February 2011: Contents
Feature headlines
- Rail Professional interview: Howard Collins
Strike action, or the threat of it, never seems far away from disrupting the day-to-day operations of the Tube. Chief operating officer Howard Collins tells Peter Brown how this is being addressed
- Franchise reforms largely good news
Government reforms to franchising, announced in January, are largely good news for the industry (see page 8)…
- Roll on spring
December’s snowfall inevitably brought problems for the rail network. Robert Wright argues that the railways coped rather better than they had the previous winter – even though the public perception still seems to have been that of chaos
- Full speed ahead
The Department for Transport was accused, by some, of trying to bury bad news under the snow. On virtually the last day of Parliament before Christmas, transport secretary Phillip Hammond announced the preferred route for the controversial High Speed Two. He also published a whole raft of new reports on the scheme. Peter Plisner has been wading through them
- The railway needs to find its voice
Freelance transport journalist Paula Bedminster believes that the rail industry needs to find a spokesperson who can represent the railways to the media and, ultimately, the public
- Ticket to nowhere
Ashwin Kumar, passenger director of Passenger Focus, explains where the rail industry went wrong during the December snow from the passenger point of view
- Keep it local
The government has just undertaken a major review of rail franchises. Champion of community rail Paul Salveson makes the case for keeping franchises small and having them overseen by regional organisations, such as PTEs, as well as maximising the involvement of local people
- Jumping the queue
Southern’s customers were having to wait too long at ticket machines to pick up pre-paid tickets, so the Toc has invested in new ticket machines and new technology to speed up the process. Riz Wahid, head of retail development for Southern, explains
- Regulator’s platform: Driving efficiency and value for money
Driving efficiency and value for money
- Taking care of the business travel sector
Business travel is worth around £1.5bn each year to the rail industry. But Tocs have yet to recognise the value of the corporate travel market, says Ken Cameron
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