a DJ playing music, old and new. DJ Frances is an ever-growing name, starting out in 2010 and has since shot herself up amongst the Top 5 female DJs. DJ Frances has been nominated multiple times as Female DJ of the year in Exquisite Lady of the Year (ELOY) awards 2014, Nigerian Entertainment Awards (NEA Awards) 2015, Beatz Awards 2015 and most recently came out the second runner up in Smirnoff Female DJ competition 2017.

Don’t miss out on this fantastic evening.

Book today: www.riagb.org.uk/AD22 THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY MAGAZINE SUMMER 2022

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John Larkinson, Chief Executive of the Office of Rail and Road

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John Larkinson

RAIL REGULATOR PRAISES DIALOGUE WITH THE RAIL SUPPLY INDUSTRY The Chief Executive of Britain’s economic and safety rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), says that his organisation has “a good dialogue” with the industry’s supply chain.

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ohn Larkinson told The Railway Industry Magazine: “The good news is that we actually have a really good relationship with RIA. We feel we have a good dialogue with the supply chain. One of the crucial things is to make sure we listen to their concerns. We have got, I hope, a pretty good grasp of their concerns and also, I think that intelligence from the supply chain is really useful in all the jobs that we do, including holding Network Rail to account on efficiency”.

The ORR’s core rail activities are improving health and safety on the railway, holding Network Rail to account for efficiency and performance, providing technical and safety authorisation services to the industry and acting as rail’s competition authority.

“We need to make sure that we have a strong factual evidence base for things that we do” he said.

“We get a lot of that material from the supply chain, and we also get some advance warning of things that might be bubbling under the surface. Generally speaking, I think we have very good engagement, a good relationship – I am not trying to pretend that we agree on everything – but I think that relationship has developed over the last few years; I really do”.

The ORR’s core rail activities are improving health and safety on the railway, holding Network Rail to account for efficiency and performance, providing technical and safety authorisation services to the industry - a recent example being the green light it gave for the opening of London’s Elizabeth Line - and acting as rail’s competition authority. In addition, it leads the periodic review process that sets the funding for Network Rail every five years, and it is also heavily involved in rail reform.

On health and safety, the most recent ORR data show that Britain continues to have one of the safest railways in Europe. Larkinson said that during the pandemic, not surprisingly, there had been a big drop-off in managers going out and looking at what was happening on the ground. That was now coming back, he said, and WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

ORR’s Chief Inspector of Railways, Ian Prosser had underlined the importance to the industry of this “first line of defence”.

The ORR has identified two big challenges for the system. One is track worker safety where the regulator took enforcement action

against Network Rail two years ago. Larkinson said that, measured by things like near misses, there had been “a huge improvement” over the last few years. The second is drainage, once described by Prosser as rail’s “Cinderella asset”.

Larkinson said that focussing on drainage is “absolutely crucial” and

9 complimented Network Rail on its current plan to do so.

Three people died in August 2020 when a wrongly built drainage system above rail track at Carmont, near Stonehaven, led to a landslide which derailed a Scotrail train.

Larkinson said the right steps are now being taken to learn lessons from the tragedy, emphasising that these involve a mixture of both infrastructure and operational improvements. The ORR has investigated the derailment in detail and will send its report to Scotland’s public prosecutor, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The ORR has also investigated the events of May 2021, when the discovery of cracks in Hitachi-built Class 800 trains caused severe disruption on Great Western Railway and LNER. The regulator said that the industry’s response in working together at Hitachi to try to work out the problem and what they were going to do about it was good, but it also suggested that, to prepare for similar high-pressure situations in the future, the industry should consider the appointment of an independent chair to bring all the affected parties together. Larkinson said that the ORR is continuing to work on the detail of how this might best be achieved.

In its role as the sector’s competition authority, the ORR produced a report on the £900m per year signalling market, where it had concerns about competition and the impact of that on costs. It set out a series of proposals for reform and Larkinson said “the positive news, from my perspective, is that Network Rail has come back to us, has said they accept the need for change and has provided a detailed plan of the changes they are going to make.

Now we need to measure progress and report back at the appropriate time”.

Larkinson noted that the ORR is

now at a key point in the periodic review process, the five-yearly process which it leads, to set the funding for Network Rail for Control Period 7 from 2024 to 2029.

The UK Government set broad parameters for Network Rail, on which it has based an initial business programme. The ORR has recently sent its advice to the Government on that programme. The questions that the ORR had considered included judgements on “are we clear what this is going to deliver? Are we clear on things like efficiencies? Are we clear whether it is deliverable? If Network Rail is proposing to do more work in an area, do we really believe that the supply chain could scale up in that area in that amount of time or do we find that implausible?”.

The funding decisions of the UK and Scottish Governments for 2024 to 2029 will be announced in the autumn, but Larkinson emphasised that “whatever the precise structure of Great British Railways, the amount of money that it gets for infrastructure is decided through the periodic review process. This isn’t going to get reopened when GBR gets established. This process decides the infrastructure bit. It plays quite a key role in what the world is going to look like in rail reform”.

Finally, on rail reform, Larkinson said “at the moment we are doing a lot of work advising the Government on options”. Now, he said, a key moment has arrived, as the Government plans to start consulting publicly on its proposals.

As its White Paper has already made clear, when GBR starts work the ORR’s job will be expanded, as it

“Once GBR integrates a lot of the infrastructure and the operations, we will be overseeing the whole thing and that is quite a fundamental change. It means that we will expand what we do in many areas”. takes on responsibility for holding the whole of GBR to account.

Except for health and safety, ORR’s remit is currently limited to the infrastructure side of the railways; it doesn’t have any role at present in looking at the operational side, including, for example, issues such as the reliability of rolling stock.

“Once GBR integrates a lot of the infrastructure and the operations, we will be overseeing the whole thing and that is quite a fundamental change” Larkinson said. “It means that we will expand what we do in many areas. It also means that we need to change. We need to build capabilities. We need to show that we are up to doing the bigger job. So, the challenge for me is to make sure that ORR can carry out its bigger role when rail reform takes place. We have got to demonstrate we can do that”.

“We will expand what we do in many areas. It also means that we need to change. We need to build capabilities.

We need to show that we are up to doing the bigger job”.

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Christine Fernandes

NEW WOMEN IN RAIL CHAIR SEEKS MORE FINANCIAL BACKING FROM THE INDUSTRY TO SUPPORT ITS WORK ON GENDER EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION Christine Fernandes, Chair of Women in Rail since last October, is asking UK rail companies to give further support to the growing charity to enable it to launch new initiatives.

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hristine told The Railway Industry Magazine that she is confident that Women in Rail, established a decade ago to promote gender diversity in the UK rail industry, will win backing from the sector so that it can do more. She describes her own WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

company, CAF Rail UK, where she has a business development role, as “advocates” of Women in Rail; they had been delighted that she had the opportunity to become Chair and were keen to support her in this demanding role.

Founded in 2012 by Christine’s’

predecessor, Adeline Ginn, Women in Rail has grown steadily to the point where today it has 7,500 members, 100 volunteers and over 10,000 LinkedIn followers.

Christine said that thanks to her predecessor, the charity has become “a brand and it is integrated into

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Christine Fernandes, Chair of Women in Rail

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12 the industry as an established rail institution”.

Looking forward, the new Chair said that her commitment is to make sure that Women in Rail continues to be relevant to its audience.

“We have different landscapes to navigate” she said “and a different structure within the industry as well.

So, what I need to do is to make sure that we continue to add value, that we address what the industry needs and continue to deliver that. The financial sustainability of Women in Rail is a key factor. That is going to be my focus, as well as making sure that we are integrated into the Great British Rail transition team and that we are seen as a partner of choice for them”.

Additional external support would ensure that Women in Rail could continue to operate efficiently and effectively. Specifically, it would provide administrative backing for the charity’s volunteers, fund the development of an updated website and enable a range of new initiatives that are planned for the coming months.

Asked how she would pitch to rail companies, Christine said “A lot of organisations are trying to drive gender equality. It is about the value that we add and how we can bring more women into the industry.

While Women in Rail was established to improve gender balance within the industry, it has increasingly focussed on wider issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.

WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

A lot of organisations are trying to drive gender equality. It is about the value that we add and how we can bring more women into the industry.

There are several plans that we have, which will be launched next year, which will focus on that but also, we will look to use target-specific campaigns. It is about adding value to their organisation and making their organisation attractive to female entry and to retaining females. We have already done some networking events this year on behalf of businesses and that has worked really well”.

On the fundamental issue of why it is important to have more women in rail and more in senior positions, there are three main points.

Firstly, women are just as capable as men and need to have equal opportunities. Secondly, increasing gender diversity helps businesses to retain more talented women. Thirdly, research suggests that gender diverse teams perform much better than male-only teams by “bringing together different viewpoints, marketing insights and ideas which generally enable better problemsolving, helping business units to achieve superior performance”.

