{"id":58915,"date":"2015-07-09T08:57:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T08:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=62ee97015ec127ee8f4fedb66404254e"},"modified":"2015-07-09T08:57:52","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T08:57:52","slug":"speech-modernising-the-passenger-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=58915","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Modernising the passenger relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Good afternoon everyone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a real pleasure to be here today (7 July 2015).<\/p>\n

And to see so many of you here – representing just about every part of this great industry.<\/p>\n

Because this conference is about the whole railway.<\/p>\n

And the things that connect us.<\/p>\n

And today I want to talk about the most important of those things.<\/p>\n

The customer.<\/p>\n

And how, if we genuinely want to modernise the railway, we must also modernise our relationship with the customer.<\/p>\n

Network Rail announcement<\/h2>\n

To me, good relationships are built on trust.<\/p>\n

Successful businesses don\u2019t just make great products.<\/p>\n

They also earn the confidence and loyalty of their market.<\/p>\n

Transparency breeds trust.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the week before last I made an announcement about Network Rail\u2019s upgrade programme.<\/p>\n

That some schemes would take longer to deliver than hoped.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t an easy thing to do.<\/p>\n

But it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

To level with the public, and with all those passengers who are patiently waiting for better services.<\/p>\n

This is a service industry.<\/p>\n

Yet in the past, fragmentation made it difficult to hold the railway to account.<\/p>\n

To many outsiders, the industry seemed like a large, powerful, but slow moving machine.<\/p>\n

So when passenger concerns were not addressed, its size and complexity often made the railway seem impersonal.<\/p>\n

But those days are over.<\/p>\n

Network Rail was reclassified as a public body last year so it could be held to account.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what last week was about.<\/p>\n

Of course most of this infrastructure work should have been completed a long time ago.<\/p>\n

We are trying to fit decades of improvements into just a few years.<\/p>\n

On a scale never attempted before.<\/p>\n

On lines constructed as long ago as the 1830s.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge challenge.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Network Rail\u2019s performance has not been good enough.<\/p>\n

So it was important to be open.<\/p>\n

Sir Peter Hendy<\/h2>\n

I know that\u2019s something Sir Peter Hendy agrees with.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to welcome Sir Peter to Network Rail.<\/p>\n

As London\u2019s Transport Commissioner, and the man who kept London moving during the Olympics, I can\u2019t think of anyone better qualified for the role.<\/p>\n

Sir Peter will now develop proposals to ensure that this vital work can be carried out.<\/p>\n

And report back to me in the autumn.<\/p>\n

So we can get on with the programme.<\/p>\n

And deliver what we\u2019ve promised.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re delivering<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s not forget there\u2019s an incredible amount of activity taking place right across the railway.<\/p>\n

Crossrail and Thameslink.<\/p>\n

Northern Hub.<\/p>\n

Fantastic new stations.<\/p>\n

Thousands of new carriages coming into service.<\/p>\n

New electric trains in the north west.<\/p>\n

World class manufacturers building trains here in Britain.<\/p>\n

More people travelling by rail than ever before.<\/p>\n

And safety levels among the best globally.<\/p>\n

Customer culture<\/h2>\n

These are tremendous achievements.<\/p>\n

Which you are delivering.<\/p>\n

But if we want to develop a real service culture, we have to look beyond infrastructure.<\/p>\n

To offer more than great performance and reliability.<\/p>\n

Of course there are many examples of exceptional customer care on the railway today, where the industry goes the extra mile:<\/p>\n