The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, the Government’s White Paper on rail reform, was published in May 2021. The plan followed a comprehensive review (the Williams Review) of the railway in Great Britain. The review identified that the formation of a new 30-year strategy for rail be created to “provide clear, long-term plans for transforming the railways to strengthen collaboration, unlock efficiencies and incentivise innovation.” A key component of this plan was the design of new penalty/ reward CX performance regimes covering customer assets, staff performance, customer information and Operator performance during times of service disruption. These regimes would need to be fit for purpose for the many differing Rail services in Great Britain, recognising the challenges presented through post pandemic rail travel. For example, the shift to leisure travel and the changes identified in customer priorities, notably cleanliness, overcrowding and security.
Richard led the team in analysing the regimes that were currently in place in the GB rail industry, and over 50 worldwide transport operations, before undertaking a full redesign of each component, utilising any best practice identified. Having undertaken the analysis of existing regimes, Richard led in the design and delivery of these regimes where Operator performance is penalised or rewarded, dependant on their commitment to collaboration and delivery of a high standard of customer experience and revenue protection. This resulted in a proposal for Service Quality Regimes (SQR for asset performance such as ticket vending machines, gatelines etc.), Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSS for customer perception of cleanliness, security and information) and Mystery Shopper Surveys (MSS for customer perception of staff performance). In addition, Richard introduced regimes that would run parallel to these for customers with additional requirements, such as mobility challenges and non-visible disabilities (such as Anxiety, Autism, Alzheimer’s etc.). These regimes were designed utilising Richard’s 25 years of transport experience, working on both the Operator and Client side of UK and international rail. As part of this engagement Richard also supported the teams responsible for Train Service Specification and Station Management performance regimes.
The regimes proposed by Richard were recognised as being worldwide industry leading and fit for the “future of GB rail”. Introduction of these regimes would be pending, awaiting the formation of the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT).
We have supported strategic business planning across utilities, transport and a number of other infrastructure sectors, largely in the UK and Middle East.