Christine believes that men and women have different traits. Women are naturally good at listening and tend to have strong soft skills and emotional intelligence. Through active listening and reading body language, they were often able to pick up on more subtleties in a room. “Combining that with traditional male skills, means that a gender-balanced team can be quite formidable” she said.

She described soft skills and emotional intelligence, such as self-awareness, empathy, conflict management, adaptability and teamwork, as essential skills for

effective leadership and said that these characteristics tend to be found more often in women. While difficult to measure, they were highly valued and can make a difference to the bottom line of a business.

While Women in Rail was established to improve gender balance within the industry, it has increasingly focussed on wider issues of equality, diversity and inclusion. In partnership with the Railway Industry Association, in 2020 it launched the Rail EDI Charter to champion equality, diversity and inclusion in the UK railway industry for people of all backgrounds, ages, genders and identities.

With over 189 signatories today, the Charter was described by Christine as incredibly important.

She highlighted that the large target audience that Women in Rail and RIA can collectively target means that “we can do a lot of good work promoting EDI and being a flagship for it. It is quite a privilege to be able to be leading so many businesses of the industry on that”.

The vision is that Women in Rail should be “the partner of choice” for the Great British Railways Transition Team on EDI issues. The charity is already engaged with the team and is looking to do some collaborative events with them.

Asked if EDI is seen as a priority by the transition team, Christine said “They are incredibly busy with all the other initiatives, but they know it is important and we are keen to be working alongside with them.

I think it will take impetus and momentum over the next few months”.

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Martin Tugwell

TRANSPORT FOR THE NORTH CHIEF “KEEN TO STRENGTHEN COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP” WITH RIA MEMBERS Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive of Transport for the North, has told The Railway Industry Magazine that he wants to work closely with the private sector on plans to decarbonise rail in the North of England.

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ommenting on his organisation’s Transport Decarbonisation Strategy, published last December, he said that rail inherently has an advantage as “a low carbon solution”. There is an opportunity, he said, to see how further electrification can help to reduce the carbon footprint, but also an opportunity to look at alternative fuels. Pointing to expertise on these fuels in the North, he referred to the Hydrogen Hub on Teesside, work

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around hydrogen on Merseyside and Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe centre of excellence on hybrid technology with batteries, electric and diesel.

“I think that for me reinforces the importance of working closely with the private sector” he said “because sometimes it is about understanding the opportunities the private sector can bring, seeing where we can make those real on the ground. That requires a collaborative partnership

between ourselves and members of RIA and that is something that, certainly as we move forward, I am keen to strengthen. We have some fantastic knowledge and experience within the North, and it would be great to capture and harness even more of that to the benefit not just of the economy, but the community”.

Tugwell suggested that the rail supply sector has a job to do in

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Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive of Transport for the North

helping to convince sceptics in the Treasury that investment in rail should not be dismissed as “a very expensive form of investment”, but is one that can deliver significant wider benefits in an affordable way. “The fact of the matter is” he said “we need to get better at defining the scope of our projects” by doing some pieces of work early. He gave the example of initial ground surveys on the rail route to Hull, which had cost £1m but had identified “the best part of £200m of savings in the scheme.

That is the kind of best practice we should be doing as part of routine day-to-day”.

Another area where the creation of Great British Railways could help to create an opportunity, would be to reflect on “what is the right standard for the investment that is being made? It is not to say that standards should be reduced arbitrarily, but I think there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that

some flexibility in the standards may actually allow for things to be delivered at a more affordable level”.

Tugwell said that “working with the rail sector and the Government, there must be some scope to ensure that when we plan for investment, we plan with confidence and therefore when we say it is going to cost a certain amount of money, people can have confidence that we are going to deliver. That may mean saying ‘no’ sometimes to some of the aspirations to avoid scope creep, but that is why it is important to understand just how much money

is available for the public sector to invest and to make sure that, where we know that, we do it in the most effective way to deliver the maximum outputs”.

He emphasised the importance of explaining how investment in rail infrastructure and services acts as a catalyst for investment in the wider economy, pointing to the examples of London Kings Cross and Curzon Street in Birmingham. He said that is how Transport for the North looks at rail investment across the region, whether in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Hull or Newcastle.

We are not yet in a stable environment.

It’s wrong to try and call it too soon, but I think you would need to be a wild optimist to suggest that commuting is going to go back to its pre-Covid patterns and potentially business as well.

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16 “When we think about why it is important to have a solution for Bradford” he said “it is because not only would the investment help as a catalyst for investment in the city, but improving the connectivity of Bradford gives opportunities for a very young, very vibrant city: it will help give its residents access to new opportunities and services. I think that it is important we get better at capturing these wider benefits in the current climate. We need to be better explaining how investment in railways is very much in keeping with the ambition set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, which itself requires consideration of the wider benefits to help inform decision-makers at the national level”.

Tugwell started as Chief Executive of Transport for the North in August 2021 and, just four months later, the Government decided not to proceed with either the HS2 Eastern leg or Northern Powerhouse Rail, both of which had been recommended by Transport for the North. Asked how he felt about that, Tugwell chooses his words carefully: “Let us reflect on what the Integrated Rail Plan says. Securing the commitment to substantial investment in the railway infrastructure and services in the North is a major step forward.

The fact that it is supported by Government through the Treasury is a real positive. What is clear to us, though, is there are some aspects of the proposal that we put forward for which there remains a need to develop affordable solutions”.

Included in that category, he referred to “the challenge of Leeds, still the third biggest source of delays on the entire rail network in the country”. Connecting Leeds to the rest of the High-Speed network would be important and he said it was “encouraging to hear Andrew Stephenson (Transport Minister of State) reflect upon the importance of getting that connection. So, I think the need to address this issue

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Rail safety is genuinely the first thing I think of in the morning and the last thing I think of when I go to bed at night because it is so fundamental to what we do.

is understood”. Equally, improving connectivity to Hull and the Humber ports remains important, he said, not just from a passenger perspective, but also from a freight and logistics perspective.

“So, there are undoubtedly some questions that remain unanswered after the Integrated Rail Plan” he said, adding “What I take as a positive is our role as a cosponsor allows us to get those wider messages considered as part of the process. There is the commitment in the Integrated Rail Plan to an adaptive pipeline, which is an opportunity to make sure that where there are issues that need to be addressed, we work with Government to have them considered. But at the moment let us also focus on turning the commitment to invest into delivering on the ground, because that is going to be the best and surest way of gaining momentum in terms of rail investment and making a difference

in terms of the transformation required”.

Asked whether he thinks Northern Powerhouse Rail will ever be built or should be built, Tugwell answered: “We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that what was set out in the Integrated Rail Plan includes significant parts of what was proposed for Northern Powerhouse Rail. The Transport for the North Board set out a vision.

What we have in the Integrated Rail Plan is very significant parts of that proposal being supported

by Government. We need to continue to make the case for further investment in the longer term. The Integrated Rail Plan is a good solid foundation on which to build, but, if we are going to deliver on those wider outcomes, we will need to make the case for further investment. That is what we will do as Transport for the North, working with the Government to make the case and support delivery”.

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Anit Chandarana

GBR TRANSITION TEAM HEAD TELLS SUPPLY CHAIN COMPANIES: There is “a potential opportunity to unlock even greater involvement of the private sector” but “there will be little central procurement”.

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But Anit Chandarana has another message that he is equally keen to emphasise: the private sector will continue to be important to the railways and could have even greater involvement in the future.

decision will be decentralised, unless there is a good reason for it not to be. GBR’s regional leadership will have “significant decisionmaking capability”, including over procurement. He said, “It is really important that we emphasise that and it is important for your readers from RIA, because we do still hear a bit of questioning about ‘Can we not just have one central procurement team?’ The really blunt answer to that is ‘No’. There will not be one central procurement team and we are going to have to get used to that”.

Speaking to The Railway Industry Magazine, Chandarana said that one of the design principles of Great British Railways is that every

Having said that, Chandarana stressed that the private sector would continue to be important to the railways and to GBR, with

he Lead Director for the Great British Railways Transition Team has a blunt message for rail supply companies: GBRTT will be decentralised to make the railway closer to its customers, so stop asking for a central procurement team; most procurement will happen within the five regions.

“a potential opportunity to unlock even greater involvement of the private sector, but in a different way – in a more involved, partnership, collaborative way and we are really looking at how we use that opportunity to create that world”.

Looking back on his former role as Finance Director of Network Rail’s infrastructure projects division, Chandarana said he had observed “an incredible maturing of the relationship between what was then Network Rail and the supply chain”. Looking forward, he said his “key ask” of the supply chain was that it should be very clear about GBR’s customer-centric approach.

Encouraging customers to use the railways was both in the national

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18 interest and in the interest of the supply chain from a commercial perspective.

