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“The panel calls for a clearer focus and greater leadership from the Rail Delivery Group. An integrated system-wide approach to the challenges posed by Brexit is needed.”
That was how RailReview’s Editorial Board of industry opinion formers concluded a two-hour debate about the pressures, pitfalls and opportunities posed by a departure from the European Union.
RDG Chief Executive Paul Plummer agreed to respond. On his board sit the chief executives of Network Rail and of every major passenger and freight train operating group. Plummer is effectively speaking here for the rail industry as a whole, which is not easy because the railway does not always speak with one voice.
Plummer does not always give simple answers to straight questions, but does describe his approach to the leadership and direction demanded by RailReview’s Editorial Board.
He explains that RDG cannot represent the views of every part of the railway with a single opinion. He has to walk a tightrope between taking a view and avoiding a comment with which not all members may agree.
The interview takes place at RDG’s offices in Aldersgate Street, in the City of London. Some 300 people work there, yet at the unwelcoming reception desk in the enormous shared building, the receptionist appears not to know that its offices are on the second floor. Apart from a single sign as you exit the lift, there are no visual clues that this is the heart of the rail industry - there are no pictures on the walls, no symbols, and no logos.
In his small, glass-fronted office there is a picture of a beach. The whiteboard is wiped clean, and the view through the glass is of a grey storage cabinet. The clutter-free desk is almost devoid of paper. Unusually, there is no computer screen, just a portable tablet with a keyboard. To describe it as minimalist would be an understatement.
RDG’s website says its focus is on “four transformational portfolios”. Helpfully, it explains what that actually means:
- Today’s railway - improving punctuality, reliability and value for money.
- Customer experience - modernising ticketing and improving journeys.
- Industry reform - improving industry structures to enable excellence.
- Tomorrow’s railway - better planning for the future.
Tackling Brexit will encompass all four. The EU has been central to the way the UK’s railway is structured, operated and regulated. Its rules govern safety, signalling, train design and much more. So just what will be the likely impact of Brexit on the rail industry?
Plummer responds quietly, clearly, fluently and fast. He uses sentences that continue for whole paragraphs without pause. The punctuation, for clarity when transferred from the spoken to the written word, is added.
“We have worked quite a lot with the Department for Transport to understand that the risks of Brexit are managed in a sensible way. The potentially significant areas of potentially greater change are potentially around the broader areas of impact. How big the impact could be is clearly very uncertain. We are in uncertain times. We are looking at the impact on the supply chain, and again there is uncertainty there.
“There is opportunity as well as risk, and in uncertain times that raises concerns. Impact on our workforce is something we need to make sure we are dealing with. Impact on our relationship with other railways - us learning from them, and them learning from us - is clearly a massively important thing for everybody in the industry, and certainly one we want to continue regardless of our relationship in a legal sense.
“The biggest uncertainty beyond that is what it means in policy terms. We have a new and fresh Government, and it could be quite receptive to what we want to do.
In terms of what we stand for, we want to facilitate changes across the industry to deliver better customer experience and better benefit for taxpayers. A new Government that is open to those conversations is a great opportunity. So there is a huge breadth of impact.”
RailReview: Some parts of the industry will relish a new freedom from European regulation - local solutions for local needs. Others will have a strong commercial need to retain European harmony - for example, in common standards.
“The local solutions for local needs is a debate way beyond Europe. We are trying to push local accountability - Network Rail routes, the train operators, and their suppliers. But still working within a national network and within a common set of standards, so people are not constantly reinventing the wheel. The direction is firmly towards local business units that own their own issues.
“When you try to do that, the reasons why you cannot do so are often because Europe, the national government or the regulator is requiring something.”