He said “I think there is insight, innovation and interest that the supply chain can bring to that conversation that can be different from the past” in two ways. Firstly, there would need to be “a change in culture of GBR when it is here, compared to the current rail industry, that perhaps is more welcoming of the private sector and what it can bring in that innovation”.

Secondly, “as we bring the industry together, that will unlock new opportunities and we are beginning to see some of that”. He gave the example of Project REACH, which is looking at how Network Rail can best use its telecommunications network and said there had been “some very innovative responses to that tender”.

The private sector will continue to be important to the railways and could have even greater involvement in the future.

Anit Chandarana, the lead Director for the Great Biritsh Railways Transition Team

Noting the opportunities that this project presents to reduce the cost to the taxpayer of renewal activity, he described it as “a brilliant example” of the benefits of opening the culture – “but, of course, the real challenge we have is an underlying drive that we have got to look for cost-saving opportunities in the supply chain as well as within the operations of GBR itself. That is a huge ask for all of us in the industry to deliver that improved cost base”.

Other key points that Chandarana made during an extensive conversation included: ■ Customer service will be at the heart of how GBR operates and GBR will place more emphasis on understanding local requirements.

Accountability for customer relationships will rest with the leadership of GBR’s decentralised business units. Great British Railways will place more emphasis on its freight customers, both logistics operators and retailers, than it has in the past to encourage them to use the railways more.

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■ The rail industry is facing “a significant revenue gap”, with revenues running at 80% of preCovid levels, though the overall figures hide big variations across different types of passengers.

Leisure travel is well above preCovid levels (in some weeks as much as 20%), commuting is at about 60% of what it was, and

business travel is around 35 to 40%. Chandarana says that “the world is different, and we don’t yet know how passengers will behave”. That means, he says, that GBR will have to try different things to really understand what today’s customers want from the railways.

19 ■ The GBR transition team has been encouraged by both the quantity and quality of the responses to its recent call for evidence for its 30-year strategic plan. The call for evidence was based on the five strategic outcomes that the Government, as the single biggest funder of the railways, is seeking – meeting customers’ needs, delivering financial sustainability, contributing to long-term economic growth, levelling up and connectivity and delivering environmental sustainability.

Chandarana said it was “the first time in my history in the railway industry that we have had from the whole of Government, not just the Department for Transport, a very clear statement about what they want from the railways”. After considering the call for evidence

responses, the transition team aims to have the first version of the strategic plan ready for review by the Secretary of State for Transport by the end of this year.

■ Chandarana sees “an absolute acceptance” from Government that they need to be less involved in the day-to-day running of the railways and GBR, when it comes together, will bring in activities and functions that are currently carried out in the Department for Transport. “So, yes, there will be much less involvement in the dayto-day” he says, “but to imagine that they are not going to be involved at all would not be right”.

■ The GBR transition team is making a deliberate effort to consider equality, diversity and inclusion issues. Chandarana

said his personal interest was “for obvious reasons. I am from an ethnic minority background, and I see an industry that isn’t representative of the background that I am from, nor is it on gender or on disability employment and so we have a huge amount to do as an industry”. In the team’s own recruitment, 44% of offers have been made to females, 29% to people from ethnic minorities and 8% to people with declared disabilities. At one of his regular meetings with new starters Chandarana said, “what was the most telling moment for me was when someone from an LGBTQ+ background said to me ‘This is the first time that I have felt that I could be myself in the industry’ and they have been in the industry for nearly 20 years”.

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RIA Five test principles

GBR TRANSITION TEAM HEAD SUPPORTS RIA’S FIVE PRINCIPLES In March this year the Railway Industry Association published five tests to ensure that the establishment of Great British Railways is a success and that it is well-placed to harness the value and expertise of the rail supply industry.

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chain organisations and directly with the supply chain, both on its work and on how the supply chain could challenge the team’s thinking.

Checking them off one-by-one, he said he absolutely agreed with the no hiatus ambition and the transition team was trying to make sure that the Control Period process would continue. That would give certainty for the medium term, and he was aware that the supply chain was fully participating in that process.

Chandarana described partnership as “really important” and said his team is looking at “how do we create a world in the future where GBR and the supply chain is in partnership to deliver those customer outcomes and those funding challenges that we continue to have. In the past, the industry has got a bit, I think, caught up in customer-supplier type discussions, although more latterly we have moved to partnership thinking and I think we need to build on that as we go forward”.

On transparency, he said that the transition team is committed to engaging with RIA, with other supply

Productivity “is a huge challenge”, Chandarana said, referencing “some quite difficult to swallow statistics”

sked by The Railway Industry Magazine about his view of these, Anit Chandarana, the Lead Director for the GBR Transition Team, said he was “hugely grateful to RIA for those five ambitions”. He wouldn’t argue with any of them and was “hugely supportive”.

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from the National Skills Academy for Rail on what is happening to productivity across the industry, both on the operational and supply chain sides. He said he believed that there could be opportunities to improve productivity by working more in a spirit of partnership and transparency.

Finally, on the ambition to leave a positive legacy, he said that part of the ambition should be a simpler, better railway that both delivers for customers and delivers efficiencies, but there would also be ambition on sustainability. “We have got a huge opportunity” he said, “to make a massive difference to the sustainability agenda and what bigger legacy can there be than leaving the world a better place?”.

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National Museum

NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM SEEKS INDUSTRY SUPPORT TO ENTHUSE YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT A CAREER IN RAIL The National Railway Museum in York is looking for support from the UK rail supply community for its Vision 2025 masterplan, which aims to encourage young people to choose science and technology subjects and to consider a career in engineering and rail.

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new interactive gallery called Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery, opens at the museum, next year, targeting seven- to 14-year-olds with fun, hands-on exhibits designed to get them excited about problemsolving to meet the rail industry’s future challenges.

Museum Director, Judith McNicol, told The Railway Industry Magazine that her vision “is about ensuring that the museum is relevant to the WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

rail industry, now and into the future, and when I took over as Director that is what I wanted us to focus on. We have got the best collection in the world, by far, and we tell the stories of the past really well, but what this masterplan is about is telling the stories of today and into the future”.

Vision 2025 sets out a multi-millionpound redevelopment plan which aims to transform the York museum and the Locomotion museum in Shildon into a global engineering

powerhouse and a reinvented, inspiring 21st-century attraction.

While continuing to tell the story of the birth and growth of the railways, the transformed museums will also show the innovations shaping today’s railways. By celebrating the past, present and future of railways and engineering, the museums promise to “capture the hearts and minds of the next generation of engineers, innovators and thinkers”.

Wonderlab, due to open at the

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“We have got the best collection in the world, by The Railway Industry Magazine Winter 2022 far, and we tell the stories of the past really well, but what this masterplan is about is telling the stories of today and into the future” THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY MAGAZINE SUMMER 2022

24 York museum, in May next year is described by McNicol as “just loads of fun”. She says that it will be a hands-on children’s gallery which is purely focussed on engineering and learning by stealth. Working with the rail industry, the museum has developed 17 very large interactive exhibits that will give young people the chance to learn about the railways and engineering learning through problem-solving and innovation.

McNicol said that one of the challenges of the rail sector is to get young people to choose science subjects at school and then to carry on with careers based on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). “We know that young engagement with something like Wonderlab will help improve the likelihood of taking STEM subjects at GSCEs, A-levels and beyond” she said. Working with a local university

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over a ten-year period, the museum will carry out research to measure its success in achieving this aim.

Earlier this year the National Railway Museum made its planning application for a new Central Hall, which will be both a new entrance to the museum and home to a new Railway Futures gallery. The new gallery is scheduled to open in 2025, the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It will focus on some of the big future challenges facing the railway industry, including autonomous technology and decarbonisation. Central Hall will itself be a highly sustainable building, both in terms of the natural materials used in its design and its ongoing maintenance.

McNicol acknowledges that the iconic steam engines that are at the heart of the museum’s heritage

collection themselves present some tough environmental issues.

She says that “what we have done ourselves for operating on-site is the rail vehicles we have now are far smaller engines, so they use far less coal. For Science Museum Group, our coal consumption represents 0.2% of our carbon footprint. We are also working with the rest of the sector, including the Heritage Railway Association, to look at whether there is a place for e-coal.

This is a product that is made from compostable wet waste, that in 12 hours is turned into a form of coal, but, at the moment, to make it work it has to be fixed 50-50 with coal”.

Concluding with an appeal for more help from the rail industry to support Vision 2025, McNicol said “There is an opportunity in some of the stories we are telling. We don’t know all of the stories, so we need

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to be engaging with the rail industry around the innovations that they are adopting, the new technologies that they are evolving, so that we can make sure that the Futures gallery and the innovation platform are talking about the most up-todate things that the rail industry are doing”.

Describing RIA as “a great example of a corporate partner of ours”, she said the museum would “love any of the RIA membership to become corporate partners, right the way through to direct sponsors”. The cost of corporate partnership varies between £5,000 and £30,000 per year, while sponsorship packages begin at £125,000. McNicol said that any RIA member interested in exploring these opportunities to help shape the future of the industry and to inspire the next generation of rail engineers should contact the museum’s Senior Corporate Partnership Manager, Kate Mills (katherine.mills@railwaymuseum. org.uk).

Judith McNicol, Museum Director

By celebrating the past, present and future of railways and engineering, the museums promise to “capture the hearts and minds of the next generation of engineers, innovators and thinkers”.

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Alex Hynes

SCOTLAND’S RAILWAY THE BEST IN BRITAIN? Deep collaboration between track and train, a continuous programme of electrification, new stations and a growing freight market – a possible future for the railways in the rest of Great Britain is perhaps already visible in Scotland.

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Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Scotland’s Railway

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lex Hynes, Managing Director of Scotland’s Railway, told The Railway Industry Magazine “We are not perfect. We can do better, but we are really proud of what we have achieved, and I would say, modestly, that we are the best bit of Britain’s railway”.

On 1 April this year, 25 years to the day since rail was privatised, ScotRail services were taken into public ownership and control by the Scottish Government, making it easier than before for the train operator and Network Rail to work together – for example, in terms of sharing financial information with each other. But the two were already engaged in what Hynes terms “a deep collaboration”.

With Transport Scotland in charge of the policy and strategy, Scotland’s Railway’s focus is on delivering for passengers and taxpayers. One of the most striking ways in which it seeks to do that is through a continuous programme of rail electrification, designed both to decarbonise the railway and to improve the quality of passenger services. It is already being delivered at lower cost than in the rest of Great Britain. Hynes says “We are electrifying railways in Scotland now more cheaply than we have in the past and more cheaply than in the rest of the UK. We have set ourselves some stretch targets. We aim to be electrifying railways in Scotland at less than £2m per single track kilometre, which is way below the recent history and way below the benchmark rate”.

Asked how that is possible, Hynes credits the efficiencies that come from a continuous programme (“The more electrification we do, the better we get at doing it. We have done more of it, so we have had more practice”) and because, in Transport Scotland, “we have a challenging client who refuse to sign anything off unless it represents very good WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

value for money. So, we have had to challenge ourselves and that has generated more efficient outcomes for taxpayers”.

Hynes says that the aim is to decarbonise the passenger railway in Scotland by 2035 and to help encourage modal shift from cars and HGV to trains. “Scotland already has a proud track record of electrifying railways” he said “Much of the central belt has been electrified in recent years and we are on-site electrifying now. We are electrifying the line to East Kilbride and to Barrhead. We are re-opening and electrifying a previously closed line in Levenmouth, Fife. In Scotland we have a bias towards continuous electrification as being the way to decarbonise, because we are quite good at it and, we don’t just want to decarbonise passenger, we want to decarbonise freight as well”.

“We will use other technologies to manage a transition and decarbonise where continuous electrification isn’t the solution” he said. “So, for example, it is unlikely

that we will ever electrify the West Highland line, but we have to decarbonise. So that looks like it might be a candidate for hydrogen.

In Borders and Fife, we plan to partially electrify and introduce battery electric trains in advance of full electrification, because it helps smooth out the capital spending and it allows us to do the difficult bits – tunnels, bridges and other structures – a bit later than the easy stuff. But generally, we look at full electrification”.

Hynes emphasised that electrification is not just about decarbonisation, but also about improving the passenger experience, through faster journey times, improved frequencies and more modern rolling stock.

New stations are another key element in the passenger experience. A £20m station opened at Reston in the Borders in May, enabling trains to serve the village for the first time since 1964. Now work has started on two other new stations, one at East Linton on the

“The aim is to decarbonise the passenger railway in Scotland by 2035 and to help encourage modal shift from cars and HGV to trains”.

29 East Coast mainline and another at Inverness Airport. But the jewel in the Scottish railway station crown is the £120m upgrade of Glasgow Queen Street Station, completed last year. As Hynes puts it, “We literally went from the worst station in Britain to the best. We built a new frontage and concourse onto George Square. It is fabulous and visually stunning. It makes a statement about Glasgow, about Scotland’s railway and about the country”.

Hynes is similarly positive about the Scottish rail freight market, which he says is already back to pre-pandemic levels and which he describes as “extraordinarily buoyant, with freight customers knocking on our doors every day”. Noting that one freight train on average takes 76 heavy goods vehicles off the roads, he says that the Scottish Government has a very pro-rail freight policy, exemplified by its decision to partfund a new rail freight facility at the Blackford, Stirlingshire, factory of Highland Spring. Due to be operational later this year, the new facility will enable the company’s bottled water to be delivered from the factory by rail instead of road.

The interview with Hynes took place after the Rail Accident Investigation Board produced its report on the causes of the fatal derailment near Stonehaven on Scotland’s north east coast on 12 August 2020. Three people died when a train struck debris that had been washed out of a drainage tunnel due to heavy rain. The Board made 20 recommendations for change, including 13 for Network Rail and Hynes said, “as you might imagine we are pursuing those vigorously.

We are currently fitting 100 wireless tilt meters monitoring solutions to our highest risk earthworks. These will be able to detect any movement and automatically alert the Scottish rail control centre. The centre has also become the first in the UK to have a permanently staffed weather

“We literally went from the worst station in Britain to the best. We built a new frontage and concourse onto George Square. It is fabulous and visually stunning”. desk, enabling decisions on speed restrictions to be based on actual, rather than forecast weather”.

Acknowledging that 12 August 2020 was “a terrible day for everyone who works on the railways in Scotland”, Hynes described climate change as “the challenge of a generation”, affecting Scotland more than the other UK nations. “As the climate gets warmer, it is getting wetter” he said “ The railway was built by the Victorians and the weather now is quite different from what it was in their times. So, there is a huge amount of work going on in this area, which obviously we play close attention to, because we want to reduce the chances of something like that ever happening again”.

Hynes also discussed his organisation’s relationship with the rail supply chain, emphasising partnership relationships, the importance of suppliers understanding the Scottish context and the need to build capability in Scotland.

He said “We don’t do transactional procurement, where the supply chain is waiting for the tender to come out. You make your own market. You don’t wait for the tender document to be issued. We have a number of strategic partners. For electrification we have a framework partner and for signalling as well and we make them part of our team”.

In October last year the Railway Industry Association announced plans to create a new national and regional network to better support its members across the UK, including the creation of RIA Scotland. Hynes commented that he was “hugely in favour of the creation of RIA Scotland, because Scotland is quite different from the rest of the UK. Unless you live and work here, it is quite difficult to understand Scotland. We have a different environment. When we spend money with the supply chain, we want it to build a capability. So having a Scottish base, employing Scottish people, investing in Scotland – that is all very important”.

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Huw Merriman MP

TRANSPORT SELECT COMMITTEE CHAIR URGES THE GOVERNMENT TO ACCELERATE ITS PLANS FOR RAIL MODERNISATION Huw Merriman MP, the Conservative chair of the Commons Transport Select Committee, is calling on the Government to move faster on its plans for rail electrification and the transfer of responsibilities to the Great British Railways transition team.

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e also hopes to persuade the Department for Transport of the case for a large-scale redevelopment of Leeds station and to focus on the development of freight transport on the railways.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Railway Industry Magazine, Merriman said the Government should: ■ “Double down” on a rolling programme of electrification, which he described as “the only game in town” to achieve its

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objective of decarbonisation by 2040 ■ Move swiftly to end “micromanagement” of the railways by the Department for Transport ■ Accept that its plans to get HS2 trains to Leeds and cut rail journey times between Leeds and Bradford are unachievable without a redeveloped Leeds station ■ Consider how to make the railways more attractive to encourage

freight operators to switch from road to rail.

Merriman joined the Transport Select Committee in 2015 and became its chair in 2020. He said that throughout his period on the committee his focus had been on issues where the Government was “in the market for policy change”. As an example of that, he referenced the committee’s report on smart motorways, where all its recommendations for change had been accepted by the Department for Transport.

31 In the rail sector he continues to hope that the Government will accept that it needs to do more and to do so more quickly to deliver a steady stream of funding for a rolling programme of rail electrification. He described it as “frustrating” that the UK had so far failed to learn from the German example, where such a programme has helped Germany to deliver electrification at a cost of just £500,000 per mile, compared to £2.5m. in the UK. Merriman said “To me, it is no coincidence that they have a rolling programme, but we stop-start. We never properly learn the lessons and then bring in the economies of scale”.

He said that, if the Government was to be believed that it would decarbonise rail by 2040, then “it is going to have do something with these 6,100 miles which need to be decarbonised, which is 63% of the rail network and it needs to crack on at pace. If it does so, the economies of scale, from learning the lessons and retaining the expertise within the industry, will deliver the next set of miles at a much lower cost. So, I think there is a good economic case for this, as well as a good transport and decarbonising case”.

Merriman also reiterated concerns that he has previously expressed that the Department for Transport may be reluctant to “give up its train set” by handing over its rail responsibilities to the Great British Railways transition team.

He said “It is taking an awfully long time for the ownership of our railways to move across to this new operating team. Admittedly, for Great British Railways, there will need to be legislation, but the team are in place to now start being the arms-length operator if they were given the chance to do so. What concerns me is, firstly, the speed of transition. Are the people currently in charge not wanting to give it up because they waited so long to get hold of it from franchising? The second concern is

Huw Merriman MP, the chair of the Commons Transport Select Committee

that these same people appear to be involved in designing the new system. If they then pass on their creation for this new body to operate, who will then be responsible for the system which has been created?

Surely you should have those people who will be responsible for the system actually designing it. Then they should be held to account if it doesn’t operate”.

“I feel that there is a lot of micromanagement in terms of what that system needs to be, and I would like us to get on with the job of handing over control of the railways to the arms-length body, who is then responsible to the Department for Transport for how things operate.

Otherwise, you have got a system where there is no accountability”.

Following a visit by his committee to Leeds, Merriman said he did not see how the Government could deliver its ambitions of getting HS2 trains to Leeds and cutting rail journey times between Leeds and Bradford without redeveloping Leeds station.

“That is clear from the evidence that we have received” he said, “and it feels very persuasive”.

He said that his view is that Leeds will need “large-scale redevelopment”. The Government has a target to deliver HS2 trains to Leeds on existing track, but Merriman said “I don’t see how

that can be done because Leeds station is already running at 105% capacity. So, I just don’t see how it will function. Equally, I don’t see how you can deliver the trains in the times promised between Bradford and Leeds, when the track and the approach to Leeds is as it is”. Merriman explained that the committee’s visit to Leeds was to inform scrutiny of the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan. Now the group has finished taking evidence, the members will come together to agree recommendations in a report which should appear before the end of this month.

He hopes the Government will accept that there is a real opportunity to build a T-shaped station at Leeds, using the 700 football pitch volumes of land that have been set aside for that. He said that without a comprehensive redevelopment of Leeds station, the land would just sit there idle. There would then be no regeneration and no way of achieving the Government’s rail ambitions for Leeds and Bradford.

Looking ahead to his committee’s future work programme, Merriman said that he hopes to persuade his colleagues on the committee to launch a new inquiry into how to attract more freight onto the railways when it next returns to rail.

He would like the committee to consider “what the Government needs to do and what the agencies need to do to give more priority to freight and to make it more attractive to the operators who currently use road to switch onto rail”. Merriman said that he sees “a massive opportunity for us, particularly with the timetable looking as it is, to really start putting more rail freight on the network.

As passenger numbers have dropped, then surely there is a case to have more freight, so that is where I would like the committee to look next”.

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Nigel Harris

RAIL MAGAZINE EDITOR SAYS THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD “BACK OFF” AND LET ANDREW HAINES AND HIS TEAM RUN THE RAILWAYS The Managing Editor of RAIL magazine, Nigel Harris, is urging officials at the Department for Transport to resist the temptation to “micro-manage and meddle” when Great British Railways is established.

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arris, editor of the authoritative rail magazine since 1995 and a highly regarded commentator on rail issues in the national media, told The Railway Industry Magazine that he is a strong supporter of the Williams-Shapps plan. But he is “very concerned” about whether it will be properly implemented. He urged the Government to set out a broad

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direction for the railways and then hand over the job of delivering it to the experts.

He said that Keith Williams’ original plan – to which “Shapps appended his name on publication, which means he can indeed take credit if it is implemented, but we will hang it round his neck like a millstone if it is not” – made “entire sense”.

Essentially, he had proposed that the

Department for Transport should be far less involved in the details and leave it to specialists decide how the railway was going to be run.

Harris said “The Government needs to be the controlling mind and GBR will be the guiding mind. GBR needs to look at Government square in the face and ask a few questions: ‘What sort of railway do you want?

What do you want it to do and how

33 much money have we got to create it?’. Then it can say to Government: ‘Right, back off. We will go and do this’ and it needs to do that, as Keith said, without DfT micromanagement and meddling”.

The RAIL editor said “I can’t say I am thoroughly confident that this will happen, but I hope I am proved wrong. Governments and civil servants don’t cede power easily and that is exactly what they will have to do”. Harris said that “at the most senior levels, the Department gets it.

Bernadette Kelly (Dame Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department since 2017) talked to me several times about how, when she was Director General for the Rail Group at the DfT, she spent a lot of time deciding whether trains should have coffee cups and what they should look like. It is just ludicrous”.

“However,” he said, “I just wonder if the perma-frost in the middle, the generations who have decades of experience of deflecting change and protecting their empires, might not.

I hope they don’t, but there is always that risk and, of course, the Treasury doesn’t trust the railway, because it doesn’t trust it to bear down on cost”.

Speaking of Andrew Haines, who leads the GBR Transition Team, Harris said “I am sure I am one of many people who is wishing him well and praying for his continued good health, because I think he is pivotal. He has got all the experience he needs and the personal qualities.

I have rarely heard anybody say a bad word about Andrew, more that, for God’s sake, cannot we get him appointed and get started. He is completely the rounded figure which we need to make the railways a success”.

Harris also took the opportunity of the interview to reiterate his view that the Government’s decision to scrap the Eastern leg of HS2 was “catastrophic”. He said that Ministers had been “not just incompetent,

but dishonest about it”, referencing statements by Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, that people would be able to travel between Leeds and Bradford in ten minutes. Harris said “that is physically impossible and the whole Integrated Rail Plan is riddled with that sort of stuff. Now incompetence and delay we are used to putting up with, but this is the first time in my professional career I have come across outright dishonesty”.

The RAIL editor said the Eastern arm of HS2 was “absolutely crucial to the network as a whole. It is all about capacity. You take all the fast trains off the West Coast, Midlands and East Coast mainlines, you concentrate them on to a railway which is modern, where the trains are all the same speed and weight and that way you can get many more of them onto a piece of rail.

You reinvent the other three main lines with all the capacity that you get from taking the fast trains off. It would enable the transformation of those three main lines from being trunk main lines into being interurban fast railways. So, everybody benefits, but by taking out the eastern arm you completely screw up that strategic aim”.

“Scrapping HS2 is just catastrophic” Harris said “because it will mean that if you are going to even attempt to save time on going from Kings Cross to Leeds, you are going to have to spend a whole load of money in upgrading the railway. Well, why not just build HS2 and stick with the original plan, which gives you a bigger bang for the buck and less

disruption over the years in doing the work?”.

Asked what he thinks of the Railway Industry Association, Harris described it as “an organisation that has changed very significantly over the years. There are trade associations that eschew the public arena and that used to be RIA. Its previous leadership were former civil servants, and they followed the lower profile way. It has changed radically since Darren was appointed.”

“He is turning it, as I see it” Harris said “into a much more vocal, up-front, visible pressure group. That is very important because members want to know that their interests are being pushed forward, but it is not just about a self-centred, vested interest.

We all depend on having a decent railway. A good, well-invested, efficient, cost-effective railway is of benefit to everyone in this country.

We do need a pressure group to be out there batting for the railway and more power to Darren’s elbow in taking that forward, because for an industry to be successful, it needs to be vocal, it needs to be expert and it needs to be pushing a case which people say, ‘Yes, that makes sense’. I think RIA is doing a good job”.

Nigel Harris, Managing Editor of RAIL magazine

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Industry News ScotRail enters public ownership

RMT members launch industrial action

RNEP clock reaches 900 days

On 1 April 2022, ScotRail officially moved into public ownership, with the Scottish Government now responsible for the management and operation of the country’s railway. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hailed the moment as a “new beginning” with “a real opportunity to deliver a railway for the nation”.

The RMT trade union, which represents over 40,000 rail workers, held a series of strikes across the railway network, impacting Network Rail and train operating companies and causing widespread disruption to rail services.

RIA’s clock, counting up since the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP) was last published, reached over 900 days – with the 1000 mark coming in mid-July. RIA has called for the vital list of upgrades to be updated, to give its members visibility of upcoming work and confidence to invest in the necessary skills and capabilities. The Transport Secretary’s latest pledge was that it will be out “presently”.

Elizabeth line opened In May, Transport for London (TfL) officially opened the central section of the Elizabeth line, connecting London Paddington to Whitechapel. The line was opened by the Queen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 12 years after construction started. TfL Commissioner Andy Byford welcomed the new line, which was used over 1 million times in its first week, as “transformative” for travel across the Capital.

RIA publishes Innovation Strategy In April, RIA published its Railway Innovation Strategy, setting out how the industry can make the most of innovation to build a better, greener railway. The report has five key recommendations for Great British Railways, including to maintain funding for R&D, embrace radical innovation and build industry skills.

A RAILWAY INNOVATION STRATEGY Getting ready for Great British Railways April 2022

Transport Bill confirmed in Queen’s Speech The Queen’s Speech, opening this session of Parliament, confirmed a new Transport Bill which will pave the way for Great British Railway.

In the Speech, the Government commits to reforming and modernising rail services in the UK.

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HS2 announces viaduct milestone The project announced a significant milestone on the construction of the UK’s longest railway viaduct through the Colne Valley. Once built it will be over 3.4km long!

Great British Rail Sale promotes train travel The UK Government announced a Great British Rail Sale, offering millions of discounted train tickets for routes around the country. The Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed enough tickets were bought in the sale to travel to the moon!

RIA North announces new Vice Chair RIA’s Northern group announced David Maddison, Regional Director for Alstom, as its new Vice-Chair, as well as a series of appointments to its executive committee and workstream leads, including Emma Pattison, David Westcough and Jason Marbeck.

Over 900 apprentices working on HS2 HS2 revealed that over 900 apprentices are now working on the mega project, through its supply chain partners. It has a target of creating 2,000 apprenticeship opportunities during the course of construction.

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£1bn invested in digital signalling

UKEF to support £1.7bn rail project

The Department for Transport announced £1bn to fund the East Coast Digital Programme, which will install digital signalling on the East Coast Mainline from Kings Cross to Grantham.

UK Export Finance announced it would guarantee a loan of £1.7bn to build a high speed railway line in Turkey from Ankara to Izmir.

The deal will support hundreds of millions in UK rail exports, with at least 20% UK content guaranteed.

Consultation on GBR legislation As preparations for Great British Railways progress, the Department for Transport launched a consultation on the legislation which will establish the new railway body into law. RIA and other industry stakeholders are feeding into the debate.

Transport Secretary becomes RIA Rail Fellow

TfL handed 11th funding extension Transport for London and the Government agreed yet another stopgap funding extension for three weeks into July, with negotiations on a long-term capital deal to continue. RIA repeated its call for both sides to put the politics aside and agree a multi-year settlement.

Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport, joined the RIA Rail Fellowship Programme visiting RIA Member and manufacturer Silver Fox in his constituency.

Shapps, who praised the work of the industry to support skilled jobs across the UK, joins the Class of 2022-23 of RIA Fellows.

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RIA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS Q4 2021 - Q1 2022

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All solutions are developed in-house by their team and are underpinned by a philosophy that the passenger should be at the heart of decision-making.

Cibest Ltd CIBEST’s Solutions and IT Divisions provide adapted onboard equipment and software expertise to public transport operators. Our products and services include onboard video surveillance, passenger counting, digital rear vision video systems, and software expertise. We have provided answers to more than 300 customers for over 30,000 vehicles operating across the globe, and our software experts take pride in providing efficient and pertinent assistance when helping our clients.

DigiRail Limited DigiRail is a subsidiary of Dynamics Technologies a company with over 22 years software solutions experience. Digirail provides tailored, fit-for-purpose digital solutions with a special focus on the rail industry.

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37 Dynamic crowd measurement Dynamic crowd measurement (DCM) supports platform management and rail customer experience by measuring the crowd density, flow and mood of passengers on platforms and carriages. DCM identifies where and when management intervention is required and what factors need to change to return passenger mood to neutral or positive scores. enGauged Ltd enGauged is a privately owned small to medium enterprise (SME) design practice based in Crewe. They cover the whole of the UK with an increasing portfolio of projects with Tier-1 clients.

Their primary focus is the rail industry with cores disciplines including civil and structural engineering and the capability to deliver multi-discipline projects through supply chain partners.

Evolutionary Rail Limited Evo-Rail’s technology is the first 5G solution for rail transport that has been developed by rail experts for the rail. Evo-Rail’s solution can create a railroad that meets the needs of the modern passenger by improving connectivity and enhancing the customer experience.

Galvanizers Association Galvanizers Association is the source of free information and advice about hot dip galvanizing, cost effective corrosion protection and the galvanizing industry.

GCRE The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is a rail testing and validation centre being developed in south Wales. GCRE will comprise the UK’s first purpose built rolling stock test loop, and Europe’s only dedicated high tonnage infrastructure test loop.

Hack Partners Ltd Hack Partners builds cutting-edge technology products that fundamentally improve: asset management, operational performance, track worker safety and the quality of passenger information within the rail and bus industries.

They have developed over 10 systems in this way, which are being used by industry partners such as Network Rail and Transport Owning Groups.

Hilti Hilti stands for quality, innovation and direct customer relationships resulting in about 250,000 individual customer contacts each day. Based in Schaan, Liechtenstein, the company has 30,000 employees around the world who contribute to making construction work simpler, faster and safer while inspiring customers every single day with technologically leading products, systems, software and services.

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RIA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS Q4 2021 - Q1 2022

Intoware Intoware was founded with a vision to be the first choice partner for enabling the connected workforce. Their product WorkfloPlus is designed to improve efficiency and provide true insight into your workforce, and we aim to create success for customers by providing the benefits of digitisation.

ITAL ITAL is a leading software development house that delivers innovative, cuttingedge, SaaS technology to the transport sectors, with a key focus on Rail Operations and Revenue Protection. ITAL works with the transport industry to deliver improved customer experiences while better managing operational costs.

McCODA Ltd McCODA Limited is a customer focused building and civil engineering company working on the UK rail infrastructure. McCODA provides a wide range of project delivery services to the rail industry and work with customers to deliver a first class service on time, on budget and without compromising health, safety, quality or the environment.

Petards Joyce-Loebl Petards is an engineering centre of excellence for the provision of on train surveillance equipment including associated back office software. Products include; Forward Facing CCTV, Pantograph Monitoring, CCTV, Driver Controlled Operations, Automatic Selective Door Operations, Passenger Counting, Video Analytics, Consultancy and much more.

RailETC Limited RailETC provides technical consultancy & advisory services in Rail, Transportation and wider Engineering sectors. This can cover any or all of Data, Technology, Process, People or Domain, with a consistent thread of Integration that runs through all we do.

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Sensonic-UK Ltd Sensonic develops algorithms to transform large amounts of data into actionable information in real time. They train them with latest Machine Learning approaches and Artificial Intelligence findings, and have set up an AI pipeline that tests, compares and evaluates models with different features, settings and methods fully automatically.

Stortech Electronics Limited Stortech specialises in sourcing a comprehensive range of electronic components from manufacturers worldwide. Customers benefit from their technical knowledge and extensive experience in sourcing productsparticularly from the Far East and Asia where they have established strong business relationships.

Tended Limited Evo-Rail’s technology is the first 5G solution for rail transport that has been developed by rail experts for the rail. Evo-Rail’s solution can create a railroad that meets the needs of the modern passenger by improving connectivity and enhancing the customer experience.

Water-Trak Limited Water-Trak is an innovative solution to the rail industry problem of low adhesion, sometimes referred to as “leaves on the line”. By delivering a small amount of water to the rails in front of the train in low adhesion conditions, Water-Trak creates a step change improvement in adhesion, providing consistent and predictable braking.

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INSIGHTS from RIA Directors Milda Manomaityte Innovation Director

A RAILWAY INNOVATION STRATEGY: GETTING READY FOR GREAT BRITISH RAILWAYS At the RIA Innovation Conference in April this year, we launched a Railway Innovation Strategy. This is an ambitious call for the sector to make space for radical innovation and improve support for innovators to get new ideas onto our railways, benefitting passenger and freight customers.

Getting it right for Great British Railways As the sector prepares for Great British Railways (GBR), now is the time to think about how the future railway client will engage with its supply chain and, crucially, embrace innovation. In the current system, too many good ideas are allowed to fall at the last hurdle – with little to no provision for how to commercialise the product or service.

We consulted with a range of members and partners, to draw six key recommendations for GBR to remedy the challenges innovators face today. These WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

focus on maintaining funding for R&D, creating a culture that fosters innovation and making the most of new ideas from the private sector.

The paper stresses that the industry needs further collaboration to help businesses get new ideas to market more rapidly and offer more support through to commercialisation, not just proof of concept. In our view, this will make the industry more costefficient, sustainable and ultimately accessible to customers.

Barriers to innovation Part of our aim with this paper, was to help suppliers understand where the challenges are in the

industry, but also know that there is a real commitment to take the innovation from an idea and on to an operational railway. Only too often innovators from other sectors stumble on the first step, trying to understand the real sector needs and then, once the proof of concept of the product is developed, trying to roll it out on an operational railway where the solution can start making the difference and bringing the business benefits.

Even for rail experts or established rail companies, innovative ideas are often supported through to prove the concept, but not through the commercialisation stage.

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RIA’s six key recommendations to Great British Railways include:

That is why, when writing our Railway Innovation Strategy, we also looked at the state of innovation and R&D in the sector and the barriers to getting new products and services into the railways. Last year, we published a survey of industry professionals which found that whilst there is funding available for R&D, procurement processes remain the biggest barrier to innovation.

The second was sponsorship and champions, and third was product approval. From the survey we see that it is not the availability of funding that is the biggest blocker for innovating suppliers, rather other forms of support and flexibilities are required during the process.

Showcasing the range of innovations To demonstrate the range of innovations led by the supply chain, the report also presents a series of case studies from across the industry. These highlight both the benefits of successful innovation and the ways in which current practice has prevented adoption of technologies which could have made a real difference to operators, maintainers, and customers.

Currently, there are a number of world-first innovations being tested within the UK rail research network - such as the Very Light Rail rolling stock and track infrastructure technology at the National Very Light Rail Innovation Centre, or the Carbon Fibre Bogie being tested

4. Provide a pathway and funding for radical innovation.

1. Increase Government investment in rail research, development, and innovation.

2. Strengthen support during the innovation rollout phase.

5. Adopt a whole-system and long-term view to enable the right innovation.

3. Lead a concerted cross-industry effort to identify and overcome barriers to successful adoption.

6. Support skills development and the creation of an innovation culture.

A Railway Innovation Strategy April 2022

BRINGING INNOVATION TO MARKET Key Ask 2: Strengthen support during the innovation rollout phase. Government and private sector initiatives have been successful in encouraging Research and Development, but often fail at the market adoption phase.

Moving from innovation to business-as-usual requires resources, long-term commitment to change and buy-in from all levels of industry and Government.

Valleys of death ‘The valley of death describes the point where a business, often a technology-based business, has a working prototype for a product or service that has not yet been developed enough to earn money through commercial sales. The company needs to find sufficient money to develop the prototype until it can generate sufficient cash, through sales to customers, that would allow it to be self-sufficient and grow.’ From the Science and Technology Committee report ‘Bridging the valley of death: improving the commercialisation of research.’29

The UK has world-leading and internationally recognised rail research and development expertise as well as technology development roadmaps and strategy documents.

Whilst the funding for research and development is relatively healthy, there is a significant mismatch in the available funding for innovation rollout through to business as usual.

Railway innovations experience their first ‘valley of death’ when transitioning from research and development to demonstration, and the second when moving from demonstration to deployment.

The investment required at this stage is typically much larger, and rail rarely benefits from private funding available through Venture Capital, equity, and scale-up investment.

A RAILWAY INNOVATION STRATEGY Getting ready for Great British Railways

innovators who may receive support through initiatives such as first-of-a-kind competitions or RSSB’s research and development funding. Independently of state funding, our private sector is busy investing its own time and funds into future product development.

For the first time in years, the foundations of good innovation – research and development – has funding consistency.

Innovations moving through the Rail Industry Readiness Levels often experience not one, but two ‘valleys of death’.

Suppliers who have developed a product to market readiness often find clients have limited innovation funding and are prevented from utilising alternative funding sources. This can limit rollout even where there is clear business benefit in the longer term.

The political, regulatory, and funding structure of the industry may require bespoke solutions to fully unlock the expertise and co-funding available from the supply chain and investors.

There are strong foundations to build on: healthy R&D funding, challenge statements, the Rail Technical Strategy and existing collaborations such as UKRRIN, to name but a few.

April 2022

RIA recognises the importance of funding innovative ideas to develop the proof of concept and every year we see many good examples of such ideas moving through RIRL’s in established research and development pathways. These include academic partnerships, such as UKRRIN, and ideas encouraged from private sector

The UK also has an excellent suite of guidance around what short and mid-term innovation is required, through publications from Network Rail, Transport for London, HS2 and various operators. The Railway Technical Strategy gives roadmaps through to 2040 with key steps in-between. The client organisations have each published a set of challenge statements listing key technical and performance challenges which need to be overcome. Train operators, rolling stock companies and freight operators regularly publish similar challenges, and are often involved in their own privately funded competitions based upon them. Increasingly we are seeing innovation being driven by intelligent clients procuring by specifying outcomes. Those challenge statements should be owned by teams with the authority and expectation that they will procure and deploy successful innovations.

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To demonstrate the range of innovations led by the supply chain, the report also presents a series of case studies from across the industry. at the University of Huddersfield.

We see innovations being rolled out around hydrogen-powered trains, DNA sequencing to monitor biodiversity, the use of composite materials to build platforms or using video data to monitor track health.

However, we also see technologies such as Actiwheel, which allow the rail vehicle to better steer in curves and at points, struggling to secure funding and move forward with commercial deployment.

Clearly, there is a lot of work to do before GBR is fully established, but during this process innovation needs to remain at the heart of its thinking.

The supply chain is ready to deliver innovative ideas that will help make our railways greener, safer and more efficient. But for this to happen, an open and honest conversation needs to take place between the railway clients and the suppliers. So, we hope that our report will be a useful contribution this conversation.

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INSIGHTS from RIA Directors Gaynor Pates Membership & Business Administration Director

EIGHT WAYS WE ARE RESPONDING TO MEMBERS’ FEEDBACK At RIA, we’re always looking to improve our service to members and make sure we’re giving you the best experience possible, as your trade body. Each year, we poll members to take their views on how we are doing, to make sure we’re on the right track and to also check that we are improving our offer.

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he good news is that our recent Net Promoter Score (NPS) came in at 44, which, according to the creators of NPS, Bain & Company, is just below ‘excellent’, meaning that a good number of our members would recommend RIA to their colleagues, though of course we’ll be seeking to increase this in the months and years ahead.

Our last ‘pulse’ survey was also conducted at the end of 2021 and we followed up with a number of focus groups to get some more qualitative feedback. Some key statistics from the survey include: ■ 89% of members said that RIA is performing at or above expectation, as to go-to body for advising on government policy.

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■ Almost half of members - 48% believe our first priority should be lobbying for sectoral growth and representing the supply chain interests in rail restructuring plans.

■ And 33% said our second priority should be to continue relationship-building and influencing with key clients, through RIA’s policy engagement activities.

The RIA team were also seeking out suggestions on what we can do better and, in particular, eight key issues came across. Below we set out what they are, and what we’re doing to act on them.

1. Members want RIA to help make work pipelines more visible This came up in the survey as a

key issue for members – and we certainly feel your frustrations in not having a clear pipeline of work.

We’ve been lobbying consistently for Government to publish the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP), its list of planned upgrades for the rail network. Its now more than 900 days since the list was last published, a point we raise regularly with Ministers, MPs, clients and stakeholders, as well as through both national and industry media. We’ll continue to keep making the case, until the list is published.

However, we also appreciate that there is a lot we can do to help members navigate what work is coming up. That’s why RIA’s Policy Team launched last year a new member-only email series called Procurement Watch, listing the key

43 4. Members want RIA to be more active around decarbonisation and to make more noise about the green credentials of rail

procurement updates each quarter.

We also have an Opportunities, Tenders and Pipelines page located on the member-only ‘Member Services’ web page of the website.

It’s a great resource for anyone interested in upcoming activity and investment.

We also have supported the Rail Supply Group’s Work Pipeline Visibility Charter, which Tier Ones can sign to commit to visibility of their work, supporting companies down the supply chain to see what work is coming down the line.

2. Members want RIA to help secure further rail investment The UK is clearly going through a difficult economic period, with the Government having spent significant amounts during the Coronavirus pandemic. At RIA, we are clear that rail investment can be a great catalyst for spurring further growth in the economy.

After all, as our research with Oxford Economics found, for every £1 spent in rail, £2.50 is generated in the wider economy.

up private investment roundtables, exploring how suppliers can invest in the network too.

3. Members want RIA to help keep suppliers involved, informed and represented in the planning for GBR

We’re continuing to make the case for rail investment, through regular meetings with Ministers and civil servants, including from the Department for Transport (DfT), HM Treasury (HMT) and Business Department. For example, RIA has quarterly investment meetings with DfT, HMT, Office of Rail & Road and Network Rail on behalf of Members, and will be doing all we can to make the case for a good settlement in the run up to Control Period 7.

The restructure of the industry to Great British Railways will impact everyone working in rail, in one way or another. We are keen to ensure members are as informed as possible – we’ve held regular meetings for members with the senior leadership team of the GBR Transition Team, including Transition Team Lead Andrew Haines OBE, Lead Director Anit Chandarana, Strategy & Planning Director Elaine Seagriff, Programme Director Rufus Boyd and many more. As the organisation is set up in the months and years ahead, we’ll be holding regular sessions with many of the GBRTT leadership team.

We also appreciate that, if we are to call for further investment in rail, we have to show value for money, cost-effectiveness and a willingness to get private investment into the sector. We’ve been closely involved in the Rail Project SPEED initiative, to reduce the costs of rail work, and are working with the Treasury to set

We’re also feeding into their work. We sit on a number of the GBRTT Whole Industry Strategic Plan (WISP) Working Groups, submitted a response to the WISP consultation and recently published our ‘five tests’ for the establishment of GBR, setting out key issues for the organisation.

Last year was a key year for decarbonisation, with the UK hosting COP26 in Glasgow. RIA’s Rail Decarbonisation 2021 campaign sort to promote the role of rail in the UK’s journey to Net Zero, and called for more electrification and battery and hydrogen train orders. We saw some real success with the campaign, with the Midland Mainline and Trans Pennine Route electrification announced in the Integrated Rail Plan in November. We also promoted rail’s green credentials through an Unlocking Innovation RailDecarb21 event in Glasgow and a reception on Vivarail’s battery train at COP26.

We’re continuing that work in 2022.

We’ve already launched a review of the actions the Government has taken following the Transport Select Committee’s Trains Fit For the Future report, finding that significant work was still needed to decarbonise rail.

More is planned for the coming months too.

5. Members want RIA to improve how it communicates in emails RIA shares a huge volume of information – we have five regular emails going out to members each week, including the RIA Mail, TechTalk, Exports Mail, Events Mail and RIA Politic. Our aim is to ensure this is as tailored to the variety of roles and professionals we have in our membership, so you get what you need to succeed in rail.

We held a focus group on 24 February to explore how we can make our website and email updates more effective and are working on several improvements, which will start to be more visible in the second half of the year. And we are monitoring email opens and clicks more closely, to ensure

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44 our communications continues to improve.

6. Some Members are not aware of all our activities and opportunities to get involved We have a huge programme of events and activities over the course of each year and we appreciate that it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of all that’s going on. Some easy ways to keep on top of our work include: ■ Sign up to our emails and groups, by logging into the Member Services area and going to “My Communication Preferences” under “My Account”.

■ Get your colleagues signed up – the more individuals from a member sign up, the more likely you are to keep track of all we’re doing.

■ Book a tutorial in with our Senior Membership Engagement Manager Rose Garber. She’s always happy to hold a virtual or in-person meeting to explain the

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This year we are also focusing on improving our data management and website user experience, which will help you keep informed on the topics you are most interested in.

On the SME side, several years ago RIA established a new SME Leadership Team to inform our SME activity and we run a regular SME Group. The Group invites larger companies and clients to share strategies and pipeline information and can help you explore future work opportunities.

7. Some Members perceive that RIA is too focused on larger companies or too focused on SMEs!

8. Members want RIA to continue offering a mix of virtual and inperson events

We often find different views on this question! All we can say is the RIA team genuinely tries to ensure both larger members and SMEs get the time and resources needed to ensure RIA’s work for all members is impactful and that they can make the most out of their membership.

The reality is that 40% of RIA members are larger ones, and 60% SMEs (over 180 UK businesses). And, whilst our subscriptions being based on rail turnover, we try very hard to ensure every member gets a high level of service, making membership great value for money for businesses of all sizes.

We understand that virtual meetings offer convenience and cost-effective engagement, but that in-person events are also important, particularly for networking and relationship-building. RIA will continue to offer a mix of event formats, with meetings held both virtually and across the UK.

various opportunities available.

Her email is rose.garber@riagb. org.uk.

For our flagship events, we will prioritise in-person, as the networking aspect cannot be easily replicated online. But for other member-only events, we will hold a mix of online, in-person and hybrid.

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INSIGHTS from RIA Directors Neil Walker Exports Director

INNOTRANS 2022 A LOOK AHEAD UNTIL SEPTEMBER, AUF WIEDERSEHEN What brings 153,000 rail professionals together and allows over 3,000 companies from more than 149 countries to market their products and services in 42 halls?

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t is of course InnoTrans 2022, to be held in Berlin, Germany from 20 to 23 September. The world’s leading trade fair for transport technology is back again after it was last held in 2018. This year it is expected to be bigger and more popular than ever.

The show will be divided into five areas: Railway Technology; Railway Infrastructure; Public Transport; Interiors; and Tunnel Construction.

This is alongside the InnoTrans Convention and an outdoor track display area, where you can see everything from tank wagons to high-speed trains on display on the 3,500 metres of track. InnoTrans truly does offer something for just about any rail expert.

This year’s InnoTrans comes at a vital, and indeed exciting time for the UK railway industry, as it looks to develop new trading relationships post-pandemic and explore new opportunities in free trade agreements as part of the

Government’s ’Global Britain’ agenda.

The UK railway industry will have a considerable presence at the show, supported by the Railway Industry Association and officials from the Department for International Trade (DIT) and the Department for Transport (DfT). This year we will be joined by the Rail Minister, Wendy Morton, who will visit UK companies and join RIA’s UK stand. As in the past, we may also see the Transport and Trade Secretaries attending, along with DfT & DIT UK and embassy-based officials covering the railway sector from around the world.

So, what is RIA’s role? For the UK, RIA is organising two ‘GREAT branded’ pavilions, and we expect to have up to 30 companies exhibiting in these.

There will also be around 80 UK businesses exhibiting independently, along with many of our UK-based multinational companies. There

will be a wide scope of products, technologies, and innovations on display, showcasing the Best of British expertise in rail.

Over the four days, RIA colleagues will be on-hand in our UK Pavilions to help members and would welcome you coming to meet them in Halls 2.3 or 2.3b for a coffee and chat at any time.

Members will also be welcome to attend our prestigious networking reception to be held at the British Embassy in Berlin on Wednesday 21 September - an event not to be missed. In 2018, over 300 guests attended the reception from over 16 countries, making it a truly international event, and we hope the same will occur this year.

With more activity planned, look out for further ways to get involved at InnoTrans 2022.

Until September, Auf Wiedersehen.

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INSIGHTS from RIA Directors Kate Jennings Policy Director

GREAT BRITISH RAILWAYS, CP7 AND THE WHOLE INDUSTRY STRATEGIC PLAN This is an important year for the railway industry, especially from a policy perspective. We expect to see the draft legislation to establish Great British Railways soon.

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fter it was confirmed in the Queen’s Speech, the second reading of the Transport Bill, currently expected in the autumn, is when Parliament will debate and agree the proposals in principle.

In October and certainly before Christmas, decisions are expected on Control Period 7 (CP7) policy – the High-Level Output Statement, and Statement of Funds Available (HLOS and SoFA). This year for the first time, it will be accompanied by plans for the Whole Industry Strategic Plan - the 30 Year plan for the railway WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK

proposed in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.

So what would good look like?

This is a theme which we regularly discuss with RIA Members.

Rail suppliers recognise the pressures on the economy from coronavirus impacts on Government debt and revenues, to Ukraine and ongoing uncertainty regarding inflation, access to skills and supply chain issues.

Crisis brings positive behaviours

too as the industry - Government, clients and suppliers - are working more collaboratively than ever to focus on efficiency, productivity and innovation. We see real ambition in Andrew Haines’ commitment to be the first railway in the world to set science based targets for zero carbon, and in HS2’s Net Zero Carbon Plan, as well as in both Network Rail and HS2 plans for rail to support biodiversity net gain. There are huge opportunities for rail to lead on system thinking, innovation and mobility as a service.

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However, the risk now is that Government may prioritise cost reduction over return on investment and the imperative to attract passengers back and grow revenues. RIA strongly believes that the industry needs to think like a modern business with a clear focus on cost control and ESG and plan for success.

green transport system and a role model for innovation. And; ■ Productivity: Recognise that a boom-and-bust approach to rail investment costs money and undermines capability, and the need to increase UK productivity.

The autumn will be a moment of truth for the Williams-Shapps plan and Great British Railways. Our public affairs and policy team will work hard to continue representing our members’ interests during this time, feeding into these debates.

For Great British Railways, that would mean three things: ■ Transparency and Partnership: Continuing engagement with suppliers at all levels. 40% of rail’s contribution to economic growth and 45% of the 710,000 jobs come from the supply chain.

Suppliers have a keen interest in future passengers - as investment supports safety, connectivity, comfort and community benefits, including skills and environmental benefits. As a proxy for the interests of future passengers, they should have an equal seat at the table alongside the Train Operating Companies and the Freight Operating Companies,

Government and client bodies.

■ Ambition, not hiatus: Consistent levels of funding – and an outcome focus. Delivering these are the best way to ensure a productive and sustainable supply chain and a return on investment, including growing UK supplier, including SME capability, to deliver the Williams Shapps Plan for Rail. We need to be ambitious for rail to be the backbone of the

RIA also has a role to play to continue supporting a positive agenda for rail. For example – we have briefing sessions planned with the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) on CP7, we are bringing junior and senior professionals together through our Trailblazers events, and we are supporting the Railway Museum Careers events in Rail Week. That is, of course, alongside continuing our environmental and innovation activity for Members. Do get in touch with the team and share your views.

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RAILWAY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION Kings Buildings, 16 Smith Square London SW1P 3HQ United Kingdom T: +44 (0)207 201 0777 E: RIA@riagb.org.uk W: www.riagb.org.uk WWW.RIAGB.ORG.UK